For a marketing team, finding the right people is one of, if not the most crucial part of, developing a strategy for success. Even if you have a great vision that could lead to great things, it is pointless without great people to execute that vision. Now, the difficult part is finding the right people. Here are two great concepts to consider when hiring new employees for a small business.
The first is what is known as the bus principle, a concept developed by Jim Collins. Think of your business as a bus. You have specific seats on the bus for specific functions: social media, content, sales support, digital, etc. Each of these seats needs to be filled by the right person who excels at that specific function. If an employee in the social seat is better suited in digital, move him. If he does not want to ride the bus any longer or does not fit in any seat, get him off the bus.
To sum this concept up, it comes down to having the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seat. Focus on who is on the bus before solidifying where the bus is going. And sometimes if you can't find the right person for a specific seat on the bus, looking to external marketing agencies like Apex One.
The second idea is to look beyond the potential employee’s résumé and look at what drives them and where their values lie. Some of the best employees do not have a strong résumé or are recent college graduates with little to no experience in the field of business. This doesn’t mean they will not fit or perform well, what this means is they haven’t had the opportunity to yet.
Finding employees with similar core values to that of the company, added with a strong desire to exceed, is a win-win for both parties. Skills and technique can be taught, but values and drive are established and ingrained long before the interview and are difficult to change. Probe the interviewee with questions less about what they have done and more about what they aspire to do and their personal interests. Employees that match the company on this level are the right people to have on the bus.
How do you find the right people? Do you prefer to outsource to experts? Let us know!