Attracting the right talent when building a start-up is an essential process if you want your company to succeed. Once you determine a potential candidate has the skill set for a position then the first and most important consideration is to evaluate how well this person will fit on your team. Perhaps you are starting with the first person you plan to hire besides yourself. You then need to consider a candidate that compliments your personality and skill set. When adding an new employee to a team, consider who is on the team and who should meet the candidate during the interview process. Collect all honest feedback from everyone who is involved with the potential candidate in order to have enough information to make an educated decision.
However, you will sometimes get it wrong and select a bad fit for your team. My best advice? Let them go immediately. When employees don't fit on a team it brings down the entire team and creates a negative tone which wastes more energy than it creates plus it shifts your focus from growing your business to dealing with issues.
Consider your screening process, philosophy, and always pull in key employees to get their opinion on a candidate before you higher them.
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| Lisa Kentzell, photo by Chris Marquardt |
