As the economy is getting stronger, many companies are growing. Some are growing steadily and some are growing rapidly. As you can imagine, employers face several issues on a regular basis, without the concern of company growth. Therefore, growth can cause an immense amount of stress when added to other day-to-day operations. Oftentimes, rapid growth requires business owners to bring on several employees at one time and do so immediately. While many people look at growth as a good thing, the struggles associated with growth seem to go unnoticed. Below are three examples of issues or hiring challenges that come with being “the boss” during a time of growth.
Hiring Challenges Example One: Fitting the Culture
Creating a “culture” is critical to any successful company, both large and small. I’ve experienced both sides of the spectrum. Having worked in a few settings that had great organizational culture and a couple of experiences working within a terrible organizational culture. With bringing someone new to a team, you should want to make sure they have similarities with the current team members. These similarities can be education, skills, thinking, after-hour activities, and interests. This will create a more friendly environment in the office. It’s difficult to make sure that a candidate has the same line of thinking as members of the current team. In order to determine if a candidate does, it is imperative to evaluate soft skills in addition to hard skills.
Example Two: Finding the Right Person
Most employers hire with the position in mind and are looking for someone to fill that position with the exact experience they think fits their needs. This is fairly common in job placement. However, they should also consider looking for a “steal.” A candidate that could potentially be a superstar around the office and bring more to the table than what was originally expected of them. This concept will come in handy when dealing with large projects. The greater the project demands, the more opportunity for obstacles and trials to arise. Hiring someone who is not only skilled but flexible in other areas, gives your company an advantage. This employee will demonstrate and possess all of the desired skills but is able to adapt to the various unexpected changes of any task. Finding this type of person can definitely prolong the screening process.
Example Three: Employee Retention (Losing an Employee/Hiring an Employee)
Due to the economy’s sudden recovery trend, employee retention is now becoming a huge issue for employees in major industries. Retention is directly related to turnover and there are many costs associated with turnover. Turnover rates in industries like retail, customer service, and hospitality are 30-40%. Many studies show that the total cost of losing an employee can reach tens of thousands of dollars to more in annual salaries.
Consider the “real cost” of losing an employee:
Let’s examine some of the real costs of hiring a new employee. Think about the financial obligations it cost to hire for a new position. Advertising, interviewing, screening, training, and management time can eat up your company’s budget. Along with the monetary aspect of hiring for a new position, an employer must also consider the production time lost as a new employee gets acclimated to his or her new position and office. While the new employee is getting acclimated, beware of your pre-existing team member’s disapproval of the “new guy,” and you expect some disengagement and loss in productivity from that aspect as well. Don’t forget about your customers. They take a hit as well when it comes to hiring a new employee for a position. Because the employee is new, he or she takes longer to complete tasks and is often less adept at solving problems for this particular client.
Experiencing Hiring Challenges?
Are you experiencing these or similar hiring challenges? Faced with an unexpected boom in business and are looking to fill or create new positions? You should consider hiring a staffing firm like ours. The above examples are reasons why many organizations use staffing agencies. Learn more about our staffing services here. We also have a page that lists all available job openings. Contact us to get started today!
