10 tips for a small business owner hiring in a challenging labour market.

With unemployment in Australia at 3.4% in August 2022, and the prospect of it reducing further, getting your hiring process right is even more important!

Here are some tips to help minimise fuck-ups in hiring:

Be crystal clear on the role, tasks and skills required - have a solid job description and ad
Document the characteristics of an A-Player in your team, look for those in your next hire
Add in behaviours required to live by your core values
Have specific outcomes and metrics, to ensure there is no misunderstanding
Ensure your organisational structure is up-to-date
As Kison outlines in this podcast, build a bench or prospect list by proactiving talking with potential future A-Players. This is no different to a prospect list of clients who you nurture
Use DiSC, as some roles are better suited to a specific DiSC quadrant. This can also help you reduce unintentional bias
Ask behavioural questions - how do they react when faced with an issue?
Make sure you talk with the referees and end with the question “would you hire them again?

And the final one - have conversations with them outside the work environment.

Go out for a coffee, meal or have a few drinks in a relaxing and less formal environment.

The more time you spend with your final round candidates, the more input your gut gets to tell you if they are a good fit or not.

We heard of the CEO of a Fortune 500 company who, when he is down to the final two or three candidates for a very senior role, will take each out to a local diner near the office.

The CEO knows the owner well, and instructs the wait staff to get something wrong with the candidates’ order.

The CEO wants to see how the candidate treats the wait staff and deals with the mistake.

Do you and the managers in your business need more training and support to be more effective as a manager? Our ‘Kick-ass Manager’ course is written to fill the massive void of good quality content and tools to excel at managing people. We feel small business owners don’t invest enough in this development for themselves or their fellow managers, so wrote this six month course.