Hiring Fears: Overcoming the 3 Fears of Hiring

[Ashley Wilson]

Two years after I knew I needed to hire someone, I actually did. Two years of bandwidth constraints. Two years of stress. Two years of missed opportunities. Two years I will not get back.

Why did it take me so long?

Long story short I was scared. I was paralyzed in the fear that a hiring mistake could be a life-altering event. The reality was, this fear was irrational. It was irrational, not because I was infallible from hiring the wrong person, but because it wouldn’t destroy my life.

As I faced my fear head-on, I realized there are three fears surrounding hiring: 1) fear of affordability, 2) fear of hiring the wrong position, and 3) fear of hiring the wrong person.

Affordability

In my experience, this is the most common fear. I was able to overcome this fear by the following self-talk:

“Why are you afraid to hire someone?”

I might hire the wrong person.

“Do you think you will be able to recognize that you hired the wrong person?”

Yes, I do.

“In a year?”

Sooner than that.

“In a month?”

Yes, if not within two weeks.

“So, in the worst case scenario where you hire the wrong person, could you afford paying their salary for two weeks?”

Yes.

Once I had this epiphany I was more confident than ever to make a move. One point to clarify, I wasn’t preparing to fail, I was working through a fear. I obviously had more work to do to identify the right hire, but I was now approaching the other aspects with confidence instead of fear when it came to making a decision on the correct hire.

Wrong Position

Almost every business, regardless of whether they are new or established, would agree that another set of hands could help their business. The question is what do those hands do. As newer businesses tend to be more fragile hiring for the right position even more important.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to hiring (start with the top, or start with the bottom). Hiring someone at the top provides high value impact at a high price. Hiring from the bottom removes administrative tasks to free up your time but typically doesn’t yield high value impact. Different businesses require different approaches, which is why these two strategies are equally implemented.

Surprisingly Ai can also be a consideration when it comes to a hiring solution. In other words, instead of thinking of hiring a person, you now have the option to subscribe to an existing solution, or hire a developer to build you an application that can replace a hire.

Regardless of whether you hire from the bottom, top or utilize Ai, analyzing cost-benefit is a perfect place to start to identify the best strategy to deploy for your personal situation. Pro Tip: Benefits aren’t limited to bottomline revenue, but also opportunities created (which are typically harder to quantify).

Wrong Person

Finding the right person who fits the cultural you are building is equally as important as hiring for the right position. I have personally witnessed the impacts a wrong person hire can do to an organization. A few examples include negatively shifting employees mindsets and work ethic, being a drain on management, and a negative customer experience.

To increase my chances of hiring the right person, I prioritize one’s personality over their experience. In other words, I look at personality scores first. If their natural disposition does not fit the role’s personality disposition then I don’t move forward with the candidate. For example, if I am looking to hire someone who manages data they must test very high when it comes to detail oriented.

For so many years I have heard people say, “There are so many bad contractors”, “Virtual Assistants are horrible”, or “There are so many lazy workers”, but the reality is there are so many people who don’t know how to hire. Focusing on overcoming the fear of affordability, wrong position and wrong person gives you the power to find the right hire and set your business up for success!