Whether you hire one person, dozens, or hundreds, assembling the right team is essential to the success of your business. I have run several businesses with one to fifty employees. The secret I have found to building a successful team is finding the right person for each job. Sometimes it even comes down to personality. For instance, I have been to offices where the person greeting the public is cheerful and makes everything easy and effortless. Conversely, I have seen the wrong person sitting in that seat, who is introverted and makes you feel like you are interrupting their day. I try to hire the person who is a natural fit for the position.
Finding the right people doesn’t always mean hiring the most qualified or experienced. Sometimes, a person who is fresh and eager can be trained to be a valuable, loyal addition to any team. In fact, there are entire companies who prefer to train their employees from the ground up.
For many businesses, the concept of training all employees to do everything has the advantage of making everyone interchangeable, which can be an asset when employees are absent for any reason or leave the company. That approach works for certain types of businesses such as copy and print shops, sales in online or brick and mortar stores, restaurants and many more.
Other companies may need to hire experts in the various positions that need to be filled. For instance, almost every business could benefit from a talented social media person on staff to conduct their online presence and online advertising.
With the onslaught of the current pandemic, it is sometimes difficult to find enough employees to fill the positions. Each company or business will need to come up with enticing incentives for a prospect to consent to joining a team. Incentives could be anything from incremental increases in pay, to workplace perks like complimentary food or onsite day-care, to four-day workweeks, to optional telecommuting.
I read several articles about ten years ago predicting that one half of the workforce would be telecommuting by the year 2020. I wonder if it happened naturally as predicted, or did the pandemic accelerate the phenomenon?
I hire people who may know more than me in certain areas, to fill in my own knowledge and talent gaps. Often, I will take an enthusiastic person over an experienced one and take the time to train them. And, to my delight, they often surpass me. I have been very fortunate to hire excellent employees who, in the end, tell me what’s going on.
Through respect, accountability, and trust, I have been able to keep employees happily working for me – sometimes for decades. We work together as a team, and I love handing off entire projects for the right person to accomplish. As a neophyte business owner, decades ago, I had to learn to delegate. And the secret to delegating is to hire the right people.
