A Tale of Two Hires: which one are you?
Let's get a bit Dickensian today and talk about a tale of two businesses.
Business 1:
Firm of about 20 people with annual revenues in the multiple 7-figs. Considered a home-grown success story, this firm has struggled to recruit staff fast enough to keep up with the growth of their top line revenue.
It recently hired a senior team member and the results have been lackluster. Some technical gaps, some fit gaps, and some general miscommunications have made this team member not feel like a successful hire.
The team member’s future with the firm is up in the air right now.
Business 2:
Firm of about 8 people with annual revenues just under $1M. Definitely another SK success story with goals to continue to grow over the next few months and hit that 7-fig milestone with ease.
It needed to completely rebuild one branch of its biz. Spent about a month getting clear on the required functions/job description to be filled, then recruiting, screening, interviewing and preparing for the arrival of their senior team member.
This team member arrived and, after an initial onboarding and training process, is now meeting all of the milestones the owner dreamed of.
Why should you care about these two stories?
✅ Well, both businesses are successful and very much in the ‘growth’ phase.
✅ Both businesses needed to hire a senior team member.
✅ Both business owners are very smart.
✅ But one hire worked out and one failed big time.
The difference? Planning.
When I hear stories where hiring didn’t quite work, my first thought is:
“Yeah, but is the team member not working out because (1) they’re truly not as good as their resume made them out to be OR (2) did you just not prep for their arrival and actually set them up with clear milestones so the plan for their first 3 months was crystal clear?"
In my experience, most of the time, it’s the latter...
Hiring is so much more than putting up an ad on Indeed, sorting through some resumes, and having a 10min welcome meeting on the new hire’s first day.
Internally, we use a combo of 3 docs when supporting clients with integrating a new team member to help action part of their strat plan.
One of the most effective docs we use is called a 30/60/90 Plan.
As the name suggests, this doc goes through the first 3 months of the individual’s role and identifies the key objectives, actions and activities that ideally a new hire will accomplish.
In my experience, this doc has been key to giving new hires the best chance of success.
Small caveat - anyone who has ever done any HR work will know that not every hire is a perfect hire. Sometimes we do all the prep possible and things still don’t work out. That’s life.
But doing some extra leg work - like the 30/60/90 Plan - will give you a MUCH higher chance of making your next hire a success whether your revenues are $200k/yr or $2M/yr.
And I’m putting on my Santa cap today so if you’d like a copy of this template, send me an email, tell me the ‘job title’ of who you’re looking to hire next, and I’ll send it over later today.
Take care and talk soon,
Tanya