Business success hugely depends on talent acquisition. Yet, most business owners struggle with finding the right employees with the skills and capacity to help them reach their growth goals (and keeping them around).
A 2023 survey discovered that 77% of employers consider hiring to be difficult and frustrating. More worryingly, even when they do find the right candidates, the employee turnover rate remains high, with the U.S. average for 2024 being 17.3%.
That's why growth and success-oriented organizations need a hiring strategy. Moreover, that strategy needs to align with the organization's values, vision, and business goals, as that's the only method for guaranteeing positive outcomes.
Are you interested in acquiring the best talent for your business? Here's everything you need to know about developing an effective hiring strategy based on the company culture factors that make your business unique. Let's get into it.
Most entrepreneurs — and especially those with zero HR experience — make the mistake of thinking that hiring for success is a process that solely depends on finding skilled workers. But that couldn't be further away from the truth.
Research consistently shows that business success directly depends on your ability to find and acquire the people who are best suited to work for your brand.
For starters, scientific evidence indicates that employee job satisfaction is a factor in corporate success and that organizational values impact worker satisfaction.
Secondly, people want to work for businesses whose values align with their own.
Thirdly, it's worth noting that most people want to feel a purpose in their day-to-day jobs. After all, meaningful employment doesn't just positively impact productivity. It also determines people's health, happiness, and satisfaction levels. Plus, it's directly related to business outcomes.
In other words, getting your team to feel a strong sense of belonging and connection to your company (which is one of the major motivators for doing excellent work) depends on how successful you are at building and maintaining a positive, value-based company culture. And that begins with the hiring process.
Although it may seem that hiring (and onboarding) is as simple as creating and publishing a job posting, the truth is that it's just a tad more complex than most people think.
Fortunately, there are several steps you can follow to ensure culture and business goal alignment.
The very first step toward finding team members who can turn your business goals into reality is to define what you want (or don't want) from the people on your team.
Ultimately, what this means is that your hiring success hugely depends on your ability to pinpoint the employee characteristics that could contribute to (or detract from) your ability to reach your goals.
For instance, if your desired outcome involves building a powerful brand with a reputation for delivering premium customer experiences, then you can't possibly begin to make that happen without a superstar customer-obsessed support team — no matter how amazing your products or services are.
Similarly, if your priorities include offering high-quality, reliable solutions, then you can't ignore quality assurance roles within your organization. Otherwise, you're guaranteed to fail to fulfill your promises.
Additionally, documenting your company culture — your organization's core values, mission, vision, and business goals — can also be a great way to make hiring decisions. You can use the document as a reference point for any major HR-related decisions, whether that involves hiring, promoting, or training your team.
The second most essential step toward ensuring that new hires fit into your business growth goals is to surround yourself with a great core team.
Ultimately, your core team will set the tone for your company culture — including how everyone communicates and collaborates. On top of that, it will set the standard of work quality for all future hires.
In other words, if your core team consists of highly motivated, innovative individuals, you can almost guarantee that new team members will adopt the same approach to work, aligning their sense of purpose with what your company does.
However, if they're lacking in dedication, turning in sloppy results, or even slacking off, then you can expect new hires to do the same. After all, why would they put in extra energy and work if their superiors are getting by with much, much less?
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You don't need to choose job candidates based on their hard skills. Yes, experience and expertise are valuable. However, they're not nearly as important as the person's soft skills and cultural fit.
If you're looking for employees who will contribute to your organization, ask them about their values and goals. Gain insight into how they see themselves as part of a team. And be sure to check whether they're growth-oriented.
Chances are, you can find a talented candidate who'll fit right into your company culture (and hopefully even add to it). And that's a marvelous foundation for positive and harmonious collaboration. Moreover, you can create training opportunities to help your employees reach their full potential, regardless of their individual starting points.
Most business owners understand that a healthy and success-oriented company culture is all about communication, collaboration, and being on the same page. However, many leaders (even those with years of experience) forget that culture needs to be maintained — especially during times of exponential growth or when bringing new people onto your team.
It's essential to continually invest in culture so that your organization can stay on track regarding its original values and vision.
A good rule of thumb is to be adamant about checking in with your team, particularly with new team members.
Do your best to foster safe and open communication. Encourage a growth mindset among your employees, as that will inspire them to strive for better. And don't forget to enforce boundaries — especially when it comes to work-life balance.
Yes, presenteeism may seem like a good thing (particularly if its outcomes involve higher productivity rates or a better bottom line). But it's also one of the surefire ways for your team to burn out, which is exactly what you don't want, seeing that 70% of people would quit their jobs if it meant finding a new one with better resources for preventing overwork.
As a leader, it's also essential that you understand that you have the power to pivot and make changes to your company culture.
After all, organizations change, goals shift, and possibilities come and go. And it's unreasonable not to allow yourself (and your employees) a degree of flexibility when it comes to defining success.
Who knows, an unexpected opportunity may arise that allows your business to thrive in previously unimaginable ways. A lack of flexibility — on your part or that of your employees — could prevent you from grabbing that opportunity and accomplishing exceptional outcomes that may not have originally been a part of your plan.
Lastly, as you explore employing tactics that will help you align your staffing efforts with your organization's values, vision, and goals, don't forget that hiring is a job on its own. And, as with anything else, it's often best left to the professionals.
By outsourcing the hiring process to a highly-rated staffing agency — especially if you're looking for remote employees — you won't just gain back a significant portion of your time (because, let's face it, hiring and onboarding can be extremely resource-intensive).
You could also benefit in unexpected ways, such as accessing untapped talent pools, gaining much-needed HR support, or even having someone other than you deal with the excessive bureaucracy involved in expanding your team.
Hiring for impact is not easy. Nor is it a process you can do quickly. However, it's more than worth investing your resources in.
Ultimately, a great culture fit won't just ensure that new team members share your organization's values, mission, and goals. It will also make way for more effective collaboration, better retention rates, and higher job satisfaction, all of which are significant drivers of long-term business success.