Scaling your business? Invest in hiring early on

5 mins, 9 secs read time

Want to know the secret of high-growth businesses?

It’s not their AI-driven technology stacks, intricate sales funnels, smart founders or a favorable economic environment. Thriving brands get to the top because of their workforce. They have super-talented workers who drive the company forward. And in order to attract and retain this top talent, these organizations have figured out how to make hiring a competitive advantage.

But these companies don’t wait until they’re in a high-growth stage to start thinking about talent. If you also want to scale your business and drive growth, let’s talk about how you can (and why you should) invest in hiring from the onset.

Prioritize hiring from the start

Too many brands only think of hiring when they want to scale their company – a fatal mistake.

Why?

Without a clear and structured hiring process in place, you’ll end up making reactive, knee-jerk decisions that lead you to make the wrong hires, or miss out on great talent.

Alternatively, there are plenty of reasons why focusing on early-stage hiring will benefit your business:

You’ll understand your company needs and values early on

Highly gifted people want to work with brands that share their values. So focusing on early-stage hiring will compel you to determine and articulate your company’s mission, vision and values from the beginning. This clarity will help you attract the right people to your company.

You’ll establish a proven hiring process to guide future recruitment

The hiring lessons you learn in your organization’s early days will help you craft and refine your structured hiring process – from job description templates to interview questions to role kickoff documents. These resources will come in handy later on because you’ll be able to focus on getting the right people through the door rather than scrambling to put together a hiring process.

You’ll grow faster and more efficiently from the start

With the right staff on board early on, you’ll establish a firm foundation of systems and processes to drive future growth.

Trust structure, not your instincts

Hiring isn’t like finding love. Common dating advice says “Just go with the flow – when you’ve found the right person, you’ll just know.”

That’s a recipe for disaster for recruitment.

In hiring, you come up with a list of qualities you want the person to have first. Then you choose the candidate who best meets those demands. Whether you’re looking for an office-based person or a remote employee you’ll connect with through a telecommunication platform, know exactly what you want.

Usually, going with your gut means going with your unconscious bias, which can result in missing great candidates in the process.

Structured hiring has many benefits, including:

You won’t fall prey to unconscious hiring bias

Without a structured template to guide you, you’ll filter candidates through the sieve of your skewed personal or organizational framework.

In the end, you may prejudge candidates and miss out on talented people, or a variety of candidates from different backgrounds who can bring fresh perspectives.

Structured hiring helps you focus on principles, not personalities. You hone in on the right person by defining the role, attributes, requirements and experience of the worker you want. Every candidate gets an equal chance.

You’ll base hiring on data and concrete evidence, not impulses

Hiring that’s devoid of a structure is like flying a plane without a flight plan.

You won’t reach your destination. Your inclinations will cause you to gravitate toward candidates who suit your passions. And just because a person is similar to you doesn’t mean they’re the right person for the role.

To uncover skilled personnel who will take your company to the next level, you need to go deeper. A structured hiring process helps you to be objective and anchor your selection on reliable predetermined data, not fickle whims.

You’ll improve the experience of everyone involved

A standardized hiring process helps everyone involved. Candidates have more confidence in an organized interview experience and distrust a chaotic one. Your interview process is reflective of what your workplace is like, so it’s important to make a powerful impression.

Also, with an organized process, your hiring managers won’t have to wing it. With the help of interview prep kits and key candidate attribute requirements, they’ll know what to ask and enjoy interviewing. As a result, they will hire great workers who align with the company’s goals. Ultimately, they will please top management.

Advocate for the best employees from the get-go for exceptional results

In the early stages of a business, company owners are usually focused on cutting costs and stretching every dollar at their disposal. For this reason, talent teams might have a hard time convincing them to spend more on recruiting.

But it’s clear that in order to achieve growth, company executives must buy into the value of hiring, even when the business is just finding its feet.

Here are two important reasons great hiring is so valuable:

Talented people take the load off your shoulders

Skilled workers who know their game bring loads of value to an organization. Unlike bad hires, they don’t have to be micromanaged. This releases top management to focus on more pressing issues, not hand-holding unproductive employees.

Skilled workers improve your organization all around

Employees who excel in their roles produce quality work. They improve your products, build robust systems, market your brand better and delight customers – all hallmarks of a flourishing business.

Yes, investing in hiring early on will cost more money up front. You’ll need to invest in competitive salaries to entice top talent to sign on the dotted line. But it pays for itself many times over in the long run.

In summary, position your organization for future growth by investing in early-stage hiring. The smart people you hire will help your business grow in unimaginable ways because they do magnificent work.

Don’t sideline hiring, even in early-stage startups. Make it an integral part of your company’s foundation and reap the rewards.

Learn more about the ROI of effective recruiting by watching this webinar.

Watch the webinar