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October 10 2024
As organisations grow, it becomes imperative for the entrepreneur to hire external help. Partly because the increasing workload cannot be completely handled by him & his co-founders, and also because the growing complexity of the business requires a level of expertise that does not, as yet, vest within the organization.
complexity of the business requires a level of expertise that does not, as yet, vest within the organization.
Hiring the “right fit” person is therefore sine qua non for enduring success. Needless to say, it is possibly one of the biggest problems an entrepreneur faces.
How do you decide what is the right fit? Does it suffice to focus the hiring effort on the domain knowledge required for the job & get a person who squarely fits that bill? Will that guarantee success? Most likely, it will not. This is because there are 3 important criteria that need to be met by a potential hire, for him to be successful in his new role & thereby add enduring value to the company.
What are these criteria? The first one, is, of course, domain knowledge, that has been empirically demonstrated. No point in hiring a person who does not have the requisite expertise & track record. By track record, what is implied is successful stint/s in similar assignment/s elsewhere — success is demonstrated by the level of consistency in getting results. Needless to say, a consistent candidate would display a high degree of stability in his previous assignment/s & not be a “rolling stone”.
The next criterion that must be fulfilled is a high level of emotional quotient. Unless the person is able to understand & get along with the people he is working with, unless he is able to get work done from them in ways that minimize the usage of his executive authority, unless he is able to motivate them to put in their best, unless he is able to communicate effectively with them, he will not be able to perform effectively. Any lacuna on this important criteria will emerge a few months post the joining & will lead to serious issues at work.
The third criterion is cultural fitment. It is important that both the candidate feels “at home” in his new company & vice-versa, the entrepreneur also feels very comfortable with the candidate. This mutual comfort is an outcome of a seamless cultural fitment. The values of the company & of the candidate must sync. This is not to decry the importance of diversity, but at an early stage of the company, the cultural fitment of the initial set of employees is of critical importance. As & when the organization grows, it can consciously keep inculcating higher levels of diversity, that bring with it, its own set of advantages & challenges ( provided of course there are no deviations on the core values front).
Before getting into the selection process, the entrepreneur must keep in mind each of these three criteria & select the best-fit candidate who meets the same. There is no rocket science method available to ascertain how any candidate fares on each of these three criteria. This can only be ascertained through repeated sittings with the candidate. Never ever expedite a hiring process – this only increases the chances of costly errors. Take adequate time to probe the candidate on each of these three aspects & then make the hiring decision. As a rule of thumb, it takes at least 4 to 5 detailed interactions for mid-level hires. Needless to say, the more senior the position, the more the level of engagement required prior to the recruitment decision.
