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Any business owner or hiring manager can attest that the hiring process is stressful, costly, and nothing short of chaotic. It’s a uniquely high-pressure situation, looking for an employee that truly aligns with your company’s values and wants to grow with you while also recognizing that you need to be a good, valuable environment for them.
In short, you can teach someone that’s eager to learn to perform almost any skill, but it’s much harder to teach someone values like reliability or work ethic.
The pandemic has transformed the ways we work and run our companies and the Great Resignation has made good employees even harder to come by. In today’s OpenMic session of the Serial Entrepreneur Club, we amassed the best techniques and practices for hiring great employees and making the process easier for both sides.
People, Money, Story, Systems… we talk a lot about these elements crucial to a startup’s success, but the truth is, without people to help you share your story, implement systems, and earn money, you won’t get far at all. You want to add driven, unique, go-getter employees to your team and give them a reason to stick around.
Share your vision with potential employees and help them see themselves growing personally and professionally with you. Be honest with them during interviews and let them get an accurate picture of the office culture and the work they’d be doing. If people are satisfied with their overall work experience, they’ll either stick around, or they’ll be an asset and positive connection for future business and employee referrals. Jeff emphasized the “great people know great people” saying, adding that word of mouth has remained the most effective (and flattering!) way to find new customers and employees!
We should be having a revolving door process when it comes to hiring so your business can always have fresh talent and people will remember the skills and freedom you gave them.
GUEST SPEAKER, TONIA
Of course, qualitative, hard skills are important when vetting applicants, but ditch the stack of resumes for a minute and look deeper– Are they hard-working and motivated? Positive and a team player? The consensus is that these “soft” skills are really the skills that make up a great salesperson, manager, and overall teammate.
Several speakers mentioned the benefits they’ve had practicing this Harvard Business Review article that discusses how personality and other psychological factors perhaps outweigh a concrete skillset and the focus on building strong teams. In short, you can teach someone that’s eager to learn to perform almost any skill, but it’s much harder to teach someone values like reliability or work ethic.
We had such an awesome discussion and got so many tips to improve how we hire! Check out the full session above for even more tips on improving the process.