Tom Ball, the founder of communications strategy leader Cognac, explains why "finding the right people for your team is the number one priority/ problem an entrepreneur faces. When it's right it's the best thing; when it's wrong it's the worst thing. My favourite recruitment quote is 'hiring great people is really really easy. Don't hire good people."
"It's critical when you are building your business that you have the patience to never hire 'good enough people'. It can be so tempting when you are desperate for someone; when say, you've been waiting for 2 months and you really need to fill the role and there's someone who could probably do the role and be alright and their CV is fantastic...DON'T DO IT! Wait for the perfect candidate! You can normally go through at least 50 candidates to find the perfect one! Remember it's the double whammy, the perfect person must fit the company and the role. Never satisfy yourself with 'good'."
If departments within your company consist of a team with one or two superstars and the rest are all average then you need to fire the average ones. Your team should only consist of superstars. Do not waste your time with anyone else.
Why is this? Superstars will always distance themselves from mediocre performance and therefore you'll never have an effective team consisting of a mix of abilities. If your team consists of only superstars then they will gel as a team and the team will work together as a unit. The major benefits of this are smoother movement towards targets, overcoming obstacles, and it accelerates and prolongs forward momentum.
Over the past two years, with the economy in the doldrums, I have heard many managers happily state the recession has been a blessing in disguise because they have been able to prune the "dead wood" of their teams. They shouldn't be happy – they should be ashamed that they made so many bad hiring decisions in the first place. Many firms simply put "bums-on-seats" to increase short term revenue. This is a terrible reason to hire bad people.
Where can you find outstanding staff?
So what can you do to get it right? The most effective way of getting a great performance from your team is to hire the best people in the first place. You need people that can demonstrate commerciality, a competitive attitude, intelligence, excellent interpersonal and communication skills, tenacity, energy and confidence.
Never hire anyone with poor academics unless they have a very good reason. Never hire know-alls. Never hire anyone who doesn't impress you within the first few minutes of meeting them. Never hire anyone who is mediocre, or who has never been outstanding at anything in their lives. In fact the only thing that should be going through your mind throughout the entire recruiting process is "is this person good enough to work for us?"
The first place to find new team members is from your existing team members. Ask who they know. Offer a referral reward. If one of your staff is recommending someone then he or she is putting their reputation on the line in recommending a friend, which usually means they are good.
Your competitors also have great staff that you can poach. If you are uncomfortable with headhunting then ask a recruiter to do it for you. Alternatively you can identify candidates and make contact via Linked In, or ask your clients if they can recommend anyone.
Keep in touch with former employees that you considered great. When you speak with them ask if they want to return. They might not come back right away but they may further on down the line so keep lines of communication open.
Identifying staff is one thing, attracting them is another. You can attract the best people and encourage them to stay longer by describing just how you can assist them in their long-term career goals. Such assistance comes in two varieties – a move up the ladder in your business or the opportunity to improve their skills through additional educational courses or expansion of his/her skills in adjacent work areas, which makes the employee a more valuable part of your team and reinforces their employability for other businesses.
On a company level you must present your company at all times as one with good growth potential. If the employee feels there is somewhere to go he/she will strive to get there.
Advertise where your employees will see the advert. Sounds obvious but when I am recruiting a Finance Director for a client I have never failed to fill the vacancy if I advertise in the Financial Times. When I have not advertised in the FT, usually because the fee level doesn't give sufficient budget for the advertising cost, my fill success is reduced and money aside, the length of time it takes to fill the vacancy dramatically increases so saving money on the fee is a false economy when you have a business critical vacancy.
Make adverts exciting. You are selling your company and the position and if it sounds mediocre you won't get a good response.
Retaining staff
Once you get good staff on board retaining them is the next step. The first reason people stay with a business is the working environment. This is often overlooked in favour of remuneration and benefits but whilst money is obviously very important to an employee, enjoyment is far more important. Contributing factors of the quality of the working environment are a team of people who get along, noise levels, temperature, ventilation, lighting, colour and location. On the money and benefits side, pay people well. Benefits I have come across include pensions, commissions, bonus', profit share, mobile telephones, life assurance, gym membership, season ticket loans, paid-for lunches, company holidays, company car, child day care, tuition fee assistance, company discounts, health care, dental care, and days off for volunteering. My philosophy on retention of staff is to remove as many reasons to leave as possible. I provide the very best offices I can in the best location I can afford; pay better than anyone else in the market and offer the best perks.
