How To Think Strategically To Hire Help For Your Business

One of the first ways you expand your business is by making your first hire or first few hires.? The first three always seem to be the scariest and most challenging to initiate as your head and your heart argue about whether this is the right move for right now.

Hiring a team is essential to your business’s growth and scaling journey. Now, more than ever, the definition of team has a much broader meaning.? You have your W2 employees and 1099 contractors. You have your full-time and part-time employees. You might have temporary employees. The list goes on and on.

No matter what type of employee, there are two ways you can hire: reactively and strategically.

It is likely a reactive move if it is your first time hiring.? It’s reactionary for almost everyone because when you make this decision, you are in over your head at work, balls are getting dropped, and there is simply no more time in your day to work.? You’ve got to do something to get things back on track, and it always feels like it should have been done yesterday!

Sound familiar yet?? Let me continue on…

In thinking about having enough work to sustain a team member, even for a commitment as small as 10 hours a week, you list tasks you want off your plate.? These might be the ones you hate, the ones that suck your soul, or maybe they are just those you can’t get to because there’s so much else on your plate.

While still as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, you can’t wait for their first day when the tasks nobody wants will finally get done!? Relief at last - you can’t wait to get back those 10 hours in your life and business to handle the things that matter!

Except that things sometimes don’t go as planned.??

As the weeks pass, that time and freedom you’ve prayed for never appear. It feels like you’ve been stood up on the third date.? You resent all the questions you get asked and how much time you spend with your new team member.? It has you seriously wondering if you should go back to running a solo shop - it would be simpler, you tell yourself.

Hiring for tasks has its place in the strategic plan.? If it is reactionary and not strategic, you wind up in a trap where you’ve traded the stress and worry of being overwhelmed by tasks for the stress and distraction of managing another person to do those tasks.

At this point, the stressed-out business owner who has not figured out a solution will typically do one of two things. Either they let go of the team member or hire more team members until they have a cache of people making more demands on their time and attention.

Some people are asking the question at this point, “What is the strategic solution they could have figured out?” The answer is to hire for results.

Hiring for results is where you hire capability and experience in a team member with a track record for delivering results.? You still have a managerial role in this setting, but it is elevated to strategy, vision, accountability, and troubleshooting.

You let go of worrying about how the result will be achieved. Instead, you rely on your team members to determine a plan, map it out, and execute it. It’s their job to drive the initiative and keep you in the loop regularly.

While discussing strategy, let’s keep in mind that you need to consider both methods. You need both: hire for tasks and hire for results.? Different needs require different implementations.

If you are unsure which you need, reach out, and let’s chat . One of our strengths is working with companies to get everything in shape, including integrating hiring into the planning process. As we consider your growth goals, we get ahead of the hiring process by creating forecasts and trigger points for hiring.? Then, we get ready to hire by helping you determine which type of hire is right.??

Next, we jump in and tackle the practical stuff of creating job descriptions, job ads, and 90-day onboarding plans to set the team members up for success.? The added benefit to being prepared is that you, as the business owner, have less stress and feel less behind the eight-ball. You make smarter hiring decisions, and when the gem of a team member comes your way, you can take advantage of it before your competition.

There is no doubt that it is a tough hiring market right now.? While others are stuck lamenting and complaining that no one wants to work - that won’t be you.? You will be different because you’ve done the prep work and are strategic about what you need and when - leading to a fantastic confidence to say yes to that next team member. After all, it is all a part of the plan.