4. How to Overcome the Overwhelm of Hiring
Have you considered hiring an employee, but the thought alone makes your palms sweat and your heart race?
Have you felt overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start and how to make sure you don’t screw the whole thing up?
If so, you’re not alone! These are very common feelings we hear all the time from business owners who are hiring for the first time.
In this episode of The Impact Ripple podcast, I talk about the reality of what it feels like to hire for the first time, including some of my own experiences. (No, I’m not exempt from fear when it comes to hiring in my own business and I’ve been doing this for over 16 years!)
At the beginning of the conversation, I start off with a little heart-to-heart. Because hiring fear is real and I want you to know you’re not alone. I’ve got you!
Then, we dive into the three most common concerns I hear on a daily basis when it comes to hiring for the first time, before I share three critical steps to help you get started and hire right.
Join me for an encouraging, hope-filled, and actionable conversation as we explore how to hire your dream team with more confidence, ease, and fun in this episode!
In this episode, you’ll learn:
A heart-to-heart on the emotional experience of hiring
3 common concerns most business owners have when hiring
3 simple steps to help you hire right, the first time, every time
Mentioned in This Episode:
SproutHR’s Give + Grow charitable giving program – www.sprouthr.co/about
Hiring Roadmap – www.sprouthr.co/roadmap
Get Your Free Hiring Roadmap
Our smart + simple guide to hiring employees the right way. Yes, the exact steps we take with all our clients!
Transcript Episode 4 - Overcome the Overwhelm of Hiring
Ashley Cox 0:04
Welcome to episode four of the impact ripple podcast. Your 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 0:04
Welcome to episode four of the impact ripple podcast. Your 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 0:42
On today's episode, I'm addressing a common concern we hear often at Sprout HR, when it comes to hiring for the first time, and that's overwhelm. We'll talk through some common worries you might be experiencing. And then I'll share the three simple things that you need to nail in order to hire right, every time no matter what position you're looking to fill.
Ashley Cox 1:07
Let's start our conversation off with a little heart to heart about hiring though first, okay, because I know that it can be scary. Chances are you've hired a contractor or two before, but there's just something different about hiring employees. It feels like a much bigger deal. Because it is there's a lot more responsibility when it comes to hiring employees. Plus, there's a lot more reward when you do it well. So of course you want to get it right. Which means you might be feeling the overwhelm in full force right about now. hiring employees is new uncharted territory for you. And as the saying goes, you don't know what you don't know. The good news is that I do and I've got your back.
Ashley Cox 1:57
Now, while I'm generally a very positive, upbeat person, I do have a really great knack for imagining all the things that could go wrong, especially when there's a lot of unknown factors in a new situation. I just like to think of it as my incredibly creative and overactive imagination doing its very best job to come up with all of the possibilities, right? Which is kind of just a more positive way of saying that I can be a bit of an overthinker and a worrywart, can you relate?
Ashley Cox 2:31
On the one hand, this can be a problem if I stay stuck there, because we absolutely cannot live successful lives and run successful businesses worrying about every single little thing all of the time. But on the other hand, this ability to see potential pitfalls, is also my superpower. It allows me to help clients protect themselves and their businesses, by proactively avoiding problems and issues that could come up. Pretty cool, right?
Ashley Cox 3:06
But worrying to the extent of overwhelm, and inaction isn't productive, or helpful. And like my grandma always says, Don't borrow trouble, meaning, don't go looking for things to worry and fret about until there's something to worry and fret about. Otherwise, that's all we would get done in life, right?
Ashley Cox 3:30
So rather than focusing on everything that could go wrong, and all of the worst case scenarios, when it comes to hiring, let's overcome that overwhelm that you're feeling right now, by focusing on what you can control, and do right, right from the start. So you can hire with more confidence, more ease, and a whole lot more fun. Because growing, your team should be one of the most exciting and rewarding parts about your business.
Ashley Cox 4:04
Now, I believe that a big part of overcoming the overwhelm of hiring is shining light on the dark places, write the unknown, so that it's not so well known and scary. That's why I thought it would be really helpful for us to talk through some common concerns to put your mind and the hiring skerries at ease today. Okay, are you ready? I'm going to work in reverse order. We're going to start with common concern number three, and then we're going to work down to common concern number one, and I'm going to give you some practical, actionable steps that you can take to make sure you hire the right person so we can overcome that overwhelm and give you some tools to hire amazing people for your team. So here we go.
Ashley Cox 4:56
Common concern number three, this is what we I often hear from people when they they come to us whether they're an a member of our audience, they're a client, someone we've just met on the street. And they say, What if my business can't afford to pay for an employee or to pay for an employee for the long term. So while you might not think that someone who has been hiring folks for over 16 years now has any worries left, I absolutely had this exact fear. When hiring my first employee for sprout HR. I used to work for large corporations like Kroger and J. Crew. And I can tell you that hiring with a corporate budget and safety net is an entirely different experience than hiring help in your own business. I mean, you're it, the buck stops with you. And that's a very real and stomach churning kind of feeling, right? I had that I experienced that.
