TOR 059: 3 Simple Hacks That Helped Me Overcome Making Terrible Hiring Decisions

Here’s the latest edition of The Optimized Report newsletter, which features 1 actionable tip every Sunday to help small business owners dramatically improve their performance, profit, and potential without sacrificing what's most important—TIME.

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I've wasted so much time and money hiring the wrong people; I feel sick thinking about it.

But, reading that a Google employee lasts only 1.3 years at the company makes me feel better without having to hire a therapist. Even with endless pasta bowls and flying office unicorns, no amount of silly perks gets people to stay.

People leave a company for many reasons, but one reason is that you made a bad hire.

Hiring the right people will never be perfect.

Hiring is still a struggle for me. Over the years, after making hires that were underqualified (my fault), underpaid (my fault), and that we're narcissistic, terrible people (my fault), I learned that hiring is never an end game.

Hiring is something that you should continually improve upon for the company and the candidates.

I've learned several key "hacks" that have continued to help me improve my hiring efforts.

1/ Don't hire; automate instead.

Most companies hire for redundant, simple administrative activities that should be automated.

People have brains and huge potential, so don't spoil time or money on low-quality roles. Instead, automate as many redundant activities as possible.

You can likely automate 15 - 30% of your business.

"If you need some ideas, message me on Twitter, and I'm happy to share some ideas."

2/ Outsource before you insource.

Next, hire contractors to execute non-essential functions like bookkeeping, HR, or administrative activities.

Outsourcing should always be your first option. The best part is, with where technology is today, you have access to global talent.

When people are too prideful to take a $15/hr administrative job in a particular country, there are plenty of other well-educated countries where $15/hr would change their life.

Outsourcing allows you to deploy capital resources more effectively.

Word of caution: NEVER outsource critical functions like sales or product design.

3/ Hire based on an ideal candidate profile and only interview to get candidates to prove they can do the job.

If you do need to hire, you first need to create an ideal candidate profile.

This profile outlines the expectations, skills, and traits of a perfect team member that can do the job well.

Then, you interview people to prove they meet this profile.

For example, you can interview a sales candidate and ask them questions about their past job, or you can have them pitch you the last product they sold and see for yourself their skills and abilities.

With every past failure, there are lessons you can learn and make corrections for the future—hiring is one of them.

Despite all my hiring mistakes, I've still built an incredible team for who I'm grateful every day.