The CFO Suite | Don’t Wait – Hire your Game Changer NOW!

24 Aug Don’t Wait – Hire your Game Changer NOW!

Posted at 13:46h in Hiring by The CFO Suite

The need to attract and retain talent remains the #1 issue on executives’ minds but as we head into Q4, there is a lot of uncertainty as to what this market holds for the future. However, in this war for talent, holding off on hiring necessary talent OR taking a break could be the worse decision to make!

Why hire now though? Well, I imagine many of the reasons you had before are still true.

Revenues are steadily growing, you may even be turning away new work
Your current team is stretched to capacity
Your current team may not have the capability to do the new tasks necessary and you don’t have time to train
You have a strong need to improve employee morale and mental health by giving them that extra help

And most importantly, game changing talent could be gone if you wait.

When do I know it’s time?
It’s not easy, but it’s critical to your success to ask yourself this question. If you don’t start soon enough, the work will start to outpace your capacity and you’ll end up backlogged. Jump the gun too early, and you may not have the cash flow you expected, putting your business and the new employee in a tough position. Here’s a few questions to ask yourself to gauge your readiness to open up some new roles:

Is the quality of work slipping?
If clients start calling you about missed deadlines or incomplete tasks, it could be a sign that your team is stretched to the max. If your employees are stretched to capacity on the job, there’s a good chance that your turnaround times for submitting work to clients is slowing down and the quality of work you deliver might even be suffering. Are emails being answered in a timely manner? Are phone calls and texts being returned quickly and are issues being resolved as quickly as they have in the past? If you answered “No” to any of these, it might be time. Not acting quickly enough could damage your company’s reputation or result in employee burn out.

Are your employees unhappy?
Speaking of burnout…. Your people are your biggest asset and assuming some of your company’s success is partly due to a culture that values honesty and open communication, it may be best to just talk to your employees to get a sense of how they are doing. Even if they don’t admit that they’re overwhelmed, you should trust your instincts and regularly take stock of how the workload is being handled by your staff. It should be easy for you to tell when your employees are struggling to keep up with the demands of their jobs. They may experience increased stress levels, display a lack of attention to detail or request time off more frequently due to illness. Try not to ignore these red flags.

Are your senior professionals doing junior level work?
You may find that you or your higher-paid employees are spending a lot of time on junior-level tasks. It’s probably time to hire when it’s costing you money to pay a high-level person for entry level work. Consider delegating these kinds of things to an interim resource to get you out of the weeds or hire new employee. Remember, time spent doing tasks that could easily be delegated to a new employee is time you’re not spending on higher-level tasks that could help your business grow or innovate.

Overall, the sooner you roll out your hiring strategy and begin the process, the more likely you are to find the high-quality talent you need.