Ready to create a stronger team? When hiring, don’t forget to set goals, look for cultural fits, and be clear about expectations.
Key takeaways:
- The people that make up your team matter—you need employees who are aligned around the business’s mission, so they stay engaged, collaborative, and productive
- Hiring the right team requires establishing a solid purpose and creating a thorough hiring strategy
Here are five tips for hiring the perfect team:
- Establish your purpose
- Create goals
- Craft a better hiring strategy
- Hire cultural fits
- Be clear about what you want
Your business won’t succeed without the right people working behind the scenes. You need to assemble a team that can align around a shared mission, maintain engagement and interest in their roles, and consistently improves. The bottom line depends on it, but so does customer satisfaction. Having the right people in the right places will help your company have a successful future.
This guide talks about why a strong team is important and gives five pro tips to help you hire the perfect team.
Why you need a strong team
Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. They keep operations running. They are the face of the business when interacting with customers and third parties. They are the company’s lifeblood, which couldn’t function without them.
But a strong team requires that people are aligned, engaged, and collaborative. For example, suppose an employee doesn’t align well with the business’s mission. In that case, they’ll feel disconnected from their job and perhaps even isolated, which leads to poor productivity and low job satisfaction. In addition, hiring employees who don’t have the suitable skill set or interest for their role will eventually lead to those same adverse outcomes.
On the other hand, when people are aligned with one another, excited about their work, and engaged with the business’s mission, they are happier and more productive. And those positive experiences ensure that the company continues to improve and grow.
Five Tips to Hire the Perfect Team
You know what the ideal scenario looks like for your team. But how do you hire the right people? Start with these five expert tips:
1. Establish the business’s purpose
Get serious about vision. First, it’s hard to do much of anything successfully if your business’s purpose isn’t clearly defined. What is it that you do, and why do you do it? Who do you do it for? Think about the core values that drive the business and what makes you unique from your competitors.
Once you understand the company’s values and purpose, they should be part of everything the business does, both internally and externally. This means knowing how to hire people who fit that purpose and ensuring the team operates according to that vision.
2. Create goals
Setting goals is always helpful, even if you know the kind of team you want to create. These goals should be clear, realistic, and actionable. Consider questions like:
- How many people do you need on your team?
- What is your hiring and recruiting budget?
- What is missing from your current team?
- What mistakes have you made with hiring in the past?
- What is your most important desired outcome?
- What metrics will tell you you’ve met your goals?
Make sure to involve other team members or departments in the goal-setting process. Stay open to feedback and be willing to adapt based on the results you see.
3. Craft a better hiring strategy
Your goals will help you create an effective hiring strategy. Outline who will do what in the hiring process, like reviewing applications or setting up interviews. Identify all current team members who will meet with candidates and train them on their role in hiring someone.
But more than the logistics, create steps to ensure you choose the right people. Have action items that each involved party can review before, during, and after interviews. For example, create a one-pager that educates everyone about aligning hires with the business’s mission. Give examples of questions people can ask in interviews. Provide tips to help people recognize an outstanding candidate who will fit in with the team.
4. Hire cultural fits
Sometimes assembling the right team begins with improving how you interview. Many hiring managers and business leaders get hung up on resumes. While experience is important for most positions, remember that personality, interests, career goals, and ideal work environment make a huge difference when hiring.
Ensuring someone is a cultural fit is one way to improve how you interview. Describe the company culture in your job descriptions and when talking with a candidate. Talk about the traits and characteristics you’re looking for in someone. Ask applicants how they would fit in with the culture and what’s most important to them at work. Train your current team on how to ask cultural fit questions in interviews.
5. Be clear about what you want
Unclear expectations can cause poor team dynamics. From the beginning, clarify what you’re looking for (and what you’re not looking for). Outline the expectations you have for the daily job duties, and include both hard and soft skills necessary for the role.
For example, clarify that the position requires close communication with customers and ask how each candidate feels about that responsibility. Don’t just assume that their experience on paper shows they can perform the job duties well. They may not understand their day-to-day life if you don’t tell them in the interview. Being transparent helps you avoid wasting time or putting the wrong person in the role.
List out your non-negotiables before you start looking at applications and interviewing. While cultural fits are essential for a great team, remember that you want to have some baseline for what you want and need in the role.
Chief of staff support with Chiefly Consultants
Whether you need help assembling a more robust team or need support to keep your business moving, Chiefly Consultants is here. Our fractional chiefs of staff help business leaders free up time to focus on growth while handling everything from administration to finance to technology to marketing.
Book a call with Chiefly Consultants today to learn more about working with our team of experts.
