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17. Clones, Drones and Unicorns - 3 Types of Employees You Should Never Hire

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Have you ever felt anxious thinking about hiring the wrong person for your small business?

If so, you’re in luck! Because that’s exactly what I’m diving into on this episode of The Impact Riple podcast.

Hiring the right person is something every business owner wants. 

BUT being *able* to hire the right person and *actually* hiring the right person…well, that’s a bit of a different story.

As someone who’s been hiring employees for more than 17 years now, there are a few things I’ve learned along the way to help you avoid hiring the wrong person for the job.

In this episode, I share the 3 types of employees you should *never* hire for your small business and why they’re not right, no matter what.

I also talk about what to focus on when hiring  instead, so you can hire right, every time.

This episode is chock full of practical insights and information that will help you step into hiring with more confidence, because you’ll know exactly what to watch to watch out for when you do.

I fully believe that hiring gets to be fun and easy. And it helps when you know what to watch out for so you can always hire the right person from the start!


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 types of employees you should never hire

  • Why business owners tend to hire these employees

  • What to focus on when hiring instead


Mentioned in This Episode: 

Transcription for Episode 17: Clones, Drones and Unicorns - 3 Types of Employees You Should Never Hire

Ashley Cox  0:05  

Welcome to The Impact Ripple podcast, the go to source for hiring and leadership made simple, doable and fun for visionary female business owners. I'm your host, Ashley Cox, author, certified HR expert and founder of Sprout HR. And I believe that you don't have to change who you are to be a great leader, because you already are one. So join me as we kiss uncertainty and overwhelm goodbye and say hello to the tools and support you need to grow a profitable, sustainable, impactful team with more confidence and ease. 


Ashley Cox  0:44  

On today's episode, we're exploring the three types of employees that you should never hire in your small business. And I know that's a pretty bold statement. But I think that you'll probably find yourself agreeing with me by the end of our conversation today. So if you've been struggling with hiring anxiety, and wanting to avoid hiring the wrong employee for your team, you're not going to want to miss our solo episode today. Hiring the right people is something that every business owner wants. I mean, I've never heard anyone say, Boy, I'd really love to hire a total disaster of an employee this week. That would be pretty silly, right? But being able to and actually hiring the right people? Well, that's a bit of a different story. 


Ashley Cox  1:40  

As I've mentioned in episodes previously, hiring is a skill, not unlike all of the other skills that we as business owners must learn, in order to run a successful business, you need some knowledge and some practice a little experience to truly get the hang of it. So today, I'm going to share a little bit of knowledge from my almost two decades of experience, that's going to help you avoid some of the biggest hiring problems that I see small business owners facing when it comes to hiring their dream teams. Are you ready to find out those three types of employees that you should never hire? I thought so. Let's go. 


Ashley Cox  2:24  

Number one, avoid hiring clones. Hiring an exact replica of yourself is not usually a smart move, unless you're truly looking to fully replace yourself in your business. Which in all honesty is difficult, because there's only one of you on this planet. While yes, I am sure that you are an amazing human. Because I mean, you did start this, this brilliant business and you've grown it into what it is today. Your business doesn't need another one of you, because you've already got one of those. What your business needs now is someone to complement you and add depth and diversity to your business with their own unique set of skills, and qualities. 


Ashley Cox  3:16  

Hiring a clone is a recipe for disaster and disappointment. Imagine all of your weakest traits and qualities being amplified times two. Yikes. It's not a good, it's not a good look. This might look like two people who have a million brilliant ideas every day. But then they struggle to follow through and execute on those ideas. That's a sure way to sink the ship. everyone on your team shouldn't be a copycat of you. 


Ashley Cox  3:52  

On my team, I'm typically the one with a million ideas every day and Maura our director of operations is the one who maps out the project plans keeps us focused on what's most important and moving forward by taking action on the right ideas at the right time. But if we both sat around just brainstorming brilliant ideas all day, we'd never get anything done. And that's what it looks like to focus on complementary skills versus clone skills. Because when they work together, we get to amplify our combined brilliance. 


