Hire For a Career, Not a Job

Identifying and hiring teammates to grow with your business.

Over the past few months one of the biggest struggles facing businesses is finding help. In conversations with business owners across the country they are trying to figure out how to find and hire the number of employees needed.

Take a drive down the street and you will see “we are hiring” signs at businesses in just about every industry. With consumer demand up in every sector across the nation, companies are struggling to keep up. The surge was initially viewed as temporary. But with the demand continuing and orders far outpacing production, it’s becoming more of a longer term headwind. If you have ordered anything recently you’ve probably noticed the increased wait time.

Every company’s goal is to hire someone, train them and keep them as a career-long employee. In reality that is not always the case. But that should not deter you from using that approach in your interviewing. In fact, that should be the exact mindset you use. Here are some ideas on hiring and different ways to recruit talent to your company.

Focus on hiring for a career and not just a job. Do you view what you do as a career or a job? If you look up career in the dictionary it has a clearly different meaning than job.

Career: an occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as one's lifework.

Job: a piece of work, especially a specific task done as part of the routine of one's occupation or for an agreed price.

I want to hire people looking for a career, not just a job. What are you hiring for?

Have you evaluated your ROH (Return on Hire). What is the amount of time you need an employee to be with your company before you see a positive ROH? Is it three years, five years? The time and expense in training new hires should shift your focus to a career minded hiring process. Know your ROH and hire accordingly.

Where to find great people to join your team. Get help from your existing team. Send your team members out on a new team members search mission some afternoon. Allow them to help bring people to your company that they would like to work with. Have them make a list of people they know. Give a reward if you hire someone they find.

It’s not a bad idea to have some of your team members also interview and talk with prospective hires during the process. Some of the best input I’ve received when hiring new team members, have come from my existing teammates after they’ve spoken with them.

A great place to look for prospective team members are spots where you’ve had great customer experiences. Think of your daily stops and interactions with people. Who wowed you today? Why isn’t that person on your team, wowing your customers?

Take the focus off money. Someone can always offer more. If you’re competing against three other companies and you all offer the same salary, how do you stand out and differentiate from the others? 

• Ask them if they could design their day working for you, what would it look like? This allows you insight into what they really want to be doing. Design their role and your offer around this.

• Offer a work from anywhere, the office or hybrid options.

• You could give them their birthday off or a day that week of their choice.

• Maybe you can offer the utmost flexibility with the hours and time worked.

• As a wellness option, you could offer a membership to the fitness center of their choice, a Peloton or an at home fitness app if they prefer to workout at home.

Find what incentives motivates them. Put yourself in their shoes. I’d want bonuses and incentives for things that I like. What motivates me, may not motivate someone else. So ask them to create incentives they’d like to strive towards. Go as far to even have them ranked from most important on down.

• Trips to certain places they’ve always wanted to go.

• Extra time off.

• Shopping sprees for their favorite brand or store.

• Donations to a cause they feel strongly about supporting.

Find what makes them tick!

Show a career path. In a career, everyone needs a goal to aim towards. Working towards the next promotion or management role creates a drive and purpose. What are they working towards? Show the advancement opportunities and generate excitement. Then clearly show them a career track to reach that growth with your company. People value open and honest communication.

Where do you see yourself in three to five years? This is my favorite question to ask prospective teammates. It gives a glimpse into their long term view and how this position fits within their goals. Sometimes it doesn’t fit and then we both know we are not a match. The goal is to find people who want to grow with you and your company.

“If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.” -Naval Ravikant