Employing People for Projected Growth

The question is “do I begin employing people before the ‘growth curve’ begins, or, do i wait……”

I have been through this exact issue a number of times. The decision can be risky because there are a few pitfalls to watch out for when approaching a hiring cycle of employing people.

Hiring Before the Curve:

• The curve may not happen quite like you anticipated, no matter how good things appear, it is only when the contract is signed that you can be certain (99% certain) that the deal is ‘good to go’.
• The projected business growth areas may become different to what is ultimately needed.
• The cost in wasted time and effort for advertising and recruiting is a burden.
• The job being recruited may be different to what is ultimately needed.

Hiring After the Curve:

• The trajectory of growth may become faster than anticipated, this means that recruitment time and being able to transition the new employee into the business (culture, systems, training etc.) will be reduced.
• Recruitment is not perfect, and, if the wrong person is employed it can be a burden to the business to have to re-hire (time, effort and damage to the business etc.)
• If hiring on a large scale,
  • the culture dilution could easily become an issue if the employment process is not controlled properly.
  • the wrong culture or personnel could bring with it ‘a poison apple‘.

Employing people before and after a projected growth curve can be a difficult decision. Depending on what the business does, what it is planning to increase for and what the scale of $ value it is willing to risk in the event that the projected growth does not hit its targets are all factors that need to be identified.

Hire for what you “need” not for what you “think you need”

Some pitfalls to watch out for!

Administration

Your business will only be as good as the people that administer it; invoicing, managing procurement and supply chain logistics, financial control, legal and contract administration, quality, safety and environmental management are all administrative duties.

Often when people hire, they forget the administration of the process. Having the administration right is how the business keeps its structure and it preserves its reputation whilst managing its financial health.

If the administration recruitment is overdone then the cost of ongoing unnecessary overheads will affect the business financial performance.

Training

When employing people on a large scale, a well developed employment process can introduce people to the business. The ‘generic’ employment process can ensure that people understand what the business is about ‘before’ they step into the business.

Making sure that training suites the business is incredibly important. This is where the culture and the business brand are managed and introduced.

Employment

There is a good chance that when you employ a person, even though a stringent recruitment process has been followed, that they will not suite the organisation. Be prepared for seeking an early replacement employment position if needed.

Growing a Business

As an entrepreneur, I often made choices for business growth based on the level of regret. My ‘regret’ would have been overlooking a potential opportunity and saying no.

With business growth, employing people can be a roller coaster. As bad as it may seem at times, I learnt to employ people when it was absolutely necessary and not before. The biggest reason for this is knowing how painful consolidation can be.

Consolidation should be avoided – hiring unnecessarily opens the door to reactive consolidation.

 

 

Written by Geoff Pike, Entrepreneur, Speaker & Business Mentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-pike-australia

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ABOUT GEOFF

Geoff founded a sole trader plumbing business in a remotely located and vastly underpopulated location in outback Australia. Starting business with only enough money to pay 4 weeks wages, Geoff persisted by growing the business into a multi-disciplined trade services company. Over a period of 12 years, the company Geoff established grew to employ a workforce of over 300 personnel covering an area almost half the size of Europe, receiving international award recognition with an annual revenue of over $30mil. Geoff knows what it takes to overcome adversity.