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Tag: hiring process

  • It’s Time to Bust the ‘Talent Gap’ Myth. Leaders Must Cultivate Talent

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    Finding entry-level talent with several years of experience is a riddle that few organizations have been able to solve. In a post-pandemic and AI-driven world, there’s little room for error, much at stake, and even less time for cultivating and training would-be capable people. When you add AI-applicant tracking systems to the mix, most entry-level applicants don’t stand a chance in today’s market.  

    However, the solution to this global paradox is not as complex as it seems. A client recently came to me at the end of her hiring rope, unable to find the magical combination of an eager new hire equipped with “human skills” who also had at least three years of experience under their belt. “I can’t find this person, but we need this person, and we can’t keep going without filling this position,” she said, half in tears.  

    I posed a challenging question: Which mattered more: years of experience or the human qualities she claimed to value most—empathy, curiosity, and eagerness? If she truly believed in those traits, would she be willing to nurture them herself? She didn’t hesitate. She dropped the experience prerequisite, hired for potential, and invested her time. Months later, that same hire became a cornerstone of her team.  

    You can’t afford to filter 

    My client was reluctant to hire someone without experience. The role had evolved into a fast-paced, high-pressure position, and she worried a newcomer might falter. Her hesitation made sense—leaders naturally want to protect their teams from disruption. However, the truth is that experience doesn’t guarantee performance. It’s a person’s emotional intelligence that determines how they learn, grow, and respond to stress.  

    Think of the adage that age doesn’t equate to true wisdom. The same can be said for experience and emotional maturity. If you’re filtering out prospective team members who don’t have work experience, you may be left with a pool of candidates who have longer resumes but are short on emotional intelligence. It’s much easier to cultivate and train a new team member with the right human skills to work within your culture than to retrofit cultural alignment into someone who lacks them. 

    A true investment in people 

    There’s not so much a gap in talent as there is a gap in patience. Leading means investing the time to develop the people who will advance your goals, culture, ethics, and legacy. It doesn’t mean treating people as a discretionary cost. Roles have shifted, and new skills are needed for positions that were once much simpler. But skipping over a whole talent pool of people who may make your organization great is a massive mistake.  

    An entry-level position is part of the development stage and is necessary to find the people you want to lead and who want you as a leader. There’s also something to be said about building experience from the inside. The inexperienced person you hire today may be training a different entry-level hire in a few years and may, one day, become the person you choose to take your place.  

    Hiring someone who lacks experience but has all the right attributes means that you will have to invest in their development, but the payoff will be great. You have the opportunity to shape someone to be exactly the right fit for your company and culture. I can think of a few better returns on an investment.  

    It can feel like a lot of pressure to hire the perfect person, gain immediate results, and see your choice turn into profits overnight. However, that’s not how authentic eadership works. Leadership requires time, patience, and a desire to cultivate your team to uphold the organization you’ve worked so hard to build. Isn’t that the kind of legacy you want to leave behind? 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Jerry Colonna

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  • 10 Strategies to Hiring Your Dream Team | Entrepreneur

    10 Strategies to Hiring Your Dream Team | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The founding team lays the foundation for culture, processes and norms that will shape a company for years to come. With limited resources and high uncertainty in the early days, startups must maximize the collective intelligence, energy and motivation of their people. This requires forming a team of the right “culture-fits” who share the same vision and values and then fostering an environment of flexibility, autonomy, feedback and continuous learning.

    As an early employee or founder of a startup, forming the initial team falls on your shoulders. The people you hire in the first few months will significantly impact your company’s trajectory. So how do you recruit and develop the team that will propel your vision forward? Here are the top 10 things I believe you must consider.

    Related: How Your Company Culture Can Be a Force Multiplier (For the Good and the Bad)

    1. Hire people who share the same vision and values

    The most important factor for team cohesion is whether team members share the same vision and values for what the startup is trying to achieve. Discuss the company vision, goals and culture in detail during the hiring process. Bring candidates into discussions with the founding team to gauge their opinions and fit. Hiring the right culture fit is more important than hiring the best skills at the early stage.