Ashley Cox 6:06
And here's what I've learned, you have to make the leap before you feel entirely ready. Because you're going to reach a plateau of how much revenue you can make on your own. And when you hire the right team member, you'll have so much more time that you'll be able to focus on those revenue generating activities, that your business will quite literally explode. And that's if you hire the right person. Just one full time employee in a small business can equate to an additional $100,000 in revenue per year. That is too much money for us to be leaving on the table because we're scared.
Ashley Cox 6:54
I brought on my part time employee Maura in July of 2020. That's right, right in the middle of the pandemic, talk about terrified. And I knew that I could support that part time, wage at the time, right. And then I brought her on full time at the beginning of this year. So January 2022, if you're listening in the future, and then the first three quarters of this year, we've seen the business grow over 170%. That is incredible. And I absolutely 100% could not have done this on my own. Hiring Mara full time in my business has allowed me to go deeper, and spend more time in my zone of genius doing work at a higher level of excellence. It's provided me with the opportunity to get coaching and support in other areas where I wouldn't have been able to either spend the time or the money before, which have impacted the business in incredible ways. It's allowed me to not have to worry and fret about getting every single little thing done, all on my own, because I have help. Which means I can tap into my creative genius in new and powerful ways. Instead of expending all of my mental resources on just keeping the business afloat. I talk about this a lot with our clients as brainspace. Hiring help gives you brain space. And I think we probably could all use a little bit more of that. And all of this means that I'm able to have an even bigger impact in the world.
Ashley Cox 8:50
Like with my team, being able to offer flexible work schedules and unlimited paid time off along with a healthy, happy and safe work culture, versus a toxic workplace, with our clients by offering more sophisticated higher level services and support that meets them right where they are with my community by having the time and energy and excitement to volunteer for local organizations and mentor other business owners, and even around the globe, by making quarterly donations through our charitable giving program grow and give to organizations that are doing important work, and the areas that matter most to me and my team, such as social and racial justice, women's health and rights, and environmental and animal welfare. And if you're interested in learning a little bit more about our growing GIFT program, you can find out more about that on our website at SproutHR.co/about or by clicking the link in our show notes because every time a client works with us were able to give back. And that's powerful. That's impact.
Ashley Cox 10:07
Next up, we have common concern number two, and it sounds like this, I'm worried I'm going to screw this up, or I'm afraid I'll hire the wrong person, both of which are saying the same thing. I'm scared of messing up, right. And I'm going to be a little bit cheeky here with this one. So hang with me. Sure, you may screw it up. Chances are, if you hire enough people, you will screw up at some point, asked me how I know. You may fail miserably at hiring your first employee, or your fifth, there are no guarantees in this area of business. But failing isn't necessarily a bad thing. That's just a toxic story that we've been told. Failure is part of the learning process and a very important one, as long as we're willing to learn the lesson that's being taught. Just because you mess up hiring once doesn't mean that you suck at hiring, or that you're doomed to never hire your dream team member. I've been hiring employees, like I mentioned earlier for over 16 years now. And I have absolutely hired my fair share of wrong fit team members. Not wrong humans, not bad people, just wrong fit team members. And every single poor hiring decision that I have made, has taught me something valuable about hiring about myself, including what to look for red flags to avoid, what not to do next time, and so much more.
Ashley Cox 12:03
So if your brain has been thinking about how horribly you are going to mess up, I encourage you just to embrace it, to sit with it for a while and ask yourself, Okay, honestly, what's the worst case scenario possible? And then ask the reverse. What's the best case scenario possible? I think it's really fun and interesting just to see where our brains go with these two questions. And I bet that the best case scenario is going to sound so good, and be so inspiring to the point where you're going to be like, worst case scenario, what, that doesn't feel too bad. And the good news is, is I am here to help you learn how to hire right to give you a shortcut, so that you can avoid making a lot of the mistakes that I've made along the way, and to increase your chances of hiring right the first time, because that is possible. And you don't have the time or the money or the energy to waste learning years of expensive mistakes through trial and error, right. So I've got you.
Ashley Cox 13:18
Then finally, we have the most common concern that is brought up by our clients, our audience members, people we meet on the street, like I said earlier, and every single survey that I have ever put out about hiring every single survey, this comes up the number one most common concern, I don't know where to start! Which is exactly why I'm recording this podcast episode for you today. Because I know where to start. And I know how to help you avoid a year worth of Googling and getting lost down that rabbit hole to figure out what's important. What do I need? And where do I start? So I've got three simple steps to help you hire right every single time and to start overcoming the overwhelm of hiring your first or next best fit team members. Plus, I've got a really great resource for you that I'll share at the end. So make sure that you listen all the way through.
