Tough economic times mean that unemployment is rife. But, as a growing business owner, you’ve noticed that it seems near impossible to find the right kind of people for your company. Unfortunately, the most skilled and best people often cling to the safety net of their current jobs. As the owner of a developing business, finding the right people, at the right time, to join your company and help it grow towards being an asset of value, is critical.
On The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield, Pavlo talked about the right way to hire the right people for your business:
IT’S NOT JUST THE ECONOMY THAT’S THE PROBLEM
Even though unemployment may be rife right now, that’s not the only concern. Inflexible labour laws mean that it’s difficult to hire and, if things go badly, fire someone if they don’t work well for your business. It’s absolutely vital that the first twenty to thirty people you hire to join your growing business are the right fit, because the wrong hire could bring your company to its knees. Moreover, the urgency behind needing good people for your company could lead you towards hiring the wrong people, by accident.
IT’S DECISION TIME
Choosing to grow your team, or not to grow your team, both bear a cost. If you opt not to hire anyone, you’re not building a business: you’re merely creating a job for yourself. If you choose to hire, you must hire well, and commit to the path of growing your business, because people are an essential element of that journey.
WHAT NOT TO DO
You may be feeling the pressure to hire, but the biggest mistake you can make is to hire someone quickly. Quick hires seldom turn out to be good hires, and a bad hire can derail your business before its even begun to operate properly. Notably too, you shouldn’t hire someone to do a job – you should hire someone who brings skills, a good attitude, and true value, to the systems of your business, while operating within them.
WHAT TO DO
Building your business into an Asset of Value begins by creating the systems that enable its growth. Building that System of Delivery begins with:
- Knowing why you do what you do: A business that is being built into an asset of value, focuses on securing customers and delivering a service to them, through its systems. A true asset of value knows what business it is in, and exactly who it serves.
- Knowing your customers’ problems: Your business is defined by your customers’ problems, and its services are built to solve those problems. Knowing, understanding, and responding to, those problems is critical.
- Creating a system that effectively solves those problems.
- Employ people to operate systems, rather than doing a job
Once your system of delivery is set up, you can look towards employing people to operate those systems. Creating effective systems, and giving your team well-defined job descriptions, enables them to operate in a manner that’s measurable and motivating. That then goes on to build a positive company culture.
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
Success teaches us very little, but learning from mistakes is invaluable. Enabling your team to make mistakes, to fail and to learn, is essential. By safeguarding your business and empowering your team to take small steps first, and make small mistakes as they learn, is an imperative. Managing the risk of mistakes will ultimately make your employee, and your growing business, stronger, and better equipped to face future challenges.