    Related: How to Hire Someone Aligned With the Company’s Mission

    2. Focus on high effort and willingness to learn

    More than specific skill sets, look for candidates who demonstrate a high level of effort, willingness to learn and ability to adapt and grow. Early-stage startups require employees to learn new skills, pivot direction and handle multiple roles. Prioritize candidates who demonstrate a growth mindset, self-motivation,and initiative. You can teach skills but not attitudes.

    3. Build a flexibility-first organizational structure

    Rather than rigid roles and job descriptions, develop a flexible organizational structure where employees can wear multiple hats and take on new responsibilities as needed. Encourage team members to step up and volunteer when help is needed. Focus on outcomes over fixed tasks and micromanagement. Allow autonomy and trust people to get the job done.

    Related: Workplace Flexibility Can Impact How You Attract, Hire, And Retain Talent

    4. Form cross-functional, collaborative teams

    Break down silos between different functions like engineering, design, marketing, etc. Bring team members from diverse backgrounds together into collaborative project teams. Cross-functional teams foster communication, spark innovation and create a culture of sharing knowledge and helping one another. Look for candidates who demonstrate good collaboration and communication skills.

    5. Hire people smarter than yourself

    The best startup teams hire people who are smarter and more capable than the founders. Even if a candidate challenges your ideas, that can be good. Hire team members who can provide a different and valuable perspective, even if it means your initial vision needs to evolve. Your job as a leader is to synthesize the best ideas, not have all the answers from the start.

    Related: How to Find, Hire (and Fire!) Rockstar Employees

    6. Don’t be afraid of attitude, passion and ego

    While attitude and ego can cause issues in larger companies, they can be an asset in early-stage startups if channeled properly. Look for candidates who demonstrate passion and a competitive spirit. An element of healthy ego and ambition can provide the fire and motivation needed in the early stages. Just ensure you have the leadership skills to navigate any potential conflicts constructively.

    7. Build a feedback-first culture

    Establish processes and norms where team members freely share feedback with one another to improve and grow together as a unit. Schedule weekly one-on-ones and retrospectives where individuals can voice their opinions openly. A feedback-first culture allows everyone to bring their best ideas to the table and quickly course correct when needed. Transparency and psychological safety are key.

    8. Create a productive work environment

    Provide the tools, resources and workspace that allow employees to do their best work. This may mean flexible hours, coffee bars, game rooms, top-notch hardware and software, or whatever helps people stay productive and motivated. The details will differ for each team, so actively solicit feedback and experiment to find what works. A ‘hustle culture‘ itself is not productive — create an environment where people thrive.

    Related: Why Hustle Culture Might Be Toxic to Your Business

    9. Invest in meaningful teambuilding

    Schedule regular team outings, events and activities that allow employees to bond beyond work. Get to know each other on a personal level and build strong interpersonal relationships and trust. Team building should not feel forced – start small and organize events that team members genuinely enjoy. Seeing the human side of coworkers fosters empathy, collaboration and psychological safety.

    10. Lead by example and show vulnerability as a founder

    As a founder or early employee, set the tone from the top by rolling up your sleeves, taking on the toughest tasks, admitting mistakes and showing genuine appreciation and care for team members. Be vulnerable and honest about challenges and uncertainties. Leading by example and creating a transparent, humble culture will inspire others to give their best. Be careful not to take more credit than you deserve.

    As SnapBlooms continues to grow, we are mindful that our people and culture will ultimately determine our success or failure. And we foster an environment of transparency, feedback and experimentation to learn and adapt as an organization quickly. Our hope is that by following these principles, we can build an effective team culture that empowers us to revolutionize the floral industry.

    The right people are your most valuable resource as a founder. So invest heavily in recruiting, developing and keeping your early team members happy. The efforts you make now will pay enormous dividends as your startup scales and your initial team members become the culture carriers that onboard future hires!

