Having a dream team of exceptional employees is an incredibly valuable asset to your business – and it is entirely possible to achieve.
Assembling such a team requires:
- Understanding your company’s culture.
- Following a sound process for hiring and assimilating new people into your organization.
- Patience.
- Resolve.
Culture
Getting the right people “on the bus” in your business begins with understanding your company’s culture, because different people thrive in different types of cultures. The best people for your business must of course have the knowledge, skills and abilities for what you need them to do, but assembling your dream team is also about “the right fit”. Employees who are comfortable and thriving in their environment will be more energetic, productive, dedicated, capable of coming up with ideas, etc.
Every company’s culture is unique. It is driven by a combination of values and beliefs about what’s most important for the company, its customers and employees; underlying assumptions about how people should do their jobs; the prevailing attitude throughout the organization; how people behave; what type of language people use; and how the organization makes decisions.
It is important to understand your company’s culture before embarking on a hiring process, because it will inform your efforts to develop a profile of the type of people you want to hire.
Process
Companies that assemble outstanding teams follow a methodical hiring process. At Client First Associates, we recommend and help our clients in taking these steps:
- Develop a written job description so that you are sure of the functions you need to have done, as well as the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform them. The job description also provides the candidates with the information they need to determine whether to apply for the position. A well written job description should attract a quality group of candidates.
- Write the employment ad that will be used to advertise the position. Be sure to use the key elements of the job description and provide an idea of the company culture. The ad should sound exciting and attractive but must also ring true to culture.
- Create a top performer profile using the job description and your knowledge of company culture. We also recommend employing an interpersonal communication style evaluation tool in your organization. If you do so, then you’ll know what communication style works best and you can incorporate that information into your profile. We use the Forte Institute evaluation tool.
- Create a hiring team to interview and evaluate all candidates. It is imperative that you involve more than just yourself in the process to not only gather additional perspectives on the candidates but also to engender buy- in from your team about your new person once he or she is on board.
- Develop a list of interview questions. Having a pre-set list ensures that you ask everything you need to ask and that you ask all candidates the same questions. Doing so will get you all the information you need and will help you to compare candidates.
- Hold “phone screen” interviews with the candidates you’re interested in. This enables you to query as many as you’d like without incurring the time and costs of many face to face interviews.
- Based on the phone screen interviews, decide with your team who you want to bring in for face to face interviews.
- Conduct your face to face interviews. All team members should interview all candidates. We recommend doing so in a group setting.
- Based on these interview results, decide with your team who you want to have return for a second and final interview. This should be your top 2 or 3 candidates.
- Conduct a Forte (or other) interpersonal communication style evaluation on each of your finalists.
- Based on the results of the final interviews and the Forte evaluation, work with your team to decide on your top candidate.
- Conduct a background check on your top candidate.
- Extend your offer.
- Create and execute a detailed 3-month orientation program. The orientation plan is as important as the hiring process itself. When you hire a person into your business, you are entering into a psychological contract with them. You have described the job, the company, and the culture. Your candidate/hire has described their ability to do the job and desire to work for your company. You have each determined that it’s the right fit. You need to make good on your part of the contract by helping the new person become oriented and by giving them the information they need to do the job the way you want it done. Creating and adhering to a detailed orientation plan and spending time with new employees is an investment in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Patience
In order to make your dream team of exceptional employees a reality, you must have patience to:
- Follow the recruitment processes. It may seem involved, but it will pay off and the more you do it the more you’ll appreciate it
- Wait until you find the right person for the position. Do not settle. The right person is worth waiting for
- Devote the time to orient and train your new hires to facilitate their contribution to the whole organization and ignite their energy, attitude and excitement about becoming an exceptional team member and working with other exceptional team members
Resolve
This is the tough part, but it is critically important. In order to have your dream team, you must commit to mandating an exit strategy for anyone who does not have the knowledge, skills and abilities to do the job the way you need it done and/or who does not fit with the culture of the organization.
If you have any questions about this white paper, contact Mike Vann at the Vann Group. The Vann Group is a business advisory firm that assists companies in transition to unlock their value. We provide practical business counsel to transitional companies through a customized approach that is founded upon our passion for business and our family′s 150+ year entrepreneurial track record. No other firm can provide the breadth and depth of services like the Vann Group, including strategic planning and business development, merger and acquisition advisory services, leadership succession planning, organizational development consulting, and crisis and turnaround management.
