It’s tough for a small business to get hiring right. Not only that you’ve got limited resources, no HR department, the most talented people have never heard of your business and most recruiters really aren’t helpful, they are set up to deal with bigger businesses. And to make matters worse, big organisations can get some hire’s wrong and survive as long as they get most of them right. For a small business the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Here’s a bit of a roadmap that might just help secure that next game-changing hire:
The right person
Make sure that you identify what you need first - create a detailed, complete but simple description of the role. Don’t use management buzzwords, simple english is best here. What is it that they need to be able to do on the first day, first month, first year of working with you. What are the tasks and responsibilities they need to deal with?
Think of what skills are critical, what experience.
Find the best fit for your team
Obviously a team player, a hard worker right? Wrong. So I’m very strong on ideas, idea creation, idea development, I’m very good at helping other people, I’m a great reviewer and sounding board, but I find it hard to get things done, I have to work very hard on focusing. So if I’m looking to build a team of 2 including me I need to hire someone who is good at pushing things forward - I need someone to compliment my propensities and predisposition - not just compliment my skill set.
Signal and Align values
You want this person to fit into your team culture - sometimes you’ve got the right person, right skills, right experience, but they are an arsehole - never hire them. Put your company values on your ad clearly and unequivocally, for example: “we are a diverse and tolerant organisation” you don’t need to spell it out - it should be in the way you describe your organisation. Don’t shy away from difficult questions to interrogate their values.
Aim to find and hire the best person for the role and be prepared to pay more for better people
I don’t care what you say, if the hire is important finding the best people you can and paying them as much as you possibly can will be a game changer for your business. Offering to pay more attracts better people - but yep paying more for the wrong person is a disaster so you need to make sure you get everything else about the hire right - paying more in and of itself is not the solution, paying more for exactly the right person is a great investment..
Safe bets only, don’t experiment
I have never seen a person who has come from one area and been parachuted into another succeed - even when I have hired people from larger organisations to a smaller organisation to do exactly the same job they haven’t coped. As a small business you’re taking a lot of risks already, you don’t need to risk a hail-mary hire - play it safe, get exactly the right person with the right skills and experience.
Make your ad Pop
Firstly think of hiring as a sales process - so in your ad needs to stand out, needs to speak to people, needs to inspire them to want to join your business. How do we do this? It’s actually quite simple; tell them about who you are, what you do, what you offer that others don’t, and make the role simple and precise as possible
Where to advertise
Yep you can find creative ways of finding people and niches here and there but as a small business you don’t have time - go to where job seekers are - in Australia Seek is the only place I would bother placing an ad - yep it’s not great, it’s a bit of a funny platform - sorry no way around it, suck it up and place an ad here, get it looking right, get your logo up there, pay for a premium version of the ad.
Validate and Check references religiously
Validate that the person has worked for Never hire without speaking to references. Ask for 2 and if they don’t call you back, ask for 2 more. Never skimp on references. Focus on what the reference is not saying to you - this can speak volumes.
Interviewing
Bring in key staff on the interview, in this case more Brains make for better information, second or third opinion is important. When asking for feedback from your staff start with most junior to most senior so as not to influence answers.
For conducting an interview I have a 5 question method, you’ll develop your own, but if you don’t this is good enough, trust me.
1. Are they an effective communicator?
If the person cannot precisely answer questions - never hire them. If you ask a specific question and the candidate rolls into telling you how good they are but doesn’t answer the question this is not going to work, stop the interview and be straight with them. Just tell them: “I’m going to be upfront, you’re not the right candidate” but be generous with feedback that may help them.
2. Ask them the most important question: Why do they want to work for you?
This has the dual benefit of you getting insights into what motivates them but also makes them say positive things about your business - they get to convince themselves as to why. I even put it to candidates: why the hell would someone smart, experienced want to work for me?
3. Are they going to be an asset for your business?
As a small business owner you need people who take an active interest in your business, jump in and solve problems. Ask them something like where would you start on the first day? What would you do if I put you in charge? What are ways you helped your last employer improve their business?
4. Do they satisfy all of your requirements for the role? If they made it this far go into detail with your requirements.
5. Ask them what questions they have?
This is hugely telling; if they only ask about work hours, pay, but don’t want to know. If they don’t have any questions to ask this is a red flag?
More reading and resources here.The "6 Types of Working Genius" model by Patrick Lencioni identifies six unique talents that define how individuals are naturally gifted at ideation, innovation, evaluation, mobilisation, support, and implementation, respectively, in a workplace setting. Don’t base hiring decisions on the assessment, use the tools to help you understand your existing team and what is missing in your team. Also a very good book.
"Work Rules!" by Laszlo Bock offers insightful guidance on innovative people management practices drawn from Google's success, providing small businesses with actionable strategies to attract, develop, and retain talent in a competitive and dynamic business environment.
This is my favourite business book of all time: it underscores the importance of “Getting the right people on the right seat on the bus” In the chapter "First Who, Then What," Jim Collins summarises the concept as: Ensure you have the right team in place before setting your business direction, focusing on getting the right people on board and properly aligned to their roles for organisational success.