3 Common Small Business Hiring Excuses and what to do about them

“If you think hiring professionals is expensive, try hiring amateurs.”

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”  Larry Bossidy

“If we weren't still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company.”  Bill Gates

"Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it." Henry David Thoreau

Small Business Owners generally aren’t good at hiring. Most believe they have more important things to do but unless you’re a one-man show and want to stay that way, there are a few things you may want to consider about hiring.

1.       Excuse: “I can’t afford to hire someone good.”

You can’t afford not to hire someone good.

Most Business Owners don’t think in terms of ROI when it comes to hiring. They’re generally more focused on whether they can afford it which is a function of available cash/cash flow. But hiring costs are typically just the tip of the iceberg:  training estimates of $ 10,000/employee are not unusual and can come from just taking an inordinate amount of the business owner’s time. But whether it be hiring or training costs, a more important consideration is how much the prospective employee {?] will attract or detract business/customers over the long term?  Because hiring an employee is not just a one-time expense, they’re an investment.

One company I work with hired someone to help them with their books and during the honeymoon phase they couldn’t have been happier. The new hire was fantastic! Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to figure out that while she was great when she was there, they couldn’t count on her to show up regularly. She turned out to be unreliable. Could they have found that out if they had done thorough reference checks? Probably but that presumes knowing how to get a reference to talk candidly. (Hint: be curious and ask a lot of open-ended questions such as, “What concerns did you have with the candidate?)

2.       Excuse:  “I’ll know it when I see it.”

Define employee requirements in terms of criteria and skills/attributes.

Small Business Owners are notoriously bad at defining what they need in prospective employees. You won’t find the perfect person (nothing and no one is perfect) but as long as there are people available who are a good fit then it’s just a matter of finding them.  Another business that I work with has been frustrated with the customer service their employees have been providing and plan to address it with training but they also know that they have some employees who don’t have what it takes. They understand that they want employees who can put customers at ease which is why they feel that an employee’s ability to easily engage in “chit chat” is essential. They’re considering how to test for that ability in an interview but are thinking they’ll just use some stall techniques prior to starting to see how easily and well the prospect engages with them. The criterion or objective is to put people at ease. The attribute or skill is the ability to engage people in short conversations. 

3.       Excuse: “The people I need don’t exist.”

Finding Good People that “Fit”.

Are you looking for people in the equivalent of a small pond? Business Owners frequently favour hiring by Word Of Mouth (WOM) or through their network. And while many people have large spheres of influence, it’s rarely bigger than the equivalent of a small pond. So they shouldn’t be surprised when they find they land the equivalent of a small pond fish. What’s nice about this method is there’s less likely to be a problem with culture-clash. Your network generally understands you and isn’t likely to propose someone who would violate your values. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they know anyone who has the skills you require. Maybe you don’t know where else to look and haven’t had great success with advertising. It doesn’t really matter. Always leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses so if you don’t have a great track record hiring then hire someone who does. You may not be the equivalent of great fisherman but there are those who are and they can help you land the big one if that’s what you’re after. It’ll cost you some money but if that’s what you have to have then it can be done and so too with finding good employees. Contracting a HR professional isn’t difficult and can make a very big difference.

Another Business Owner I work with did just that and couldn’t be happier with the result. She ended up with 2 new employees that she knows are head and shoulders above the quality of people she had hired previously and she believes the long term pay-off for her business will be “huge”.  And maybe, most importantly her stress levels are the lowest I’ve seen in a long time even though her business is bigger than it’s ever been before.

What Business Owner’s need to do to hire good people:

• Understand the criteria or objective you’re trying to achieve so you can define the skills/attributes you require for the position.
• Cast a large net/advertise where good candidates will notice you.
• Interview/test to discover if they have the abilities you require.
• Offer at least competitive pay.
• Ask yourself if you believe a prospective employee will attract or deter customers over the long term. Consider what their long term ROI will be.
• Do thorough reference checks.
• If you need assistance with any of the above, contract the services of a HR professional.