1. Employing a team member is a significant and expensive ($30,000 or more!) decision. Treat it that way. You would not invest in a piece of equipment or technology worth that amount without a considerable amount of research and comparison, so there is no reason to do otherwise with people.

2. Take some time to write a very detailed job description.
Clearly define the role and the core activities that you need this person
to undertake. Describe in detail the personality traits and the attitude you expect this person to have. Be very clear about the skills you need this person to have and how you will establish that the skills are there. Get your team involved in the process, especially those who will be working with the new person. The job description should have clear critical result areas with measurable outcomes. Develop your selection criteria from this list and write down the three to five must-haves, then the two or three nice to have
attributes.

3. Then write your ad or agency brief. Make sure that you include the personality attributes. If you are briefing an agency, ask them how they identify the skill set and personality of the applicants they recommend to you. If they cannot clearly articulate their methods to you, find another agency that can. If you advertise the position, make sure you include everything you are looking for in the ad. Do not leave anything out to save $50 or $100 on the cost. The more specific you are, the less time you will take sorting through unsuitable applicants. Choose the media that best suits the position. The internet is particularly effective for most roles. Be aware that many recruitment companies make a commission from newspaper advertising. If the role you are looking to fill requires someone prepared to work longer hours, say so. If you need them to be a team player, say so. If you need to find a business developer, ask the applicant to sell themselves to you in their application. Review the applications carefully against your selection criteria. Be brutal. If in doubt, do not proceed. One of the most common mistakes companies make is compromising their criteria. If you receive applications from people who do not satisfy your criteria, remove them from your shortlist.

4. You should be able to reduce the number of worthy applicants to between three and ten. Then, get the best applicants in for an interview. Depending on the type of position, you may even want to ask them in for a group interview.

Ask them questions to deal with situations that they are likely to encounter in their day-to-day role. For example, if they need to be a problem solver, present them with a typical problem, give them five minutes to think about it, and ask them for one or more possible solutions. If they will be working in a team, group your applicants and ask them to brainstorm an issue. Again, give them five minutes and then ask them for their answers. If they are going to be presenting, get them to do a two-minute impromptu presentation. Again, give them a few minutes to prepare. Do not judge them by how well they solve or deal with the problem or situation you have presented, but rather how they address the challenge of the task, e.g., enthusiastically, reticently etc. Accept that they probably will not have dealt with the idiosyncrasies of your particular business, so do not look for accurate solutions but look for how they think on their feet, how they use logic, their personality and their enjoyment of the challenge. If they are working closely with other team members, have those
people sit in and participate in the interview. Remember, they are the ones who will have to work with this new person; you need to make sure their personalities are complementary. If you are filling a role strictly a telephone position, e.g., a call centre role or a telesales person, interview the person over the phone. Unless they have some contact with the public and your customers, it does not matter what they look like, dress like, etc. What does matter is how they sound over the telephone. Ask each applicant similar questions. You should always check the accuracy of the resume by briefly going over the applicant’s history. Previous performance is the best guide to future potential. So, probe with questions that demonstrate performance. Also, understand why
the person changed positions. Watch how questions are answered more than the content.

5. Lastly, of course, make sure that they have the relevant skills you require for the job, e.g., technical competencies, computer skills, telephone manners, etc. If the skills you need the person to have are not particularly specialised, then follow the motto ‘hire for attitude, train for skill’. You can always teach someone new skills; you can rarely teach them to have a better attitude!

6. When you have chosen your new person, ensure that you make the terms and conditions very clear and in writing. Thorough reference checking is essential and must be done in all cases. It would help if you also put them on a trial period before offering permanent employment. Ensure that you have the terms and conditions of this in writing too. Set key performance indicators in place so that you can measure their performance.

This is especially important if you have to terminate someone for poor performance. When you finally do employ permanently, ensure that you have employment contracts in place that cover confidentiality, restraint of trade, etc.
Having successfully employed the best person, it is now critical to obtaining their team’s best performance.

The following performance guidelines will assist.

1. You may have heard of the adage ‘what you give, you gather. It applies to your team, just as much as to any other part of your business or your life. To have a team that is part of your organisation, you must respect them and involve them. Take a team approach to business, have them participate in the management and decision-making processes, and delegate effectively. Be conscious that your team is at the coalface of your business day in, day out. Their perception of what goes on is invaluable. Often team members will identify a problem before you do. See this as a strength, not a weakness. Reducing the time taken to identify a problem hastens the solution.

