Growing a team pt 4: Finding the right people
When you are growing a team, especially when you are a small business or solo entrepreneur, it’s really important to think consciously about the people you hire or choose to work with. So how can you find these people without introducing lengthy recruitment processes that many larger corporate companies undertake to fill roles?
Prioritise diversity
I often see growing businesses fall into the trap of hiring people like themselves in a belief that this will mean they hire people that share their values and approaches, but in reality diversity is even more essential when you are a small team.
Hiring staff, or collaborating with other freelancers and small businesses, that compliment (rather than replicate) your own skills, strengths and experiences will make it easier to scale, help you produce better work and give you a fresh perspective on the work you do. Plus, hiring people from outside of your friends, family and other communities will also give you access to more connections. In order to successfully find people that compliment your approach, experience and background we recommend starting by increasing your own self awareness.
Connect with different networks and communities
Think outside the box and consider which spaces you could find talented and interesting people to work with. The likes of the Tech Nottingham slack group and the Doing it for the Kids facebook group have been invaluable for me to meet different people to work with. Or perhaps reaching out to other businesses or teams you admire and asking them to refer anyone they don’t hire but who they felt has potential is another great way of using your network to find new people without forking out for expensive recruitment agencies. They will be pleased too as it means that they can go back to talent they’ve interviewed and refer them to other opportunities when they are unsuccessful.
Talk about yourself
I’ve grown a network of 10 partners who help me with both delivering our work placement programme and other client work, as well as building our pool of interns, simply through talking about my approach to work (the good, the bad and the ugly). When I first set up Collaborative Future I thought it had to be seen as a professional company, but being myself on social media, at events and in 1-2-1 conversations has meant I’ve quite quickly discovered people that who admire my work, are comfortable working with the way I approach work and know that they could help me grow. Sharing your story for why you do what you do, and talking openly about the challenges you face, will generate proactive communication from people wanting to come and work with you.
Trial people with Real work
Sonia and Tessa working together on the long term road-map for Collaborative Future
At Collaborative Future we don’t ask people for CVs because we believe only a handful of people are able to effectively communicate their skills, experience and potential in this format. Instead we do a short informal interview where we talk about unique strengths and how they compliment our team or community’s existing strengths, and then as quickly as possible we get people doing real paid work on a freelance basis for us to be able to really see them in action. While many businesses sign up to our flexible work placement programme because they only need support with adhoc projects and don’t plan to hire full-time, some of our businesses are using it as an alternative to traditional models of recruitment for their permanent positions.
Not only does our scheme make it possible for businesses to access talented people they might not otherwise have considered, it also creates a mutually beneficial hiring process. If you trial an intern but decide not to offer them full-time or permanent work with you, they will still be financially rewarded for their time and will have learnt new skills in the process. This ultimately leaves them feeling positive towards you and what you do, which in turn will make them an advocate of your business when they go on to work elsewhere. Plus getting people to do real work will help you more quickly identify the person who is most closely aligned to what you need than any interview will - particularly as many roles at small businesses are much less clearly defined than larger corporates.
Without this approach I would never have met Sonia, who is now invaluable member of the Collaborative Future team. With an education in fine arts and work experience mostly centred around hospitality if I’d only read her CV my mind wouldn’t have connected the dots with what value she could bring to Collaborative Future. Seeing the work she produced as part of our pilot work placement programme opened my eyes to all of the different things she was capable of and also helped me to think about what sort of support I’d actually benefit from the most. Off the back of our pilot Sonia continued to pursue a freelance career and this actually made it easier for me to then hire her on a part-time basis to ensure we can grow sustainably.
If you are interested in trialling this approach to hiring book a call today or send us an email.