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    Murali Nethi

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  • 3 Difficult Personalities That Are Great Hires

    3 Difficult Personalities That Are Great Hires

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The concept of personality types, temperaments and working styles has been foundational in organizational behavior for years. As entrepreneurs or managers, we frequently assess personality to determine ideal team composition and workflows. While toxic personalities certainly exist, many others that seem difficult can offer severe advantages to start-up organizations. Oppositionality, non-conformity, perfectionism and the fickleness that often accompanies abstract thinking should not be deal-breaking traits.

    As a founder, I tend to have strong opinions about the working styles and personalities of those I consider creative, resourceful and hard-working people. At the same time, certain characters tend to clash within small teams, creating a challenging work environment. However, hiring managers can quickly write off people who are “difficult” as toxic — which can cost a startup its competitive edge. I, for one, appreciate the contributions that seemingly “difficult” people make. Here are three challenging personalities that frequently make great hires and give startup teams the edge they wouldn’t have without them.

    Related: Smart Advice for Networking With These 4 Personality Types

    1. Demanding yet artistically brilliant

    Just about any founder or CEO would appreciate a genius as part of their team, yet these rare outside-the-box thinkers can be notoriously difficult employees. They can be prickly, fiercely individualistic, anti-team players and have fragile personal lives.

    At my former design retail business, a set stylist we worked with fit the bill perfectly. Not only did he demand twice the market rate, but he also wanted my constant attention and would not allow anyone else on the team to address his concerns. That said, he successfully delivered the most beautiful sets in the most unlikely and underwhelming locations: he could turn a cave into a castle for the camera.

    In today’s ultra-competitive consumer product market, where hundreds of versions of every item are available, the differentiation of brilliant design can make or break your brand.

    Despite the obstacles, hiring a category-defying genius paid off for us. The key is to manage these individuals with empathy, awareness and appreciation for their unique contributions — while still setting the requisite boundaries for your sanity. Set your expectations that these hires will be individual contributors — not necessarily team players — and budget your time accordingly.

    Related: Are You Asking for Employee Feedback? If Not, Good Luck With Retention.

    2. Absent-minded abstract thinker

    For rational, linear thinkers who prioritize planning and organization, absent-mindedness can drive you crazy. Yet the same mental process that leads to fickleness can fuel fresh ideas and uncharted solutions.

    According to a study published in Psychological Science, mind-wandering spurs what neuroscientists call “creative incubation,” allowing a disjointed train of thought to make unlikely and uncommon connections that yield unique and creative solutions.

    Although one of the most inspired web developers I worked with often didn’t know what day of the week it was or where to find the printer he used every day, he figured out how to fashion a basic Shopify ecommerce system to deliver a fully custom site with sophisticated and unique UX features, flexible navigation and a robust backend–the likes of which even enterprise-level systems don’t often offer.

    The key to working with these absent-minded gems is to pair them with a colleague who can provide extra operational support.

    3. Problem-finding contrarian

    While working with someone forever finding problems can be discouraging and morale-crushing, a team that enthusiastically supports an unrealistic product idea is headed for failure. The right balance is hiring that smart contrarian: “Someone who looks for business practices that don’t make sense, who’s not too reliant on a small group of like-minded people, who can embrace diversity, and who’s happier on the sidelines.”

    A founder I mentored shared with me that she only hired people who showed extreme enthusiasm for her product — a scheduling app. She wanted to avoid negativity. As a result, no one on her team paused the beta launch to address a known glitch, and her app experienced a significant feature failure.

    Having that smart contrarian to call out real concerns at the right time, even if it’s not the popular or politically correct move, can help ensure problems are addressed before too many resources are invested, or larger issues ensue. While contrarians can be frustrating, they spot critical gaps others might fear speaking out about. To work effectively with contrarian personalities, practice prioritizing their observations and be prepared to translate unsolicited criticism into better ideas and more innovative solutions.

    Related: 5 Ways to Make Your Company’s Hiring Process More Fair

    The final decision

    Ultimately, you’ll need to weigh the costs and benefits of working with challenging personalities in your organization. While many demand special accommodation, buffering and hand-holding, I have found that their contributions are worth the investment.

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    Marina Glazman

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