2. Provide a forum for the identification of issues and planning ahead of work schedules. Have a regular team meeting once a week or fortnight. Have an official agenda and ask team members to submit items at least 24 hours before the meeting. Make it a rule that any problem to be discussed at the meeting should also be tabled with a proposed solution. Brainstorm both the problem and the answer at the meeting, and decide on a plan of attack. This methodology will promote some lively discussion from time to time, no doubt, all to focus the team (as a whole) on working together. This kind of shared problem solving also allows your team to take ‘ownership’ of the problems and issues that are important to the success of your business and makes them feel an essential part of your team.

3. At your regular meetings, devise action plans. Appoint ‘champions’ or team leaders responsible for putting solutions in place (usually the person who brought up the issue is the best one to champion the solution). Set deadlines and measurable action steps to review the issues to ensure the desired outcome is being achieved. Every action item should identify ‘by whom’ and ‘by when’.

4. Share successes with your team regularly. Let them know how the business is performing compared to the target. Some businesses share their financial results with their team members. Many that do say that this honestly promotes loyal and trusted employees. If you are having an excellent week or month, do something special for your team. A lunch, after-work drinks, free movie tickets for everyone, or some other reward will often further promote goodwill with your team than anything else. Do not just do it once, do it occasionally throughout the year as a special treat or even just as a thank you for hard work.
When involved team members in your business get rugged or quiet, and everyone experiences these from time to time, you will be amazed at how much loyalty you will have and how everyone will pitch in to help get the business flying again. So, share those difficult times and do not paint glowing pictures all the time, especially if it is not valid. Remember, your team is at the coalface. They will know if things are not working as well as they should.

5. Have an open-door policy. Encourage your team members to talk to you about any issues they have in performing their duties. Take a ‘how can we solve that’ approach. Be supportive but not submissive. Teach your team members to think for themselves, be helpful and supportive of their decisions. Maintain respect for them at all times, and you will receive respect in return.

6. Recognise individuality. One of life’s guarantees is that we are all different. Consequently, we all do things in different ways. Encourage your team to do something in the way that works best for them and gets the best result, even if it is not the way you would typically do it. Bear in mind that we are all motivated by different things. Some of us love new things; some prefer to follow tried and accurate systems. Some can work well no matter how many interruptions they get; others need solitude to finish a task once it has been started. Make it a company rule that people’s working methods be discussed
with others to work out how to work best with their colleagues. Establishing details like this up-front can save hours of hostilities or misunderstandings later on. Diversity creates innovation, and this is one of the greatest strengths of your team.

7. Invest in training. Your people are your most valuable asset. The more they know about how to do their jobs, the better they will do them. Encourage your team members to participate in ongoing training. Ask them to identify what skills they need to learn and then find good training providers who can help. There are many short courses available on sales, marketing, computer skills, business planning, bookkeeping, telephone skills, etc. Allocate money in your
budget to train your team and watch their contribution grow. Don’t discount the effects of motivational courses on your team members. Some great speakers will get your team moving and motivated. If you hear of any great ones, and if you can do so, send a group, or better still, your whole team, along with one. Videos, CDs and books are also effective ways to transfer this knowledge. Look for opportunities to train internally as well. For example, you
might like to add an hour to your team meeting for product training or informal sales training once in a while. Get one of your team members to do the training or bring someone in from outside, e.g., a supplier. Periodically, get your team to do customer service training. Have them focus on coming up with ‘knock ’em dead’ ideas for your customers. Get everyone to contribute. Have fun with it and watch your team grow together with your business. Let your team members know that ongoing training is supported and encouraged. Ask them to research courses that they want to attend that are relevant to their job.

8. Have fun! It’s incredible how often we forget to do this. Remember that most of your team (and you) spend more hours working than they do anything else. You (and they) should enjoy it. Celebrate birthdays with a cake and a card signed by everyone. Join in with charity or community events – Jeans for Genes Day, etc. Have theme days. Arrange office social days or events. On a smaller scale, have a joke of the week competition or guessing competition.
Spread good humour to your clients. Update them on the personal side of your staff. For example, let them know who’s winning an inter-office competition or use your joke of the week in your customer newsletters. Even invite your clients to participate and let your team members be the judges. When the team members are smiling, they enjoy being part of your organisation and your business, and they will excel.

9. Lastly, reward your team financially. While money is not everyone’s prime motivator; it certainly is important to most people. Remember the adage, ‘if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. Pay your people well. If possible, have some method of attaching remuneration to performance. It could be by way of a bonus or profit share. This encourages people to perform as it is in their best interests to do so. Pay bonuses or profit shares promptly and always honour your word for
pay increases.

To summarise for yourself, note the points above and re-think how you can manage and relate to the people who work for you. Then, implement policies and procedures to build a happy and cohesive team, and you will have a more comfortable and more productive business.