How Hiring Can Be So Stressful and Why It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way

Most people hate–with a capital “H”–hiring help. It doesn’t matter if it is a part-time or full-time assistant. The whole process, if not carried out correctly, can be emotionally and financially draining.

The problem is that most people hire by the seat of their pants. That’s right, most people have no clue on how to do it.

Now I know there are a great deal of programs and classes out there that teach you how to hire. I have taken most of them. The one problem I see is that most of them don’t go deep enough for my satisfaction on what to do before you hire.

There are all kinds of personality tests, charts, numbers, rewritten questions and surveys on what you should do, ask or put your prospective new hire through, but how many of those put you through the ringer first?

Before you even think of hiring someone, you need to put yourself under the microscope and figure out if you really need to hire and what exactly you need to hire for.

Inspecting your own process

Now I know you’re crazy busy and you just need someone to help you with your work. That’s fine and all, but are you “crazy busy” because you need someone or because you don’t have your business automated the way it could be? You don’t have systems that create consistency, and you don’t put out fires before they happen by implementing protocols that would save you time and stress.

Before hiring, you need to take a step back as the business owner and figure out why you are busy. What do you find yourself doing that makes you so busy? Then you need to figure out if what you are doing is a symptom of what you are doing.

I know it’s a bit confusing but would it shock you if I told you that we have a list of 99 things that must be done before hiring someone?

Just imagine how amazing it would be to know that you don’t need a full-time hire just to get you on track. Think what that means to your bottom line. Instead of another expense that will go on forever, maybe just a short-term cost that buys more time for you to grow bigger and be even more ready to hire. Even better, when you hire, now you are hiring someone into a well-oiled machine. No, it’s not a fantasy. It can be a reality.

Do you need to hire someone to get you on track? No, it’s all stuff you can do yourself. However, if you’re already pulling your hair out, do you think you have the time and patience to do so?

The truth is, the following is how things usually go. You start to see business pick up; you start to feel overwhelmed, you start telling others how your business is crazy busy and what happens next? Everyone and their mamas tell you to hire someone, you’re making enough money–why don’t you get help? The sayings go for days.

Few people ask, “Hey, are you set up to hire someone? Have you thought what you need help with, specifically? Do you know what your return on investment would be for your new hire?” Again, the questions can go on forever.

So below I’m going to mention just the first ten things we believe anyone must do before hiring someone.

Checklist

1. Track your activities: This is huge because without knowing what you are spending your time on, there is no way to know what you need help with.
2. Determine the economic benefit to you and your business: Before making any expense, especially one that will be on-going and probably the most costly to your bottom line. You need to know–how does hiring this person benefit you and or your business financially?
3. Compensation plan: What are you planning to pay and why are you going to pay that? This should be determined after figuring out what the financial benefit is to you and your company. The benefit should be greater than the cost. I know that seems obvious but you would be surprised how many people don’t do the math up front.
4. Benefits Plan: Even if you are not looking to hire a w2 employee, you should create some kind of benefits package for your new hire. After all, the last thing you want to do is put in time and money and have them leave because someone else’s offer is a dollar more an hour. Create loyalty through benefits.
5. Growth chart: What can this new hire look forward to? Is there potential for them to grow and invest their emotional capital into you and your business because they know you have big plans for them? Without the possibility of growth, you will always have a huge turnover.
6. Employment terms: How you will pay, why you will pay that way, what you expect, what is okay and what is not.
7. Employment agreement: Have a professional drafted an agreement that is customized for your business and your particular needs and concerns. Again, it amazes me how many people just grab something from online and slap their name on it and run with it.
8. Job offer procedure: You need to have the whole process laid out with what happens when and how it needs to happen so when you are ready, it’s something that comes across as organized and well thought out. Think about things like this–how can you tell someone that you expect order and neatness if you and your business give off crazy and chaos?
9. Job offer timeline: This goes along with the procedure but is the actual time it should take for the procedure to take place.
10. Job offer scripts: We all know how to ask someone if they need a job, but you should have well-calculated words, statements and questions that help you get to the hire that will best suit your needs.

Like I had mentioned before, the list we use has 99 steps, and within every step of those 99 steps, there is probably a minimum of 4 or 5 things to get that one step accomplished. Hiring isn’t for the weak and should never be taken lightly or done under duress. Those hires end up costing time and money and sometimes even your reputation.

The idea is this: Learn more about you and your business before bringing anyone else into it.

What will work for you?

I have consulted with plenty of business owners that end up just needing some technology in their life and checklists. That, in itself, buys them at least another year of growth. Then you have others who just need some good vendors they can outsource to, again not needing to take on that consistent extra expense.

I know you’re thinking, who has the time for all the above? And there is more? The questions you should be asking yourself is, who doesn’t have the time for all of the above and more?

I know there are temp services that will let you try out people to see if they’re a good fit and that’s a hit and miss. Also, if you haven’t done the homework about you and your business, you have no clue if you should be hiring someone or not anyway.

Of course, let’s not forget all those services who call themselves consultants and come in with all their predetermined ideas of what you need. They have all their job descriptions already, and they haven’t spent a moment with you and or in your business.

Yes, they may have worked with “Joe Down the Street” that does what you do, however Joe Down the Street isn’t you and doesn’t have the same beliefs and expectations as you. Joe Down the Street doesn’t interact with his clients like you do and how your clients have come to expect.

So why would Joe’s job description be what you need in your business?

Hiring is not a one size fits all process

You cannot just walk in and grab an employee of the rack. I mean you can by using the cookie cutter methods and everyone else’s job descriptions, but how do you think that’s going to work long term?

It’s like getting anything custom. When something is made specially for you, it just fits better. It makes you feel important and more satisfied, it just does everything it’s supposed to without you having to adjust it all the time.

That’s how your new hire should fit you and your business, anything less is not worth having.

So remember, self-examination is key before you make a hire that ends up in a messy termination. “If you would like a no cost consultation to see if my company and I can help you, just reach out, and we would be happy to schedule a chat.”

Remember, you can’t accomplish someone else’s dreams so you shouldn’t hire someone else’s workers.