Never rush to make a hiring decision just because you need a body to fill a position. It can be ruinous for a small business if they make the wrong hiring decision. Most small businesses cannot afford to upset their business by introducing the wrong employee.
What I’m primarily looking at is cultural fit. You can train someone if they re lacking skills but you can’t mold them to fit your culture. Maybe IBM can afford to do it, but you can’t so don’t even try.
Along those lines if someone is not working out get rid of them during their probationary period. If you don’t get rid of them then you have to follow the whole write up process which can be difficult and very bad for company morale. You are better off letting the person go and paying them severance then having them around.
I know that some of you are concerned about the person and how it will affect them. As an owner you have one life that is of utmost importance and that is the life of your company. If you have cancer in a body you cut it out before it spreads. The wrong hire / employee is a cancer. That cancer will spread if it is not cut out.
Listen before you try to tell me that it’s tough to fire someone; I fired my Dad, fired one of my best friends and had to lay off my older sister six weeks before her wedding. So don’t try to tell me that it’s tough. Actually you should fire a family member. Everyone else is pretty simple after you’ve done that. They all knew that it wasn’t personal primarily because I explained why it had to happen. The friend that I fired has thanked me and currently I am providing him with consulting services.
The key is that the most important thing in your company is the productivity of your people. If you have a bad apple who’s going around stirring things up that is undermining your productivity and undermining your as a manager.
Since we’re talking about hiring slower here’s another important point: Don’t get too excited because someone has a big resume from a big company. Big companies have systems and tools in place that you will never have in your small business. I remember when I was just starting one of my companies we had a guy that we were interested in as a project manager. We were getting ready to hire him when he let us know that he would need this extremely expensive project management tool because he had never managed a project without it. Needless to say we went with someone with a bit more versatility.
