Most business owners think that they can build a successful business without having a team
One of the most essential elements for any business to thrive is its ability to recruit the right talent and eventually build a strong and efficient team.
If you are not equipped with the right mechanism and the mindset to acquire the right talent for your business no matter how good your product or services are you will always remain in the firefighting zone.
I’ve interacted with 100’s & 1000’s of business owners for over a decade and today I’m going to share some critical mistakes that business owners make when they approach recruitment in their business.
So let’s look into these mistakes and the idea is to help you avoid making the same mistakes
Mistake #1
Being Reactive in Recruitment
Now, this is one mistake that almost all of us have been a culprit of which is that we start looking out to recruit new people only once the previous one is left.
This is something that always hurt your business and contrary to this what I suggest is you have to become proactive in recruiting the right people for the right role in your business.
So, what does it mean to recruit proactively?
Let’s understand that :
- The moment an existing employee submits a resignation. You instantly put all your forces into action in finding a replacement.
- Do not stop at the first confirmation itself which means say you started recruiting for a role, you interviewed a couple of candidates and you offered one of them a role.
Now, most entrepreneurs stop recruitment at this stage while the reality is for small or medium enterprises there’s a huge difference between a person confirming to join your organization in a certain role to him or her actually turning up and actually joining in for that role.
The way I want you to operate is if you are looking out to hiring 1 role you at least select 2 people to come on board for that role. SO that by any chance either one of them doesn’t fit into the culture or does not fit into the role you will have the other one to bank on.
Now, this does not mean you tell both of them that you have been hired and confirm the way you execute this is that you tell them that you have been shortlisted for the role and we can get you started for the 30Day Trial if everything goes okay! We will convert the trial into a probation period and retain you full time and if by any chance either of us does not find a fit then you can part your ways and you will be paid for the 30 days of work that have been done.
What this essentially does is, this makes you fair and square with both the team members that you are getting on board that you are on trial, and if we find that you are fit for the role along with the culture of the company and then we can retain you.
So, both of them are aware that only after 30 days they will have the final confirmation whether they have been retained full time or not.
Mistake #2: Hiring For Tasks And Activities and not roles
This is another challenge for many small and medium enterprises is that they don’t see recruitment as role-based activities but rather task-based actions.
So, what do I mean by this?
Let me give you a simple example
For e.g.: Many Business owners come to my program workshop whenever I go through some marketing session many of them realize that they would need to start taking action in digitizing their business which means that they get to understand that google ads can work for them, maybe Facebook ads can work for them, maybe LinkedIn ads can work for them
Now the mistake they do is the moment that they get out of my workshop. They start hiring somebody who can run FB ads, or who can run google ads or someone who came run face book ads while the right approach to hiring is they need to hire a marketing executive or a marketing manager who will have skills and knowledge about running online advertisement.
Please understand the difference in approach I’m saying I want to hire a google ads guy versus I’m saying I Need to hire a digital marketing executive or media buyer.
Now when you are looking at hiring for a role you will have to define all the parameters of the role which means responsibility the person would have tasks and activities the person will perform, outcomes that the person will be responsible for
All these elements have to be very clearly defined in order for you to attract the right talent for this role.
Mistake #3: Hiring People within the personal network without mapping their ask
In 99% of the cases whenever a small business owner is unable to acquire the talent from the market they start digging into their personal network.
Many a time under desperation business owners tends to hire people within family or friends without actually mapping out their capabilities for the role. This Is one thing that really hurts them in the long run both professionally and personally and the reason is very clear. You hire under desperation only because you trust the person and the moment the person starts getting involved in the role for which you have hired. You get to understand that they do not possess the right skill, knowledge, and attitude and the result in performance are absolutely pathetic.
Now you get into an emotional dilemma whether to save the business or to save the personal relationship and because they are from a known network you are also not able to offer them constructive feedback in order to drive performance.
So the way I would suggest you approach this
- If at all you are hiring from a personal network check whether that particular friend or a family member has relevant skill, knowledge, and attitude in order to perform the role for which you want to hire them.
- If their capabilities are aligned with the role required you need to create ground rules for working in an office environment which means clearly defining the moment, we put a foot in the office we will be working professionals and there will be no special treatment or privileges offered what so ever because you are coming from a personal network. Setting this ground rule will really help you in a long way in grooming them offering them feedback and actual driving performance.
Mistakes #4: Not having multiple sources for recruitment
This is another mistake which I see many entrepreneurs make is they are more often reliant on a single course to recruit people while the reality is if you want to acquire good talent under the specific timeline which is the most crucial piece of doing effective recruitment you must and you must and you must and you must have multiple resources for recruiting people.
So what could be these possible sources?
- LinkedIn Job Portal
- Recruitment Consultant – Many business owners tell me sir I have already got RC and the answer that I have for them is that have 10-15 RC working for you so that each of them even if shares even a single per day will ensure that you have enough pipeline to shortlist candidates
- Job portals Like Naukri, Monster, indeed,
- Social Media Ads & Post
- Personal networks
- Employee Referrals
- Campus Recruitment
These are all different channels through which you can look at hiring the right talent under the right timeline in order for your business to run smoothly and actually thrive.
So
in conclusion, these are the 4 major mistakes that you as an entrepreneur must
avoid at all costs. In order to have an effective recruitment system in your
business.
Hope that helps
Cheers!!!!
