Expanding your team with new hires is exciting, but it can also be daunting. You might be eager to get new talent in your organization, but acting strategically to make the right moves at the right time will be your best bet for long-term success and employee retention.
If you’re trying to figure out how to establish a concrete hiring process, you also need to know when not to act.
Here are five reasons to hold off on a new hire.
1. You Don’t Have the Position Mapped out
The beginning of your established hiring process is crucial to its overall success. If you aren’t working to fully understand a position before hiring for you, you are more likely to hire the wrong person.
Benchmarking before you begin the hiring process is the smartest way to approach potential candidates. That way, everyone involved in the hiring process has a strong sense of what you’re looking for and, just as importantly, what you’re not looking for, clearly defining the role.
2. Your Team Is Feeling Pressure to Hire ASAP
If your organization has recently lost a crucial team member, you might be feeling pressure to just ‘fill the seat’ and hiring someone quickly. This can lead to cutting corners in the hiring process, skipping essential steps like benchmarking, and ultimately will mean missing out on a dream candidate because you hired the first eligible job applicant.
Don’t just hire to fill the seat! The top priority of surveyed recruiters in 2021 has been to improve the quality of hires, according to Finances Online.
Hiring the wrong person will affect the engagement and productivity of your entire team. (If you want to know the financial cost of a bad hire, use our calculator here.)
If you’re feeling desperate to fill a gap, consider hiring a freelancer in the meantime while you find the correct full-time team member. You want to be active, not reactive in your hiring strategy.
3. You Can’t Guarantee Payment and Benefits
This is going to sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many businesses don’t think this through: If your business is struggling with cash flow or you haven’t already budgeted for the position, it’s not the right time to hire. You shouldn’t be considering candidates until you’re ready to offer them not just what they need, but what they want.
Benefits like flexibility, remote work opportunities, and extended PTO will draw in top talent, as well as standard benefits like healthcare and family leave. You need to consider the total package when putting benefit packages in place. If you don’t, your competition will, and they’re going to get rewarded with better candidates.
4. There Are Ethical or Legal Issues in Your Organization
This issue can get complex quickly, so you need to be sure to handle it right. If there are issues in your organization like sexual harassment, discrimination or any other serious ethical conflict, you’re going to experience turnover.
If someone just quit over one of these issues or you had to terminate an employee as a result of this kind of conflict, you can’t expect a quick turnaround for the position. It’s time to get to the root of the issue and resolve it before adding another person to your team!
Take this time as an opportunity to correct any critical issues before moving forward. Conduct a full investigation with your human resources department and any people involved to ensure that your workplace is as safe as possible for all team members.
Are there deeper issues with the company culture than initially anticipated? Do you prioritize an inclusive and diverse work environment? You need the answers to these questions before you expand your team.
5. Your Company Culture Is Unstable
While this issue is less tangible than the others listed here, it’s just as important for your organization. Your company culture needs to be accurately defined, actionable, and applicable to the daily experiences of your workers or else it’s not doing its job.
Company values, mission statements, big picture vision statements, and daily environment and atmosphere are all crucial pieces to the puzzle that is company culture. If you don’t know who you are as an organization, you can’t fully and accurately map out where you’re going.
Questioning company culture is a net positive for your company’s current and future success. Each member of your team contributes to the overall culture of your organization, so make sure you know what you’re doing before adding to your team! A strong foundation will help you get on the right track and stay there.
Make the Right Hiring Decisions the First Time
Hiring should be an exciting and strategic move forward for your company. Thinking before you leap will help save your organization money in the long run, as well as ensure you’re making the right choices to increase engagement, retention and productivity.
Are you interested in using TTI SI’s tools to amp up your hiring process?
We can help. Contact us here to learn more about using assessments to find dream job candidates, improve company culture, and more.
