How Do You Hire The Right People?
Very, very carefully.
Hiring people is the biggest, most challenging decision a business owner has to make. This is even more true for entrepreneurs starting new companies.
When hiring people, there are two ways to do it:
- Build a core, passionate team.
- Or don’t.
Very few people would admit to choosing #2 as an approach, but lots of companies do exactly that — they hire for reasons other than passion and fit. How many companies start with salary as the key decision point for hiring someone?
Companies don’t put enough stock in the importance of building a real team; they focus on getting people on board with the right qualifications at the right price and that’s it. It’s an easy trap to fall into because it’s an easier way to hire. And when your company is growing fast and doing well, and you’ve got more work than you know what to do with, to heck with building a core team…you need warm bodies at desks!
The end result of building a team without really thinking about the team is usually not a good one. Higher turnover. Dissatisfaction at work. Lower productivity.
A core team of passionate, true believers will always go the extra mile for each other and by extension the company they work for. People will stay at jobs they dislike if they love the team.
The problem with hiring the right people is that it takes a lot longer. You have to be prepared to invest a good chunk of time in the process — finding candidates, interviewing them, testing them, trying them out — it’s more akin to dating than anything else; there’s a dating dance or ritual that has to take place.
But the payoff is enormous. This is especially true for startups - those first few hires are going to be key ones. Those people are practically partners. You need them to stick it out through thick and thin, and be as devoted as possible. You need them to create the culture and spirit for future hires. You need them evangelizing the business. You need them taking ownership. You need them to be the driving force of success.
It’s a tall order, which is why you need to invest the time, thought and energy into hiring people properly. And you always need to focus on building a great team, not a bunch of people connected together by the fact that they work in the same office.
Before I became self-employed, there was one important aspect of a prospective employer I always looked for: staff retention.
A high staff turnover can be crippling, and doesn’t aid a good working environment.
Nice post, Ben.
Ben, I totally agree with what you are saying. One question. How would this apply to hiring minimum wage service industry staff? One of our ventures is a new cafe in a small but growing town. The pool of potential hires is pretty limited. I struggle with the process when the starting wage is $11 per hour.
Dave - I can see how it would be harder with minimum wage staff - although there are certain restaurants, cafes, etc. where you always feel like the staff is giving 110%. So they must be hiring a higher caliber person (or brainwashing!)
I’ve never hired in that type of situation, but I think the cultural fit still makes a huge difference.
I can think of two cafes near my house - one is staffed by teenage girls who spend more time outside smoking than serving coffee. The other is staffed by slightly older men and women who spend more of their time conversing with clients and being polite. I’m sure they’re all paid around the same…
“… first get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it…”
Jim Collins, Good to Great
Ben,
“I’ve never hired in that type of situation, but I think the cultural fit still makes a huge difference.”
Actually, I think you hit the nail on the head right there — cultural symmetry is key to a good hiring, possibly even more important that passion.
Perhaps a passionate company would do well to hire a passionate employee whereas a dispassionate company would do well to hire a dispassionate employee. Does that make sense?
Francis - I can imagine dispassionate companies only attracting dispassionate people, cause a passionate person would die in that environment, but I don’t think those companies can be successful for long.
That’s not to say every employee at a passionate company drinks the Kool-Aid - that’s a tough thing to pull off as a company grows. But setting the tone and culture early with the first few people means it’s easier to weed people out later on.
I’m not sure you can separate culture and passion, if the culture is passionate then someone needs passion to come in. But, in speaking with a very smart fellow yesterday he said, “Sometimes you hire on pure talent, even the person isn’t a believer, and then you convince them once they’re on-board.”
He also said, “I believe in the 6-week interview process, no matter how much you like the guy, or how hot the job market is.”
How many people out there have gone through a 6-week interview process? *grin*
6-week interviews? Sounds very Google-esque :P. The process makes sense — this type of company believes that everyone they hire is key personnel and they tend to hire for the long run.
As for dispassionate companies not being successful for long, I have to admit that I’m a little skeptical. Could be because I’ve got large corporate companies with soul-crushing working environments in mind. Perhaps in such cases, the top-level decision-makers are passionate about their wheeling-and-dealing :P?
Hey Francis - In some circumstances and industries passion isn’t going to be important. I tend to look at things through the eyes of a technology entrepreneur in the software/web world … but if I was looking at manufacturing, for example, I’d say “fair enough, the factory workers don’t really need passion.” Although if there’s someone passionate at the top, doing things differently, challenging and disrupting their industry, the company will be more successful.
Ben, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking in “tech entrepreneur” mode. I can see how passion can be so important, especially for the type of industry we’re in.