Ashley Cox 14:24
Okay, let's go. Number one, start with your values. I cannot emphasize this enough, because you cannot build a solid house on a shaky or unstable Foundation. And that is what your values are. It's the foundation of everything that you're going to do. That's people related in your business. If you want the best possible fit for your team, you need to get super clear on what your values are. I'm sure at this point you've probably heard about the Rate resignation. And there's some very interesting studies coming out of the folks that are leaving their jobs during this time period that talk about leaving due to misaligned values. And I think it's something really important that we, as small business owners, and employers or future employers are taking note of, because people are telling us what they want, what they expect what they need. And we need to be listening so that we understand and we can deliver on that. And in fact, this conversation around values is so important that I hijacked the episode that I was supposed to be doing for next week, episode five, and I turned it into an episode all about values. So if you are interested in learning more about this and learning, you know how to identify and define your company's core values and why they're so important, especially from a people perspective, a human resources perspective, then you're definitely going to want to tune in to next week's episode, Episode Five, all about building your core values, building that strong foundation. So stay tuned for that episode, I promise it's going to be so good. Okay, number one, start with your values.
Ashley Cox 16:23
Number two, in hiring the best fit people for your team is to get clear on the role. You absolutely cannot hire the right person without getting super, super clear on what you need. And I know that job descriptions sound very corporate it, but they are your number one HR tool in your business. They help you hire the right people. set clear expectations when your new hire starts and hold your team accountable when things go off the rails. They can create alignment and better engagement with your team and make sure that things don't fall through the cracks. They can also help you identify when you need to bring other people onto your team. And they can provide excellent evidence and litigation cases in case you ever find yourself in that kind of a situation. So get absolutely clear on what you need skills, experience education, credentials, whatever that is. And fight the urge to overstuff your job description with 100 tasks. I know you've been doing this all by yourself.
Ashley Cox 17:39
And you think, well, if I can do all this, somebody else can do all this. But let me tell you a little secret. Entrepreneurs are a different breed. Not everyone wants to or is able to do everything that we do in our businesses. And when I hear people talk about hiring their unicorn, it makes me cringe. Because first of all, unicorns are mythical, which means they don't exist. And what people are generally saying when they talk about finding a unicorn is finding someone who can do everything in your business. And let's keep it real, no one wants to be a workhorse in your business. Okay, and I don't want you to be a workhorse in your own business. So this is why we're hiring help. So we don't want to perpetuate that we don't want to pass that on to other people on our teams. So identify what is essential for you to take off of your plate that will help you generate the best return on your investment. Maybe this is something that's taking up a lot of your time, maybe it's an area that you're really struggling in. And there are people out there who could do it better or faster than you can and that would save you loads of time. Whatever it is, Get really clear. And if you need help with this, I've got a really great exercise in our hiring roadmap that will walk you through the process that I use with our clients. And you can download this free PDF at SproutHR.co/roadmap and also make sure that we link that up in our show notes.
Ashley Cox 19:25
Okay, start with our values, get clear on the role. And number three, have quality conversations. Interviews are not just designed to be a little chit chat. Get to know you situation. It's not just about FaceTime with a candidate and to make sure that you know, they're a real person, although that that can be valid. They are important conversations that we have in order to evaluate someone's skill, their experience, their background, their fear. it for the role that you're hiring for. And this is where you truly find your best fit candidates. Interviews are a time to ask thoughtful, intentional and purposeful questions, to gather the information that you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. So if you have tried to hire before, and you feel like you've missed some red flags, or you just didn't quite find the right person, consider how your interview went. look back on it. Think about what questions you asked, think about what maybe could have gone better. Because quality conversations quality interviews truly are a game changer between finding somebody who just applied and happened to accept your offer, and somebody who is skilled and qualified and excited to help you bring your bigger mission or vision to life. Now,
Ashley Cox 21:07
I promise, if you focus your time and attention on these three key areas, start with your values, get clear on the role, and having quality conversations, your chances of hiring, your dream team member will increase tenfold, they really make that big of a difference. So if you'd like to get some more support with these three areas, and other steps in the hiring process that will help you ensure success, you can grab your free copy of our hiring roadmap at SproutHR.co/roadmap, this PDF lays out the exact steps that we walk our clients through during our hiring VIP day, so you won't miss out on anything important when hiring your first or next employee. And again, you can grab the hiring roadmap at Sprott hr.co forward slash roadmap or at the link in our show notes.
Ashley Cox 22:06
As we wrap up another exciting episode of the impact revolt, it's time for our final segment. Imagine the impact, where we get to envision what it look like for you to take action today. You are more capable than you know. Consider your big vision and dream. What do you want to create in this world? Can you do it alone? Or would it be better with a little help?Don't let fear hold you back from hiring, the help you need and deserve in your business. You are worthy of help. And you can create infinite impact ripples when you bring on others to support you, in your business. And in your mission. Imagine the impact that hiring someone and providing them with an incredible career opportunity could have on their life, your life, your business, your community and the world.
Ashley Cox 23:12
If you loved this episode, we'd be so grateful if you could take a moment to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast app. This will help us reach more leaders just like you who need to hear the message that they are worthy and deserving of help and that we can be their biggest supporters and a resource for them on their journey.
Ashley Cox 23:34
Thanks so much for joining me today on the impact rebel podcast. It's an honor to be here with and for you on your leadership journey.
