Back in February I wrote about how we were starting the hiring process again. We bought an ad on Craigslist for $25, wrote up a description of who we were looking for, and then watched about 15 applications come in within a week.
It was really, really tough. First we had to make the hard choices about who we were going to interview (we selected four) and who we weren’t even going to talk to. Ugh! How painful.
Then, the interviews themselves.
How do you interview someone? Luckily, I’ve read a lot about it, and then I tapped my close friend Dan Duggan, who is a partner with Lionheart Consulting, and who also used to be a general manager at a technology firm here in Oregon. He had a long conversation with me, sharing his experiences, insights, and tools from years of hiring for executive and other key positions.
We would’ve been doomed without him.
And then there were two.
We came down to the top two applicants, who were very different from each other. It was an agonizing choice, let me tell you. If we were large enough as a company, we would ideally like to hire them both, and if our plans work out over the next year, maybe we can come back and pick up that second person.
Why hire at all?
This is a bigger question. I mean, after all, we’re quite comfortable in our business, and with the help of a virtual assistant, which we’ve used for some time very happily, things were getting done.
The truth is I’ve got this bug about learning- I like to keep learning. And, through most of my life I’ve been a DIYer (do-it-yourselfer). And yet I’ve always had this longing, this fascination with teams.
I’ve watched musician friends soar when playing music with others, weaving patterns with each other. I’ve watched sports teams and partner dancing, none of which I’ve been very good at- my sports have been solo, and the last time I tried partner dancing… well… ’nuff said.
The best partnership I’ve ever had is with my wife, Holly, and that’s been an amazing growth of intimacy, connecting, flow, and trust-building.
The truth is, we could get by as we’ve been… and hiring an employee is partially about developing the company, partially about having even more help than someone can provide virtually.
But a big part of it is me wanting to really learn this teamwork/collaboration thing.
How about you? Have you made the transition from being self-employed, micro-business owner to hiring live employees? Are you contemplating it at all?
My big question: What are some ‘best practices’ to helping our new employee get up to speed in the first 30 days?
I’m happy to hear any and all advice, stories, and comments here.
9 Responses
I’ve hired and fired people in my career life and I thing the most important element in the first 30 days is to have the new employee share their expectations and then together set some benchmarks within the first 30-90 days.
As simple as it sounds, my experience shows me that very few companies review the benchmarks for new employees.
Plan – Do – Review
And although I can share some perspective I can’t really spell “thing” “think”
When is a blog software going to add a spell check 🙂
Those first days are tough for everyone, both the current staff and the new member. The current staff have their current responsibilities and are likely behind on them, otherwise, why hire someone new. The new member has no bearings, doesn
I have avoided hiring permanent since having to rapidly hire and then layoff teams during the dotcom boom and crash. Since then I have focused on freelance team members on a project basis and found that to be a much happier experience.
The most critical question to answer is “why are you hiring?”. If you do not have a clear answer then you are introducing a cost and an unhappy employee.
Never hire just because you want company! 🙂
For a team member to be happy and productive they need a clear role. Some positions will require you to have created a system, some will require creativity, but either way you need to have decided exactly what you want the hire to achieve before you even consider putting together an ad.
I started a new job last summer and the most useful thing my boss did was define, “emergency” as in, “I only need to be brought into the loop on an emergency.” For her it meant anytime someone was angry at her personally or if I was going to spend more than $2,000.
I realize that’s a different definition than many people would use, but it helped her to support her rhetoric of wanting to empower me. I appreciated having clear, simple guidelines.
Thanks for the comments so far- we spent the morning talking to our new employee, and your comments were definitely taken to heart, those I read before 10:30am pacific.
Specifically:
@Jason- that was a great insight- a simple one about benchmarks, but great. We set some benchmarks, they feel solid, we have a plan to follow up. You rock.
@Zane- don’t hesitate with me on this me- I’m glad you didn’t. I have a certain amount of business experience and wisdom, and this area is my learning edge, so don’t take anything for granted.
I really appreciate what you said about sharing the burden, and also about each person having the big picture in place. We’re implementing the meeting structure from Patrick Lencioni’s Death by Meeting book, and I have high hopes of that structure accomplishing just that- the communication, the big picture. As far as sharing the burden, well.. there’s just three of us here, including the new hire, so we’ll share it as much as we can. 🙂
@Chris- I’m glad you dropped in- yes, we spent the better part of a year contemplating making the move from virtual assistant to real assistant, and we’re definitely not just hiring to have company. We just need help, or we need to scale our business back, which doesn’t feel like what our hearts wanted to do.
What are the best qualities of the freelance relationship, and if you -were- to hire permanent, what would be your best ideas of how to inject those best freelance qualities into an employee role?
@Drew: Ahhh… that’s a great reminder about what an emergency is. I hadn’t thought of that. I’m going to give that one some thought, and introduce it later in the cycle, once our new person is really up and running.
Hey Mark,
Lot’s of great advice already posted by folks who sound like they’ve had a lot of experience with teams. I’ll just add a little bit about what happens at Livin Spoonful.
Productivity is critical for our company, so I like to start new hires with the simplest tasks we have and let them get comfortable with that before moving on to other things. I use this time to observe their work habits, conscious and otherwise, and the way they interact with others. During the interview, I share that I will be offering tips on how to get more done without working any harder. How a prospective hire responds to this is a big part of my hiring decision. And Since we have a 30 day trial period, it gives me time to evaluate how much potential I think they have. It also helps new hires to feel comfortable more quickly.
The trade off is that I assume that I’ll be doing more for awhile until the training progresses. I’ve accepted this fundamental balance because I think it ultimately is more expeditious. I start out a little more slowly, but I don’t spend time training someone on more important and more complex tasks until I feel certain that they are a good fit for our culture and our type of work.
Hope this helps.
Many blessings to you,
Jim
I’m a little late to the party, but wanted to share this tip:
When you hire a new person, ask them to organize a desk manual as they learn your systems and procedures. It should include step-by-step instructions for the various things they’re responsible for, along with any checklists or quick-reference materials that they will be using for their job.
Then make a point of reviewing their desk manual with them once a week, to make sure that they have accurate info and to see how they’re keeping up with things. If they can’t seem to keep their desk manual up to date or organized efficiently, that might be a red flag. Better to catch it sooner than later.
The other benefit is that if/when you’re ever hiring for that position again, voila, you’ve got a desk manual to make the next training easier.
@Jim- I love what you said about starting simple- we started as simple as we can, and I think it’s working out.
For folks who don’t know Jim, he did an amazing healing on me around working with employees- he rocks the house.
@Kathy- you’re spot on. We had one going before, but it was a bit of mess, and one of Chandra’s assigned tasks is to do exactly what you’re suggesting.
And, if you don’t know Kathy- she rocks the house, too. Thanks for an incredibly helpful conversation last week about asking for, and receiving, help. 🙂