Hiring Dilemmas

Behind every business or organization there are hardworking and dedicated individuals serving the day to day functions that make it all possible. These people are the backbone of success and yet lack a blueprint or set of desirable skills that blanketly cover every firms present and future needs. How then do we find the best possible employees and insure that we navigate the waters effectively to avoid the pitfalls and long-term drawbacks of incompatible hires?

            Among the ways to find and recruit the best possible people for your firm is the idea of networking and reaching these great employees. Like the actual act of entrepreneurship these crucial actions often require creative and unique strategies in order to be implemented effectively. It is the job of the entrepreneur or recruiting manager to act as the enticer to those seeking employment. Making the firm easily accessible to potential A-players and scheduling as many interviews as possible are among the ways that the HR department can bring high quality talent into the management team. In addition, the use of innovative and captivating ads in newspapers or online forums can offer perks to job seekers that may draw them from competition in the labor market. It is important for the owner to act as a “hook” similarly to an author writing a story. If the firm is a living and growing entity, then its story must be written in a way that allows ambitious individuals to follow and see their potential role in its journey.

Another important thing to consider is the problems associated with a bad hire. Individuals that have redundant or duplicate skills to other employees already existing within the firm can have negative overall impacts on the bottom line of the firm. These additional cash drains can cause investors to view the firm as wasteful and cause internal interpersonal issues. Therefore, it is important that the founder or HR team focus their efforts on finding employees with unique skill sets rather than ones that fit into an already homogenous team.

The final factor to consider when hiring is the ability to keep A- Players once they are acquired by the firm. These employees have high potential and thus have many opportunities to choose from. The higher the opportunity cost an employee faces, the higher the price the firm must forgo to gain and maintain their relationship. This idea isn’t limited to those within the firm either. In fact, according to Eric Herrenkohl, some of the best hires that we can make come from long-term nurtured relationships with external key players. The constant maintenance of a relationship can be a key factor in bringing on or bringing back employees from other sectors within an industry.

            Overall the best way to acquire and keep employees is by allowing as many people as possible to see the growth and development potential of the firm. By sharing a common centralized mission, a firm becomes more uniform in its motivation. This unity allows for employees to see themselves establishing and maintaining long term relationships with the firm at multiple levels in the organizational chart. Cherishing and acknowledging the contributions and maintaining relationships are the key to acquiring and keeping the best possible employees for a management team. Just as one most seek a competitive advantage in a market, the firm must also establish a competitive advantage in the labor market.

References

Wasserman, N. (2012). The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating And Avoiding The Pitfalls That Can Sink A Startup. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Herrenkohl, E. (2010). How to hire A-players finding the top people for your team – even if you don’t have a recruiting department. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.