Before you hire

There’s something deeply gratifying about offering someone a job. Even posting a new position feels good, because it often means that your company is growing and/or that you have an opportunity to make your team stronger. But before you hire, be brutally honest when thinking about the questions below. 

Are you hiring for the right reasons? 

Clearly state the desired outcomes of adding a new team member, such as meeting an increased influx of projects, decreasing development time of new features, or breaking into new verticals. I would advise against hiring just for the sake of demonstrating growth, as it often is not fair to the new employees and it can make it challenging to ensure that all team members buy into the mission and vision and pull in the same direction with a sense of purpose. 

Is your current team optimized? 

If you’re not getting the best work out of your team now, throwing another resource at it won’t fix the problem. “If we only had an extra person to do X…” should result in a thorough analysis of how the existing team is spending their time, so that you can identify bottlenecks and opportunities for internal improvement. Here are some additional tips on how to assess staffing needs. 

Is the manager equipped to coach a new person? 

No matter how great your new hire might be, if their manager is not willing or able to not just provide a stellar onboarding experience, but to continue to coach them effectively and consistently, you’re neither doing your company nor the new employee a favor. If there’s a good case for making the hire, but you don’t trust that the manager will be able to handle it, you need to solve the latter challenge first. 

Is your interview process robust enough to ensure that you hire the right person?

In order to avoid some of the most common hiring mistakes, such as not being rigorous enough in your process, be sure that you’ve established a system to ensure that you will find the right person for the job. For us, the process typically consists of at least three rounds of interviews with multiple team members, including one round that is solely focused on determining culture fit. In addition, we always ask for deliverables that are pertinent to the role, such as a technical assessment or a research project. Finally, if you’re not willing to commit to only making an offer if you can’t picture yourself without the candidate, perhaps it’s time to reconsider if you are indeed ready to hire. 

Adding any employee requires a major investment, so be sure that you are prepared to get a maximum return for the company and for your new team member. 

What about you? What else should you think about prior to hiring?