Always Be Recruiting
With any business and any product, most would agree that having the right team in your corner is one of the most vital pieces to success. A strong team can run with your mission, taking your business to the next-level. However, without team members who fit your culture, meet expectations, and perform to meet goals, the best-laid plans fall flat. As most business owners handle multiple aspects of the business, it is nearly impossible to excel in all areas, including recruiting and hiring. Recruiting often falls by the wayside and is only utilized when needed—usually when it’s too late and we are short-staffed, treating it almost like an emergency. We are forced to relearn and reactivate processes and tools we had previously neglected due to our other responsibilities, resulting in inefficiency and often unsatisfactory recruiting outcomes.
The good news is that the solution to this problem is quite simple: always be recruiting. If you are hurting for more staff, this probably makes sense, as you are most likely working endlessly to find enough people. It may seem counterintuitive, however, if you are a business owner or manager with a fully staffed team right now. From my experience and that of numerous colleagues and clients, there is simply no better way to ensure that your team—and ultimately your business—stays strong: always be recruiting.
First, once you hire enough employees to move past the dreaded stage of being understaffed and are now fully staffed, many business owners and managers make the mistake of stopping recruitment at this point. The reason we should not stop recruiting, even when our staff is "full", is we now need to make sure we have the right people on our team. Through accountability, measuring performance, and identifying the best fit for our culture, we can recognize if the team we have set in place is filled with the right employees. If we have team members who are not meeting expectations, not exceeding goals, or not fitting the culture, we need to assess the impact of improving that position on not only ourselves and our business but also on other team members and their well-being. Once we have identified the right individuals on our team, and everyone fits the culture and meets or exceeds expectations and goals, it is still not a time to stop recruiting!
If you are looking to grow, it should be obvious that consistently recruiting until you find the right individuals is a necessity. If you are not looking to grow or truly do not have the capacity to expand your team, you should still focus on recruiting to maintain an excellent team. This involves continuing to recruit, interviewing potential candidates, and engaging with individuals you may want on your team when attrition inevitably occurs in the future. It is vital during these conversations with potential candidates to communicate the expected timeframe for future hiring. If you do not have a specific timeframe, communicate that detail as well. Being upfront and honest while still seeking quality individuals goes a long way with future candidates.
After reading this, if you are thinking about the time and effort involved in this process, you are correct. It is a constant and continuous effort, like many other aspects of business, and should never stop. This is one of the biggest reasons Evergreen Agency Talent was created—to handle the heavy lifting and time-consuming tasks of recruiting. By Evergreen handling job post creation and management, applicant tracking system buildout and management, application intake, assessment administration, and conducting the initial phone interview, this will allow you to focus on running your business, then showing up for in-person interviews to make the final decision.
As managers and owners, we measure statistics, goals, and progress in each of our businesses. It’s time we also measure our own performance when it comes to recruiting for our team.