Ashley Cox  4:31  

And this is one of the first things that I love working on with our clients in our hiring VIP day. I mean once we get clear on your values, of course, which I talk about in detail in Episode Five, because that's where the similarities happen, right? We have the shared set of values and that's what guides our decision making decide it guides our the way that we show up in business it guides the way that we are You know, move forward in this company together and individually. But I want to understand your strengths and your skill set as a leader first, once we've got those values in place, the next thing I need to know, is your strength and your skill set as a leader, so we can identify where can we help you fill the gaps and bring someone into your team? Who will be your perfect complement? Just like Mara is to me. 


Ashley Cox  5:31  

Number two, is hiring. Avoid hiring drones. Okay, what's a drone? I mean, most of the time nowadays, we think about a drone being that buzzy little camera in the sky, right? But that's not what this is. drones in the hiring world, in my definition, are yes, people. They do what they're told, when they're told nothing more, and nothing less. And while that might sound pretty great right now, yes, just give me somebody who is going to do what I want them to do when I want them to do it and just go do it. The downfall of drones is that they don't take initiative to do things on their own. And they will rarely if ever go above and beyond. 


Ashley Cox  6:18  

Now, in the nearly seven years that I've been providing HR services for small businesses, I've never met a business owner who doesn't want or need someone to take initiative. In fact, employees who don't take initiative is the number one complaint that I hear from small business owners who already have a team and they're frustrated with a current team member. And they're in need of guidance on what to do. 


Ashley Cox  6:44  

Well, unfortunately, folks who don't take initiative naturally, will likely never be an employee who learns to take initiative. So if you're looking to build a team of go getters of folks who will help you generate new ideas, take action on those ideas and drive your business forward, then you're going to want to make sure that you avoid hiring drones right from the start. Because hiring a drone is sure to leave you both feeling frustrated and let down. Drones aren't bad people. They just work in different ways. And in a small business, we need a lot of people on our small but mighty teams who are able to take initiative and work in a different way. 


Ashley Cox  7:29  

My client Jennifer owns a busy family law practice in Chicago and one of the most essential skills that she needs in a great legal assistant is someone who can identify opportunities and needs and take care of them without being asked or told or needing a lot of guidance. Because she is very busy, she spends a lot of time in court, her calendar is always full. And she needs to be able to trust and rely on someone to take initiative. Now this is something that we're working on together right now so that she gets the best right fit team member in place in order to help her continue building her practice in a streamlined and efficient way. And we're doing this by identifying the right questions to ask during the interview process, as well as discussing important red flags to watch out for, which will indicate whether a candidate is willing and able to take a lot of initiative or not. 


Ashley Cox  8:31  

Finally, our last type of employee to avoid hiring is one that may be an unpopular opinion, but it's something I'm super passionate about. So number three, avoid hiring unicorns. Now hear me out here because I know that unicorn talk is really big, especially in the small business world, especially an online business. But here's why I think this while I love a good unicorn as much as the next gal Hello, I grew up in the 90s with Lisa Frank products just like you did. Unicorns are mythical creatures that unfortunately, do not exist. 


Ashley Cox  9:14  

But far too often when a business owner tells me that they're looking for a unicorn, I find that they're usually trying to cram entirely too many responsibilities, talents and expertise into one role. And one person cannot do it all my friend. And as employers who are good stewards of our teams and their talents, we shouldn't be expecting them to. Even if you've been doing it all yourself as the business owner doesn't necessarily mean that you should or that you've been doing it well. Focus on hiring experts for the roles you need. And make sure you're not overloading your team members.


Ashley Cox  10:00  

And not that our listeners here at The Impact Ripple would ever do this. But there's a toxic pattern with companies where they're expecting their employees to be able to do and be everything in the business, but only paying them peanuts. The bottom line is, is if you expect more from someone, whether it's skills, talent, education, credentials, etc, etc, then you need to be willing and able to pay them for what they bring to the table. 


