Finding a general manager was the most painful hire that Michael Parker has ever made. “We went through half a dozen because it was so difficult to find someone with the right fit,” recalls the owner of online sweet retailer A Quarter Of. “It was very expensive, and not just in money.” Parker is referring to the time, effort and disruption involved in not being able to get the right person for the job.
In a small or medium sized company, just one employee who doesn’t pull their weight can jeopardise the whole business – so how should entrepreneurs go about the vital task of adding to the team?
An SME owner will frequently mine their personal pool of contacts, first taking on family and friends, and then former colleagues whose skills and personality they’re familiar with, before looking more widely. But it can be hard to know where to go next. Prompted by a period of unexpected expansion, Parker had tried to recruit through word of mouth, through websites, by getting in younger people “who we could develop”, and by trying to attract undergraduates on secondment from university. When none of those avenues came up trumps, he tried paying higher salaries. “And that didn’t always work” he says ruefully.
“One of the cardinal sins of recruitment for SMEs is that they hire people on experience, not on attitude. Yet they fire people because they don’t like their attitude,” says Mike Carter, owner and MD of Orchard Recruitment which predominantly recruits into this sector.
At Plastic Box Shop, managing director Gary Lyons agrees that a positive attitude is worth a great deal. By contrast, “a negative employee can have serious consequences on a small business with a small team of people,” he says. Finding out how someone ticks is critical to making sure they’ll fit in with the rest of the team believes Matt Deighton, managing director at Bolton-based Sofas by Saxon. “A great philosophy when it comes to recruitment is ‘hire for attitude, train for skill’” he says. Assessing someone’s attitude isn’t an exact science, Deighton acknowledges, but asking questions about how a candidate has approached a specific scenario in the past in other roles “is a good approach to getting to know their character.”
Attitude may be crucial, but there are nevertheless some basic nuts and bolts to recruitment which all SMEs will need to think about in order to form a precise idea of what the new employee will do once in post, advises Carter. “Often [SMEs] don’t have a job description, but they need to understand what it is they’re after, and then they should think about how they’re going to find out if their candidate has the skills and attributes required.”
But be warned: “People bash out job descriptions based on what [the employee will] be doing, but these don’t usually say what they will have as responsibility for achieving,” says Richard Hewitt, owner of recruiters The Grichan Partnership. He recommends defining what the person needs to accomplish in order to succeed – and by when – rather than simply listing the functions of the role. This way, you have an objective benchmark to measure against six months down the line.
With recruitment fees amounting to 15%-20% of the advertised salary, it’s hardly surprising that word of mouth is favoured by many SME owners in search of staff. Peer-to-peer networks can certainly be a valid route to take, but at a certain point, you will always need to interview prospective candidates – so how should this be approached for the best result?
The interview process, Carter suggests, should be considered as a distinct project or brief, rather than falling into the trap of hosting a series of pleasant chats with interesting people in your sector. “What you’re after is as much interaction as possible. Some will take candidates out to dinner. You’re looking for 101 different ways to spend time with someone.”
Always allow enough time for the candidate to relax, says Deighton, “as this is when you will start to see their true personality.” The most important lesson Lyons has learned is “not to be panicked” into employing someone he is not entirely sure is right for the job. “Just because someone has the best work experience does not mean that they will be the best candidate,” he advises. “Over the years I’ve learnt to ask as many questions as possible about their work and personal life, as I’ve found that people’s personal lives can impact on you. And I always ask [about] periods of unemployment. If the reasons are genuine they shouldn’t mind answering.”
Although SMEs are unlikely to be able to compete with big corporates on career progression or salary, they can often offer a tailored package that means more to a candidate than money or climbing the greasy pole. People are “often very interested”, observes Hewitt, in benefits such as healthcare, travel loans, leisure club membership and share options. These, he points out, are not expensive for a company to provide, and can often swing a candidate’s decision to accept an offer.
Based on the experience of having to mop up after appointing the wrong person to a role, Parker now always tries to plan ahead. “If you have the opportunity to take on someone whom you know is really good, even if the timing isn’t perfect, then grab them with both hands as long as you can afford it,” he says. “Had we waited for the perfect timing to take on our general manager of the last seven years then he would most likely not have been available. Fortunately, we could afford to employ him and to manufacture a role for him, knowing that he would be an asset for the company. And when the general manager position became available, we already had the perfect person.”
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