Thinking about hiring your first team member, but not sure where to start? Today’s episode is for YOU. I’m chatting with leadership and hiring coach, Kaylan Thompson about how to prepare for and make your first hire. We talk about fears around hiring, how to not micromanage your team, who to hire first in your business, great interview questions and so much more!
Maybe you think this episode isn’t for you because you don’t want to hire yet.
I totally get it! Even if you’re not ready to hire right now, you can still start preparing your business for that future expansion and growth. We talk about exactly how in this episode, and I share an example of how I prepared to hire before actually doing the hiring.
[PLUS… listen to the intro to hear all about how I’m in Cabo this week with the team at Showit for some fun in the fun!]
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How to prepare your business in advance for future hiring
Not ready to hire your first employee? Can’t afford to hire someone yet? That’s okay! You can still be getting ready for that person NOW before the time actually comes.
It’s no secret that finances are at the top of the list of reasons why people aren’t hiring but Kaylan says that it is always the time to get ready to hire. She makes a great point in this podcast that if you don’t prepare for growth when you aren’t ready, you will find yourself in a place of hiring out of desperation. The need for help can quickly outweigh the need to take your time and prepare properly for that new team member.
Here are 2 key things you can do RIGHT NOW to start preparing for your first hire:
1. Open a savings account and put money away from every paycheck. Kaylan recommends that you have at least 3-6 months of the new employee’s pay saved before you make that first hire.
2. Prepare your onboarding now! Start paying attention to your standard operating procedures and record the process. To prepare my onboarding materials for my most recent hire, I created videos with Loom and documented the whole process with Process Street. Doing this allowed me to have a tool already created to hand over when I made that hire that was easy and always available for reference. Having processes documented helps you create a business where not everything relies solely on YOU. I’ve learned first hand in my business that many of the things I could have decided that “only I can do”, my team can actually do just as well or to the same standard I would have!
How to build a team that you don’t have to micromanage
Hiring people that you have to micromanage doesn't really help you. What helps you is to hire people who can take things off of your plate. I think it is really important to know what your zone of genius is and keep those ideas and tasks for yourself. You want to hire for things outside of this. In my business, I originally tried hiring people who did my EXACT zone of genius things — web design and branding. That was a mistake I learned from quickly. Instead, I needed to start with the MANY tasks in my business that were not what clients wanted to pay me for because it was my “zone of genius”.
Kaylan advises hiring high-level people and she gives some great tips on doing just that. To attract people who are high level, you want to make your job posting feel like a sales page. You are offering them a transformation. You don’t want to hire people who can just do a job. Listen to this episode to hear Kaylan dive deeper into why this is important and how to make your job posting attractive to high caliber applicants.
Important job application questions to ask
Here are a couple of my personal favorite job application questions. Although simple — these questions will tell you SO MUCH about a person! Tune into this episode to hear us talk more about what questions work for applications and why.
- The last book that you read that had an impact on you and why?
- What is something unique or interesting about yourself? (Basically, what makes you weird?!)
- I also love to ask applicants to take the Myer-Briggs and Enneagram personality tests and respond to the application with a screenshot of their results.
Important interview questions to ask
When I asked Kaylan about job interview questions, she talked about asking situational questions because they will make the person you are interviewing think in a different way and they are harder to prepare for. She suggested sharing your company values and asking questions around those to help create a connection and help you evaluate your interviewee on a deeper level.
- Share the core values of your business
- When was a time recently when you have seen yourself upholding one of these core values in your own life?
- What do you know about us?
- What makes you excited to want to work here?
- Can you paint me a picture of your average day?
- What is the ideal structure of your days?
- What are your personal core values?
- If we reached out to a previous employer, what would they say about you?
- If we reached out to a previous teammate, what would they say about you?
Don’t miss this episode to hear all of Kaylan’s wisdom on the questions you should be asking as you interview for your first hire!
Links to things mentioned:
Listen to the Breakthrough Brand Podcast
Connect with Elizabeth on Instagram
Connect with Kaylan on her website
Connect with Kaylan on Instagram
Listen to Kaylan's Podcast “The Joy to Lead Podcast”
Loom: Free Screen & Video Recording Software
Process Street: Checklist, Workflow and SOP Software
“Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business” by Gino Wickman Book on Amazon
February 4, 2020
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