Ashley Cox  10:33  

So let me share an example with you. Last week, I saw a job posting for a local company that was looking for a full time employee for an administrative assistant role. Okay, cool. Got that so far, right. But as I'm reading the posting, it not only required the individual in this role to perform admin duties, but also project management duties, team management, social media management, I mean, being a tick tock star, basically, you know, was one of the the requirements for this role. And they expected them to create and post creative new content to grow their their audience, and more, so much more, there was at least three or four roles combined into this one job description. 


Ashley Cox  11:21  

This person also needed to have a laundry list of personal qualities to fit the bill for all of these various roles, as well as being willing and able to work weekdays, evenings, weekends on call, and every major holiday. Okay, so I'm reading this job posting and thinking, All right, what's the catch? How much are they paying this person, and the pay was $13 an hour. When companies say they're having a hard time hiring right now, this is why people cannot be everything to your business, and then be paid a paltry wage. So take a look at your job description and make sure that you're not trying to hire a unicorn. Because what's really going on is that companies aren't looking for unicorns. What they really want, are workhorses. 


Ashley Cox  12:24  

As small businesses, we often have limited resources. I completely understand the desire to maximize every single position and maximize your labor costs by combining several tasks, responsibilities and roles. However, I promise you that this is typically going to backfire. And you're going to get a much healthier return on your hiring investment. When you streamline the role, and you focus on hiring experts in the areas where you need them the most. 


Ashley Cox  12:59  

There you have it, the three types of employees you should never hire. Let's do a quick recap. Number one, don't hire drones. Instead, hire team members who complement your skill set and add depth and diversity to your business. Number two, don't hire drones. Instead, hire team members who take initiative and will help you drive the business forward with enthusiasm. And number three, don't hire unicorns, aka workhorses. Instead, hire team members who are true experts in their field and watch them thrive. 


Ashley Cox  13:43  

If you're ready to find your best fit team members, I would absolutely love to help you. This is what we do, and we're really, really good at it. Our Hiring VIP day is perfect if you need a fast, replicable hiring strategy like yesterday, where we can single handedly take the headache out of hiring together. You get everything that you need to recruit, interview and hire your dream team member and then put that baby on repeat so you can hire again, whenever you are ready. 


Ashley Cox  14:21  

My client Keila said that she loves having a simple repeatable process in place, she was able to confidently go on to hire four more employees in just a matter of months after working with me because of the process and the systems that we developed together. 


Ashley Cox  14:39  

If this sounds like something that you're interested in, let's hop on a call and chat about whether it's the right fit for you right now. You can book a time on my calendar at SproutHR.co forward slash call. 


Ashley Cox  14:54  

As we wrap this episode up, it's time for our final and favorite segment of every episode, imagine the impact, where we get to envision what it could look like for you to take action today. When you avoid hiring clones, drones and unicorns, you'll see a much healthier return on your hiring investment. And I don't just mean financially, you'll have a team that's more fulfilled because they're doing work they're truly great at and passionate about, which means happier and more loyal employees who aren't looking for another job while they're working for you. 


Ashley Cox
  15:37  

Studies show that happy employees are more productive, creative, innovative, they're better collaborators and team players. They're happier at home, and they experience less depression, illness, absences, work errors, and performance issues. Happy employees are quite simply good for business. But even more importantly, happy people are good for the world. Imagine the impact that having a team full of the right employees doing work that they're passionate about, where they're respected, and able to make meaningful contributions to your business could have on your business, your team, their families, and the world. 


Ashley Cox  16:28  

If you found this episode helpful, I would love for you to share about it on social media so that it can reach more leaders, just like you simply take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it to social media, making sure to tag us at Sprout hr.co And you can find and follow us on all of your favorite social media platforms down below in our show notes. Thank you again for joining me on this episode of the impact ripple podcast. As always, it's an honor to be here with and for you when your leadership journey.