The right team is the key to building a successful company. When you're trying to grow your business, it's tempting to hire anyone who can do the job at hand, but if you want your team to take on new challenges and innovate as your company grows, it's important to find people with the right skill sets and experience levels. In this post, we'll walk through how to identify candidates who will thrive in your organization—and how best to vet them along the way.
Experience is important, but it's not everything.
When you're looking for new team members to expand your business, it's tempting to hire people with years of experience in their fields. While experience is certainly an asset, it isn't the only thing that matters when you're trying to build a strong team—and in some cases, it might not even be the most important. Instead of focusing solely on how much time someone has spent working in their field, consider other factors that indicate whether they'll make a good fit for your company's culture and values. This can include things like their values, attitude, personality and communication skills—all of which contribute to how well they'll work with others.
Consider a mix of expected and unexpected backgrounds.
One of the most important things to generally consider when hiring new team members is their skill set. You need someone who can do the job, but you also want a diverse group of people with varied backgrounds so that you have a variety of perspectives on your business and its goals. This helps give your company a broader perspective when it comes to making decisions. A lot of companies are finding success by creating teams with members from different fields: marketers who know how to write good copy, programmers who know how to build engaging websites, and project managers who can manage everything in between them all!
Be on the lookout for these red flags during interviews.
Dishonesty: There's no excuse for lying in a job interview. If a potential hire is not honest about their past experiences, or even the things that have happened in their lives, they will likely carry this negative trait into their job which could be costly for your business in the long run.
Lack of confidence: You want to hire confident people who believe in their abilities and can sell themselves as hardworking and productive employees.
Lack of knowledge on the job: Make sure that potential hires are familiar with all aspects of the position before hiring them! This includes knowing what duties are expected from them, what tools/equipment will be required for their tasks, etc.
Bad attitude: A bad attitude is one thing that won't fly at any company--even if it's a small business! If someone just seems like an overall grump who doesn't like other people or wants to work as a team, find someone else who likes working with others instead. They'll make everyone else happier too!"
Ask these questions to dig deeper.
The interview process is your chance to figure out if this individual would be a good fit for your company. The best way to do that is by asking questions that dig deep. You should consider asking questions like:
What have been your most rewarding work experiences?
What are your interests and hobbies outside of work?
How do you typically spend time with family members or friends on weekends?
What career goals do you have over the next five years? Ten years? Fifteen years? Twenty years or more down the line (if applicable). Have they changed since college graduation—and if so, how did they change, and why?
This would help you have a more holistic assessment of the candidate in order to make an informed decision.
Conclusion
Building a team is a lot like building a house. You need to start with the foundation and work your way up, making sure each level supports the one above it. By following these tips, you'd be able to hire more efficiently, ensuring that you are building a solid team to push your business forward.
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