There comes a time in every business when everyone starts feeling overworked. You had been doing fine with the work level, but sales have picked up, you’re launching a new product, and you’re focused on growth. You’ve considered adding to your team, but then you start to ask
· What if this is just a sales blip and sales drop next month?
· Do I have enough work to have someone full time?
· My work feels like it comes in spurts, what do we do when there is a lull?
These questions can make fear creep into your decision-making process, which only convolutes the decision more.
Hiring is scary because if you wait to long to add someone, you may sacrifice work quality and damage employee or customer relationships, but if you hire too soon, you’re at a risk of stretching the cash flow too far or hiring needlessly.
There are a few things that you can look at to take some of the speculation out of it and make this seemingly subjective decision more objective.
1. Who is already on the team and how are they spending their time? Understanding the working geniuses of the leader and the entire team can show you what gaps may exist or where you may be spending too much time. Tying that into how much time each person is spending in their geniuses vs competencies and frustrations can give you an indication of team effectiveness and engagement.
2. Analyze your data. Evaluate how much time each person is spending inside vs outside of their geniuses and on tasks that may be outside of the value-add of their role. There is no set amount of time that a person should spend in their Working Genius, but a good guideline would be that they spend greater than 50% of their time there. If you find that the majority of someone’s time is being spent outside of their genius, there are some adjustments that should be made.
3. Identify the key tasks / Roles that need to be offloaded. Amalgamate the team results of the tasks that need to be covered and determine the genius required to do them with approximate time to be spent.
4. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Brainstorm all of the options that you could close out your task needs (i.e. hire a specific role, hire a part time role, outsource the tasks). Research the costs for each option and then write down the benefits of implementing each option, including the financial benefits. Remember that “having more time with family” can have financial benefits because rest and renewal are critical for showing up as our best.
5. Address your mindset. After you have written down your decision, ask yourself a series of questions that will dig into the mindset reasons that you made that choice. Whether you’ve chosen to add to the team or keep it the same, there will be actions to be completed and a mindset, likely relief, fear, or excitement, but probably a mix of all three. Create your plan and a plan to stick to it.
I’ve created a resource to help you work through each of these steps. Download it and use it to help build confidence in your hiring decisions.
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