Recruitment, Part 4: Other important stuff

There are a few notes I want to squeeze in here between your recruitment mission and the hiring and training part.

One is that you don’t have to hire. If you get through everything we just talked about and you still don’t feel 110% positive that you’ve found the right person, don’t hire. Yes, you’ve spent a lot of time and energy on the process but do not make the mistake of committing to a doomed project. Once we’ve invested time or money into something we find it psychologically very hard to withdraw, even when continuing will cost us more time and money. So just take a step back, breathe deeply, and try again a week or two later. Chances are that you’ll get new candidates apply who weren’t looking last month, or who missed your Facebook ad, or who felt OK with work but this week have had it up to their back teeth with their boss. And for those candidates you were close to hiring, just tell them you’re casting the net again and if they really feel they are the right person then they are very welcome to apply again and prove it.*

Another is that trail days, weeks, or even months are a very good idea. Again, you might think because of the time and money you have already invested that you need to just make a commitment and ride it out but that maths simply doesn’t work out. A great employee will grow your business, help your colleagues grow, and eventually attract new candidates and train them. A shit one will take the same amount of training and wages and then undermine your businesses culture and potential. It’s disrespectful to your other employees and to your own dreams to hire someone unworthy. So invest in trail days or weeks and in a year’s time when you aren’t cursing that new employee for losing a sale/customer/company phone you will look on that few hundred dollars as a wise, wise choice.

Last but not least: the recruitment process and especially the interview should give the future employee a very thorough idea of who you are and what your business culture is. If they join your team and are disillusioned or misunderstood what the job was about, that is your fault. No question about it. 

*A small company did this to me once and it absolutely worked on me; the fact that they had such strong vision not to settle for someone 90% right just made me ache to work there the more.