When to hire?

When to hire?

Professional development series

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.

In the recent interview with Steve Wynkoop (founder of SSWUG.org) we covered the “hiring” topic (don’t miss another professional newsletter tip—signup for the free newsletter here). This article covers the topic in more detail.

In today’s tight economy, many employers are under financial strain.  They need additional staff and resources to get the products and services out the door, so that they can expand and sell more products.  On the other hand, ‘right now’ money is tight to hire new employees.   Because of this dilemma, many  businesses wait much too long to hire and fail because of this.

So – when is the right time to hire?

The simplest answer to this complex question is: “When the important work isn’t getting done.”
There will always be an abundance of work on our plates.  But when we see that the MUST DO tasks are not getting done at the quality, accuracy or speed that our business needs to be successful – then we need to reevaluate where we are placing our resources.  We need to constantly focus on the business goals, mission and vision (versus being distracted from the everyday items).

For instance – if the ‘nice-to-have’ items are getting done; instead of the MUST DO – there are several things we can do:
1)      Reposition resources from the ‘nice-to-have’ items and onto the MUST DO.
2)      Train inside personnel to move onto MUST DO items
3)      Contract help for a short-term to close the gap on the MUST DO.  This is useful if it’s a temporarily blip or gap.
4)      Replace/retrain ineffective personnel (Performance Improvement Plan or PIP).  This is useful if the MUST DO is fully staffed but just not being executed effectively.
5)      Place ineffectual employee on a PIP plan and subsidize with a temp-to-hire personal.  If PIP fails, you can convert the temp-to-hire. (For more information on how to implement a PIP, contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info )
6)      Add additional staff, if you have the funds and time to interview.
7)      Outsource or hand-off to business partner/affiliate, if you don’t have the funds or time to interview/train.

Hiring isn’t always the silver bullet.

Quick steps to move forward:
1)      Identify the staffing gap (clarify the business goals that are not getting accomplished).
2)      Outline the skill set and time frame needed for the gap.
3)      Research alternative ways to fill that gap that fit your budget and time frame.

Conclusions:
Don’t wait until the last minute to hire a candidate that requires training.  Merely hiring someone will not solve the problem.   When you hire, you ultimately increase administration tasks, expenses and learning curves.  The delay caused by the inevitable learning curve places additional financial and morale strain at the workplace. Consider your natural business cycle with hiring.  If you are hiring in a spike consider more qualified candidates.  If you are hiring during the slow season and are ramping up for your next spike, then you have time to train someone less experienced. If you don’t have time or money to hire, consider outsourcing or handing-off to business partners/affiliates with a referral revenue plan.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/
The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies
If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info