I was hired too early. The guys at SOUTH weren’t ready for me to join the team when I did. There was no shortage of ideas on their part, nor ambition on mine. It just wasn’t the right time.
It happened because I’m in an independent contractor’s role, not an employee’s role. See, I don’t get paid on salary or by the hour. I get paid by the work I am able to do. There wasn’t work for me at the time, but they knew they wanted me to on their team.
Fortunately (for both parties), I was in a place where I could afford to be patient as things have developed.
But not all employers are lucky enough to find someone they want without having to pay them. So today, referencing my current situation and my previous life, I’ll be diving into when you should hire a new employee.
Who to Hire (Steps 1 & 2)
When it comes to hiring, most people are lost. They’ve never done it before, they don’t really know who they want on the team, and they typically start off with Craigslist. Yes, there are some Craigslist success stories, but they are few & far between.
The first thing you need to do when considering hiring a new person is decide what role the person will play.
You must decide if they will assist your existing team, if they will be your side-kick (aka your first hire), or if they’ll be a rainmaker and bring in sales. Sometimes you’ll even have to hire people for a brand new role, but that’s often for larger companies who know when they need to bring some talent up from the minors.
P.S. I am a huge advocate of promotion from within if possible
You don’t have to give them a title or decide salary just yet. You just need to lay it out there and decide what role they’ll play.
If you don’t know what role they will play, you can’t really move to Step 2. Do not justify a new hire by saying, “I didn’t even have time to think,” that will only lead to more headaches.
The second step is to determine what tasks they will perform. I highly suggest you do this BEFORE you hire them.
I’ve seen many people hired and have their list of responsibilities thrown together on the first day of work. Things done in panic mode, and for a business owner there is no greater panic than an hourly employee wasting time, rarely turn out like you intended.
This doesn’t have to be a neat and tidy job description. It just has to be something you can reference. The key here is to write it down.
When you do this before you hire someone, you know what you’re looking for during interviews. If someone is going to be answering phones, make sure they’re nice to speak. If they are going to be helping in a warehouse, make sure they are able-bodied.
At the same time, this gives you the chance to disqualify people if they are “above” some things you think you’ll need help with (cleaning around the office, unloading trucks, etc.) during the interview process.
If you’re having trouble writing out what tasks you will have someone perform, you probably don’t have great standard operating procedures in place. Check out this Tropical MBA podcast episode on SOP’s to get you moving in the right direction.
As you get a list of tasks together, it can be refined and tweaked later. Most importantly, it can be lengthened!
The key point here is that if your list looks like this guy’s –> than you don’t need an assistant and you’re going to be overwhelmed when you do. Instead, find specific tasks that you (or anyone whose load you’re trying to lighten) can take off your plate and add it to their list.
Once your list is lengthier than the one this guy has, you can start thinking about hiring. And that fancy new list you started, that will eventually turn into their job description.
When to Hire (Step 3)
Adding a new person should bring value to your team. So make sure when you hire, your new person brings you value and not burden.
Yes, it will be hectic trying to train that person in the early days. But, I’m not referring to the training process. I’m referring to constantly making up new things for people to do.
Ex: I saw a talented woman get hired before the furniture company was ready for her. She had many talents and she could handle more than was thrown her way. She was a “shared” assistant for the me and a few other people.
Personally, I gave her all that I could delegate (and it was awesome having her around – I was 10X more productive). But that only gave her about 4 hours worth of work each day. Since she was hired too early and nobody else thought about what they would delegate to her, she ended up cleaning offices nearly every day – hardly something that helped us make more money.
As you can imagine, she wasn’t very fulfilled and took another position months after she started. We were so upset with how things transpired that we never hired a new assistant.
The final step is to prepare yourself to LET GO.
When you’re about to hire someone, they are most likely going to be taking things off of someone’s (probably your) plate. If you never let them own those new responsibilities, you’ll never have less to do.
Double checking every single thing a new hire does can be an incredible waste of time. Plus it’s insanely demoralizing to the person you’re trying to welcome into your company. If you have to check every bit of their work you probably did a bad job of screening people in the hiring process.
That or you have a little problem known as micro-management and that new hire won’t last long unless they’re desperate.
Your Turn
In short, many of you feel like you need to hire someone. But you don’t know when you should hire a new employee. That can be a painful process, especially if you don’t have a plan once they arrive.
Be prepared and know what tasks you’ll have them take over before they start working. Having a list of tasks and a role in which they will play helps you solidify how they can help your organization. When you know their role, you can articulate it to them. Once you can clearly show them your expectations, they will have the chance to blow past them for you.
These are my experiences with hiring new people into an organization. How do you know when it’s time to bring a new person into your organization?
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Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!
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