Hiring the right talent for your organization can feel impossible. It’s time-consuming, full of uncertainty, and riddled with legal complexities that keep seasoned recruiters busy on a full time basis.
Analyzing your business needs, then turning that into a list of skills and requirements that can be communicated in a strong job description is difficult. That challenge is compounded by the need to define an interview process and identify the right questions to actually discern if candidates will be able to do the job well. Without a clear roadmap, you risk overlooking crucial competency gaps or hiring a team member who may not be ready to meet the job requirements.
Beyond that, ensuring a fair and consistent hiring process presents its own set of challenges. Biases, whether conscious or unconscious, can influence the decision-making process, leading to unfair advantages or disadvantages for certain candidates. This not only undermines the integrity of the hiring process but also perpetuates inequities within the workforce.
Moreover, comparing candidates objectively can feel like comparing apples to oranges. Without a standardized evaluation system, distinguishing between candidates' strengths and weaknesses becomes subjective, making it difficult to make a well-informed decision.
As a business owner, without a full-time recruiter or the discretionary funds to hire one, you have to manage this entire process while still serving your clients and doing all of the work you’re trying to hire someone to help with. If you could, you’d just do it yourself - but, you can’t.
I’ve participated in or led the hiring process for more than 25 staff members at various levels of leadership in multiple organizations. After early mistakes and making at least one objectively BAD hire, I learned that having a strategic and thoughtful hiring process is essential to making the most of everyone’s time, providing a palatable experience for applicants, and securing the best new talent for a role. A documented and repeatable system for hiring makes the task manageable. By defining the role upfront, establishing strategic interview questions that test for the most important skills and competencies, and utilizing rubrics for evaluation, you can streamline the hiring process, reduce biases, and make fair and informed decisions. With a system in place, hiring becomes less of a headache and more of a strategic opportunity to build a talented and diverse workforce that drives your business’ success.
Welcoming a new team member is an exciting time for any organization, but it's not without its challenges. From navigating HR requirements to ensuring the new hire is equipped with all the right tools and organization-specific context to hit the ground running, the onboarding process can feel daunting for both the employer and employee.
First, providing a welcoming new hire experience sets the tone for what it will be like to work at the company. Without a structured approach, important details can be left out and key stakeholders may not have adequate time set aside to support the new team member, leaving them feeling lost or overlooked in their first few days.
Secondly, navigating HR requirements can feel like a maze of paperwork and procedures. From filling out forms required in the first few days to understanding company policies, the administrative burden of onboarding can overwhelm both new hires and business owners if not managed efficiently.
Beyond all that, ensuring that your new team member is adequately trained to begin adding value in their new role is critical for their success and the overall productivity of the team. Without a systematic approach to training, valuable time and resources will be wasted.
Research indicates that 4% of new hires leave a job after a disastrous first day and that 22% of turnover occurs within the first 45 days, costing the company at least 3X the former employee’s salary1. In my own experience, I’ve seen that inadequate onboarding leads to an extended ramp-up period, mistakes in the new hire’s work, and more instances of repeated training. After watching new hires struggle, I set aside time to research and design a strategic onboarding experience that provides new employees with time to complete required administrative tasks like IRS form I-9 and mandatory HR training, absorb critical organizational context, and complete training on the tasks they’ll immediately start performing. Training on tasks they won’t do until later are outlined on a timeline and saved for when needed so as not to overwhelm the new hire with information too early.
By implementing similarly strategic onboarding processes, small business owners can provide a seamless and welcoming experience for new hires, ensure compliance with HR requirements, and streamline training efforts to accelerate the integration of new team members. With systems in place, onboarding becomes an efficient tool to set employees up for success and foster a culture of growth and development within the organization.
1* Bersin by Deloitte’s industry study: Onboarding Software Solutions 2014: On-Ramp for Employee Success
What got you here, won’t get you there. Often the skills you excelled at to earn a promotion are not the skills required to succeed in managing a diverse team. Tracking multiple parallel work streams, addressing the unique needs of each team member, and ensuring fair assessment can be overwhelming. Although people are more complex than projects, implementing a few key management systems can significantly simplify and streamline the job of management, resulting in a more efficient and equitable leadership style. Here are a few examples of how systems can help you with managing a diverse team.
Establishing a simple gantt style program management tracker is one way managers can effectively oversee multiple parallel work streams. This works especially well when your team’s work is cyclical in nature or includes several annual responsibilities. Each employee’s role can be codified by listing responsibilities in rows and mapping out when those responsibilities need to take place over the course of a year. This way, both the team member and manager know what should be happening currently and in the upcoming weeks. This type of tool is even more effective if it includes notes about relevant stakeholders and links to how-to guides and templates. Utilizing project management tools and standardized processes allows managers to track progress, allocate resources, and ensure that all tasks are on track. As a bonus, it makes hiring and onboarding much easier.
Systems can also enable managers to provide targeted support to team members with different needs. Implementing structured communication channels and feedback mechanisms help managers to understand the unique challenges and uplift the strengths of each team member. An example of this could be a meeting agenda template that includes a spot to note current goals, quickly provide updates, and list questions or roadblocks the team member currently needs help to overcome. This way, check-in time can be optimized for problem solving and coaching rather than recounting a laundry list of things that have been completed or are in the works. It also helps keep goals top of mind so they aren’t simply set then forgotten until the next performance review. This personalized approach ensures that every team member receives the support they need to thrive, fostering a more inclusive and supportive work environment.
Lastly, systems can help managers facilitate fair assessments of team members' work. Implementing standardized performance metrics and evaluation rubrics ensures that all team members are assessed based on the same criteria. This objective approach can provide clarity around performance expectations while reducing biases and ensuring that evaluations are based on merit and performance, promoting a fair and transparent culture.
Ultimately, while being an excellent manager of a diverse team is undoubtedly challenging, systems can provide the necessary tools and structure to manage effectively. By effectively overseeing multiple work streams, providing targeted support, and fairly assessing performance, managers can lead their teams to success with confidence and fairness.
As your business grows, so do the complexities of managing clients, contractors, staff, and day-to-day operations while expanding your impact. It takes a tremendous amount of skill, time, and energy. Implementing effective systems along the way can be a game-changer by providing the structure and efficiency needed to scale successfully.
By codifying repeatable processes and documenting standardized workflows, small business owners can free up their minds to focus on strategic and creative efforts, like developing new products and securing new clients. This not only streamlines operations but also ensures consistency and quality in service delivery.
Systems also make hiring and training new employees easier, quicker, and more efficient. Sharing standardized processes and organized templates during onboarding helps to ensure that new hires are equipped to replicate your proven methods and reduces the time it takes to bring them up to speed. This will allow you to scale your team effectively without compromising on quality or productivity.
Even more importantly, systems help small business owners clarify their promise to customers and maintain boundaries. By establishing clear guidelines and expectations, small business owners can consistently deliver on commitments, enhancing customer satisfaction and trust. Moreover, well-defined processes ensure that employees understand and uphold your company’s standards, maintaining a high level of service as the business grows.
Although scaling a business is undeniably challenging, systems can provide the foundation needed for sustainable growth. By codifying repeatable processes, streamlining hiring and training, and clarifying your business’ services, it’s possible to navigate the complexities of expansion with greater ease and confidence.