Finding the right talent to help you grow your company. Part I

No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. John Donne, Poet, Cleric 1624

Can you grow a company by yourself?

Depending on the type of business, maybe you could, yet you would likely need to outsource the scheduling, the billing, and the financial accounting. You would still need to develop a recruiting and hiring plan, and recruiting the right employees is the most important thing you can do as you build your company. The question is do you have the skills and the training to find the best?

Critical to your success is knowing what you are looking for when it comes to staffing. The challenge is always the same whether you own a small or large company, how are you going to be able to afford to recruit and pay for the talent you need? Maybe you can only hire a half a person or a contract employee to start and then build.

Thirty years ago, one of my responsibilities was to improve the quality of our maintenance department by hiring a new department head. I will never forget it, we developed a job description and recruited (then by putting an ad in the newspaper, today you post on the internet). We hired a great leader.

I was happy until it came time to pay the monthly bills and we did not have enough money to cover payroll. We were a fifteen (15) person company at the time. It was a transition time in our company, and up to that point I did not realize I needed access to the financial statements. The accounting was being handled by another member of our staff. I had not planned ahead, and we were in trouble.

I had to make an immediate decision to balance the cash flow of our operation. I was forced to let that highly paid person go and make other cuts in operations and benefits to “right-size’ our income and expenses. It was a nightmare, but looking back, that experience informed my decision making as a leader.

Moving forward, we changed our procedures and budgeted for staffing additions ahead of time, generating the income before we needed it. The adage “if you build it, they will come”, i.e. if you build the infrastructure or add staff, the business will magically show up is just not true. Running a business is a financially disciplined process.

How to set the hook

As you develop a budget and job description for your new position you need to understand how that person will fit in the company.

Why would someone come to work for you? For money, your shared vision, ability to grow in the job, independence (no micromanagement) or self-actualization?

Figure this out by translating the company vision into terms that make sense to the hire. For example, your goal is to sell pumps to farmers. You need a person to handle customer service for you. They need to understand that if they do a great job business will grow, and if business grows you can pay them more. (Your vision is to sell 200 pumps this year, up from 150 pumps last year as part of your plan to sell 500 pumps a year, in two more years.) You have fair compensation but lack benefits. You try to make it up by paying profit share at the end of the year.

Hiring the right person is very tricky. The more skilled they are, the tougher it gets. After thirty-five years of hiring, I have made my share of good hires and bad hires. It’s a little tougher now, because so many jobs are hybrid, which makes it more difficult to supervise, train and work together when people are not in the office with you, even with advances in technology.

You can teach Industry specific skills, but you can’t teach good attitude. You will be better off if you hire a person that wants to work with you and succeed, this is the first step. You can always afford to invest in your team to improve their skills. Though you may have some minimal skill requirements, for example, typing 45 -55 WPM and understanding common software for office related jobs. I want to trust my team, so good ethical behavior is critical, reliability and punctuality also go a long way as well.

You know your company the best. For each position prepare a set of pre-interview and interview questions and a list of minimal skills necessary to be successful in a job. You don’t need a mountain of questions, just enough to get your head around the candidate. In the interview process . Be prepared to have the potential employee interview you as well. Start your interview with a summary of the history of the company, and current successes. Be prepared to shed light on who you are and the company culture. Paint a picture of the future of the company and their potential role in that future.

Your positive energy, clear vision, flexibility to work remotely set a clear standard. Your charisma and clarity of task and vision for your hiring managers will make it easy for you to recruit a well-qualified staff member as well.

As applicants share your vision they can become part of your growth infrastructure, because they understand where you want to go, and they see a clear link of their contribution to the success of the company.

Where to find and recruit talent, a short check list.

• Use candidate profiles or develop a job description.

• A candidate profile is an overview of the ideal candidate for an organization's open job position. This includes necessary skills and abilities to be successful at the job.

• Create a recruitment plan.

• A recruitment plan can help you ensure that you’re hiring individuals who have the qualifications and skills necessary for a specific job.

• Use an applicant tracking system, like Zoho or Jobscan, or LinkedIn

• An applicant tracking system can help you sift through résumés and find qualified candidates and track applications and speed up the process of setting interviews and rejecting candidates.

• Be visible and talk to people, tell them when you have an opening.

• Recruit from local trade schools and colleges.

• Ask friends and family.

• Hire a headhunter.

• Place a posting with a job description and requirements on your company website.

• Use social media.

• Social media recruitment can help connect with a larger pool of potential candidates and speed up the recruitment process. Tools like: Test Gorilla, Gohire, Recruitee, LinkedIn, Facebook, Indeed, and Monster.

• Use keywords.

• When searching for candidates on LinkedIn for example, consider the role keywords play in your search efforts. Keywords can refer to the job title itself along with the location.

• If you have an HR department, have them do the heavy lifting for you.

• If you outsource your HR needs and have them assist in the recruitment process.

Summary

Whether you are responsible for a one-person company or a leader of many, the rules are the same. You need to find employees who will embrace your message and find your message compelling. You don’t want to hire sycophants ( Yes people, that only tell you want you want to hear) it serves no purpose and does not help you solve problems that your clients might have. Hiring good staff is not easy. Read part II of this article to learn how to recruit.

Clifford A. Hockley, CPM, CCIM, MBA

 Cliff is a Certified Property Manager® (CPM) and a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM). Cliff joined Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services 1986 and successfully merged that company with Criteria Properties in 2021 to establish Bluestone Real Estate Services.

 He has extensive experience representing property owners in the sale and purchase of warehouse, office, and retail properties, as well as mobile home parks and residential properties. Cliff’s clients include financial institutions, government agencies, private investors and nonprofit organizations. He is a Senior Advisor for SVN| Bluestone.

 Cliff holds an MBA from Willamette University and a BS in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College. He is a frequent contributor to industry newsletters and served as adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he taught real estate related topics.

 Cliff is the author of two books 21 Fables and Successful Real Estate Investing; Invest Wisely Avoid Costly Mistakes and Make Money, books that helps investors navigate the rough shoals of real estate ownership. He is the managing member of a real estate consulting practice, Cliff Hockley Consulting, LLC. designed to help investors and commercial brokerage owners successfully navigate their business.  He can be reached at 503-267-1909, Cliffhockley@outlook.com or Cliff.Hockley@SVN.com.