A Beginner’s Guide to Finding Great Employees (from another Beginner)

I recently just did the math on what it took to replace an employee and the answer was at least above 20k, but with lost productivity, probably above 30k. 

As a relatively new employer, there have been a lot of things I didn’t understand about hiring a year and a half ago – that are now hitting home a little bit more, so I thought I’d share anything I’ve learned for those about to go through it.

Here are 5 of the top things I’ve learned – so I hope they can be of some help, to other hiring beginners like me. 

1. “Learning really quickly” is the #1 most important skill. 

In a world where technology changes almost completely every 10 years, why does someone need 10 years of experience?

I don’t know about you – but our SEO system is completely different from any of our competitors, and we’re somewhat proud of it. I created it out of rebellion against I had seen before and worked with a transitioning worker from the largest SEO company in town to solidify a dashboard and process that literally didn’t exist anywhere else previously. 

Learning quickly is crucial – and I should also watch for signs that the employee will be a voracious learner on their own, and experiment vigorously. 

Suggested listening: Masters of Scale: Reid Hoffman Story (Part’s 1 and 2) - Reid talks about if he can only hire for one trait it would be ‘learning quickly.’

2. Soft skills like “getting a lot done each day”, and being humble enough to take direction are insanely important. 

Once an employee learns your systems – what 5 things can they come back to and push on when they have downtime?

Any success I’ve had is not because I’m a genius. I’m like a 7 out of 10 if I’m being generous on an intelligence scale. Much of what I’ve accomplished (and for 7 out of 10 it’s a lot! :) is owed to the ridiculous amount of effort I’ve applied on a regular consistent basis in digital marketing for the past 6 years (55-60 hours a week.)

Make sure there are 5 things that someone can push on (repetitive tasks) if they don't know what they are supposed to do.

Packing your 40 hours with as much effort as possible is all I ask from employees. I watch for signs that someone is hungry enough to push our clients forward vigorously each day. 

Suggested reading or listening: “The Ideal Team Player” by Patrick Lencioni talks about hiring for 3 important traits: hungry, humble and smart and how if you only have 2 or the 3 theirs an imbalance. 

3. The candidate “wanting to do the job” your hiring someone for is a pretty important baseline. 

Do they want to do this job? 

What in their past indicates that this is what they want to do for the next 5 years?

If I’m honest – seeing that someone has been pursuing UX, but is applying for the SEO position worries me about how long we’ll be able to keep their interest with a particular position. 

Not only persistent interest in this particular field – but do they have a persistent interest in working for a company like yours?

For us – do they have an interest in working for an agency that works for small business? Do they like small businesses? Nay – are they PASSIONATE about helping small businesses?

4. Qualify with a questionnaire, and create a stair-stepped process that filters with less of your time if possible. 

How can you involve your leadership and the whole team only after some vigorous qualification? 

For knowledge workers – spend $500 bucks on LinkedIn ads, and don’t waste money on other avenues. Workable is a decent option for putting out job postings in 10 places at once, but from what I’ve seen candidates coming from other sites besides LinkedIn haven’t been as strong, for digital marketing at least. 

We created a questionnaire to qualify people more quickly, and it asks some of the questions we would ask in a phone interview, so we can determine basic fit first.

Then we move them to a phone interview with our project manager / HR person (small company,) to ask about some hard skills.

If appropriate we then move them to an in-person interview with lead strategist / myself to do a mixture of culture / hard skills interview. 

If all goes well – then we involve the whole team with a culturally focused lunch and order some food for the conversation. 

5. Creating a magnetic culture – is not bullshit, and is a worthwhile adventure. 

How can you improve the interior life of your company, so that your other employees will promote working there?

Certainly still working through this one, but it’s become obvious to me that “culture” is not as BS as I once felt it was at previous companies I worked at. 

How do I know?

Hearing our own employees talk about it now without my instigation. 

Literally, just learning how important this is the last 3-6 months, but some of the key changes that have led up to that include:

1. Focusing on our employees long-term goals (even if they aren’t at our company) and trying to help them develop the skills needed to get there. 
2. Encouraging each person weekly on what they are doing that’s truly leveling us up.
3. Trying to hire for people that enjoy mentorship and mentoring – and working with each employee to create a customized learning plan each quarter, and incentivizing following through on it. 

Suggested reading or listening: “The Dream Manager” by Patrick Lencioni talks about working with your employees to determine their long-term goals and expending effort to help them pursue those dreams. 

What is the #1 most important skill that you hire for? Would love if you took 20 seconds to drop it in the comments!