5 Strategies for Hiring Superstar Employees in Your Small Business

Hiring new employees for the small business owner is a lesson in patience. I wasted a lot of time, money, and energy trying to hire superstar talent. I plowed through job candidates, and when they didn’t work out, I made some sort of excuse that omitted me from blame.

But the truth is, the problem wasn’t in the talent I was hiring. Most of the candidates that I hired were good, honest, hard-working people. It was my hiring process that was completely flawed.

I used to think that all I needed to do was simply place an online ad and pick someone who met my credentials — that line of thinking cost me a lot of money when I was just getting started.

There are a lot of reasons that new hires don’t work out. Everything from culture fit to wrong skill set could lead you to have to replace someone you hired just a few weeks ago. Here are five strategies that will help you hire great employees for your small business.

A few years ago, I had my very first interview with a prospective job candidate. And at the time, I was beyond excited. I had struggled to find people who wanted to work with me.

I was working as a marketing consultant trying to build a small agency. In order to scale this business, I needed employees who could complete the jobs I was currently doing so I had some time to work on my business. The trouble was, once people found out that I was a sole business owner, they would politely decline an interview opportunity with me. They would look for a “better” opportunity.

So, after a few weeks of fruitless searching, I was elated when someone actually wanted to work with me. The interview was a blur. I can’t even remember the answers the candidate gave to my questions because I knew before we even sat down that I was going to offer him a job.

The problem is he wasn’t a good person for the job I needed him to do. We spent a couple of frustrating weeks together before mutually deciding to part ways.

The point of the story is, I let my excitement cloud my judgment . If I had just been more patient (and a better listener), I would have discovered in the interview that he was not the right candidate for the job. I know it can get frustrating, but take your time and don’t rush to hire the first person who agrees to meet with you.

Most businesses ask for a resume. And I did too. Resumes are a great way to get “introduced” to a prospective job candidate. But by no means should a business owner hire based solely on a sheet of paper and interview. Instead, a business owner needs to look at the candidate’s portfolio.

The portfolio is an all-encompassing word meaning “work actually completed.” If you’re looking for a designer, check out websites or logos or slide decks they’ve developed in the past. If you’re looking for a software developer, check out projects they’ve worked on. Many software developers code for a hobby. So even if they can’t share the proprietary work they’ve done in their previous job, there is a good chance that they have some projects just laying around.

Perhaps the candidate has a blog. If they do, that’s a great way to discover his thoughts and philosophy about the job for which you need him to complete.

Anyone of these options will give you more insight into the kind of work that your candidate can produce for you than what is listed on a resume.

Until you’ve worked with someone, you won’t know how well you’re going to work together. It’s a problem that every business faces, no matter if you’re a solopreneur or a Fortune 500 company.

Even after studying portfolios and interviewing candidates, I wasn’t always sure whether or not the person I was going to hire would work out. Looking back, I realize that I’m not an expert in the skill set that I was trying to hire. So I didn’t know what questions to ask in the interview process.

I also underestimated the chemistry required for a successful relationship between me and the outsourced worker. Then I read a blog post by Seth Godin where he discussed his method for hiring. He would work with a freelancer or intern for a few months before hiring them as a full-time employee. This would give Godin plenty of time to vet the candidate.

After reading this post, I modified Godin’s strategy a bit. After I conducted an interview with a qualified candidate, I gave the person a small job to complete, just to get a sense of how they worked and whether they could perform the tasks that I needed them to complete.

While this cost me more money up front, it saved me a lot of time and money on the back end because projects were completed on time and to my specifications with minimal tweaks and modifications.

Simply put, why does this candidate want to work with you? Is the person simply looking for a paycheck? Or do they believe deeply in your mission? Or maybe they like that you allow them to work from home, whenever is convenient for them?

None of these reasons is necessarily wrong, but each comes with their own risks.

With my agency, there was a great website developer that I really wanted to hire. I knew that all it was going to take to lure him away from his current job was a 10 percent increase in his current salary and a fancier title. We had worked well before. We had a great chemistry. And I really liked the guy (and still do).

But I always knew deep down that I was renting him until someone offered him more money than I was able to pay — and that’s exactly what happened. About a year after I hired him, another firm offered him more money.

Make sure that you fully understand why someone wants to work with you before you hire them. That way you can keep them happy and they won’t be as tempted to jump at another job opportunity.

What makes an ideal job candidate for your business? It can be easy to be seduced by a former VP of sales at a Fortune 500. Clearly, if they had reached that level of success, then they would be a perfect addition to your small business. Right?

Well, not necessarily. The skills you need to run a division in a large company are much different than the skills needed for the day-to-day grind of a small business. For instance, the VP of Sales at a Fortune 500 company needs to manage the sales process. The person you put in charge of sales at your small business probably needs to build the sales process.

Both jobs have their challenges. And neither are easy. But the skill sets required to do these jobs are vastly different. So, make a list of qualities that would make for an effective job candidate in your business. Things like:

In the end, ask yourself, what type of individuals do you want to bring on board to make the best team possible?

Hiring employees is the single most important task in your business (besides serving customers). Whenever you hire a new employee, there is always going to be some risk. You’ll never know with 100 percent certainty whether or not the person is going to work out for you, but if you implement some of these strategies, you’ll be able to stack the odds in your favor and find superstars who will work with you for a long time.

Post by: Greg Digneo

Greg Digneo writes for TimeDoctor, a time monitoring and productivity monitoring software designed for tracking hours and productivity of remote teams. If you would like to see where you and your team are spending your time during work, then click here to try TimeDoctor free for 30 days.

Company: Staff.com
Website: www.timedoctor.com
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