Hire the Best

Business Development Bank of Canada wrote an article entitled "The Five Do’s and Five Don’ts of Successful Businesses.” This article says, “The most successful firms felt their biggest competitive edge came from offering a stimulating work environment and positive company culture.” The article also says, "Over 60% of the most successful firms are willing to take several months or longer to find and hire only very strong candidates for key roles and positions.”

The article clearly illustrates that there is a direct correlation between hiring the best and being a successful firm.

We need to make hiring decisions, and, as accountants and business advisors, we are often required to help our customers make critical hiring decisions. Are we helping ourselves or our customers find the best fit or are we simply filling a position?

The questions are "What is the long-term effect on our and our customers' companies?" "Are we simply deferring the issues and problems until later?" The article points out that there is a significant cost in not hiring the best. Good people make good decisions and, without good people, are we placing the long-term success of our and customers' companies in the hands of weaker people? There is an old saying that you can tell a good manager by the good people around them; hire up with stronger people.  

The next time you need to hire, think about the long-term success of your customers' company or organization. What are the skills that would best fit the position they're hiring for? What skills will strengthen the areas in which your customers' management teams are weak?  

The article also discusses that attracting and retaining the best employees takes more than just money. After we help hire the best, we need to help our customer keep the new employee(s) engaged and productive. Another old saying is, “What if I hire and train my employees and they leave? Followed by “What if you don’t train your employees and they stay?”

You end up with a lot of employees who don’t know anything about the changing world.

As the new generation of employees moves into the employment market, we need be aware of the changing requirements to keep these talented people engaged. We need to help our customers develop a positive culture to stimulate their employees, offer flexible benefits, and have strong training and personal development programs. We need to look at the employee-employer relationship as a partnership where we both win.

As the article points out: If we help attract, hire, and retain the best, we are likely to be more successful.