Team Development
The first step in developing a team is to ensure both the individuals and the team as a whole know what to do and in which direction they are going in terms of day to day activity, and end goal and performance. Without clear expectations, individuals and teams will not have the direction that they need to be successful. Provide Each Team Member with a Job Description, an Organizational Chart, and an outline of targets and performance goals. The Job Description should detail the employee's duties, specific accountabilities, as well as the manner in which that position interacts with the other members of the team. Collectively, these documents should help eliminate any confusion or misunderstandings concerning each person's accountabilities as either an individual or a team member and should help clarify each team member's role and how the team members should interact with each other and work as a single, functioning unit.
Regular team meetings are a must. They are critical to setting and supporting the team's and company's expectations. At these meetings you should review work carried out, reinforce expectations, share achievements and create new directions. They are also a great opportunity to build team relationships and trust.
Make sure information and updates are freely available. Create newsletters, videos, and web pages for employees to share news and achievements and to reinforce expectations.
Provide an environment that equips the members of the team to successfully undertake and fulfill the role. Provide internal and external training as and when required to bridge skills gaps whether those gaps are of a technical, sales or people skills nature. Continuing education can play an important role in developing a strong team and retaining staff. Employees rarely change jobs before an educational course has been completed and if you have provided monetary study support then leaving before this is paid back to the company is even rarer.
Create an environment that encourages employees to take ownership in their own and their team's performance. Such an environment should also reward the team members when certain goals are achieved. You might have a formal employee recognition program. These are an effective method for fostering an environment of reward and encouragement. The program should focus on objective measures so that it is consistent from one employee to the other and should be designed to encourage employees to deliver on the values and standards of the business. The program should have employee ownership, such as an employee committee that oversees its conduct. The rewards provided by the program should be relevant to the employees, not merely what management feels the employees would value.
Leadership
A great team requires a great leader. A leader should be consistent, strong minded and able to make decisions for the company irrespective of personal risk. A leader should make what needs to be done clear and employees should know what they need to get done. But they should not just be told what to do, they need to understand why they are doing it and they need to buy in to the direction. Leaders should develop the leadership skills of their team because companies are not run by individuals. Developing the leadership qualities of the team is one of the most important tasks of a leader.
But the most important task of all should be the encouragement of employees and thanking them regularly for a "job well-done". People value positive recognition above almost anything else.
Team Size
Small teams, in general, work better and more collaboratively. It is simply easier to communicate in smaller groups. Members of large and in particular complex, teams are less likely to share knowledge freely, to help one another, to meet deadlines and to share resources.
However it is not always possible to keep teams small and to achieve success with a larger team there are several things you can do to encourage cooperation and collaboration. Firstly encourage communication. For example encourage group emails and networking (especially across corporate boundaries) and ensure your work space is open plan. Support a strong sense of community to encourage knowledge sharing. Make sure the senior management demonstrate collaborative behaviour to encourage the team as a whole to do so. Encourage mentoring, coaching and training. Make sure every member of the team knows what to do – define their role.
Theo Paphitis, TV Dragon, investor and retail guru is never short of praise for the teams he works with, "I've always been fortunate to work with great people and without them I couldn't scale my business. You could be the best salesman or most creative person in the world but if you can't scale your business then it becomes a cottage industry. To scale you need to find the right people to work with you, who you can give responsibilities to and delegate to, knowing that they will get the job done. A great team behind you is key to success, never forget that fact."
Fitting In
The brightest or most skilled team members may not be your best. How an individual fits on the team is the most important dimension. This is very difficult. You are balancing skills, ego and strong wills. Strong egos may work for a period of time, but building a truly enduring team requires members who thrive in a team environment and in this environment egos don't work. Great, enduring companies are built by teams of people who continue to learn and evolve faster than other companies; and humility and self-criticism is critical for anyone to truly learn.
Paul Barry-Walsh, CEO of Fredricks Foundation says that "people who compliment your skills are vitally important. Know yourself, know your short-comings and try and find people who compliment those. If you're a fearless folly type, then maybe you need a solid administrator or if you are a cautious person, maybe you need some who is a little more adventurous"
"It is as important to understand your own skills and your short-comings in an honest way as it is to understand what other people will bring to a team, you need a balance of skills."
