DISCLAIMER: This post provides tips for effective hiring. It is not legal advice, and I am not your attorney. If you require information or advice applied to your unique situation, please make an appointment to discuss it with an experienced attorney of your choosing.
When I started this firm, I had only been practicing law for a little over one year. In that first year, I got a lot of valuable trial and litigation case management experience. I also learned some of the business side of law practice. Knowing I wanted to eventually have my own firm, I absorbed as much as I could. The plan was to do this in New York City approximately six years. If I could make it here, I could make it anywhere. Right? Then, I could take my skills and move closer to my family in Kentucky.
As many have said and John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
No Education Fully Prepares Us to Manage Employees
Going into law school, I had management experience in operations, marketing, and human resources. I was fascinated by the business aspects of the industries I worked in. I even got a Bachelor’s degree in Sport Administration. Nothing prepared me enough for hiring the first employees in my business.
I got lucky with the first couple of hires. The first had worked with me at my prior law firm. She was exceptionally bright and professional, which gave her big goals. Columbia University lured her away with a Master’s degree program in Journalism.
After she left, I was blessed with another great assistant, who was assigned to me by an agency for two years. I deeply enjoyed our strategic partnership and wanted to buy out her contract with the agency, but she also had advanced degree aspirations. When she left, she told me that the way I cultivate people gave her the desire to keep reaching for her dreams. That was when I first realized I was building my dream here.
You Know What We Say About Assumptions
Eager to expand my impact, I quickly hired three part-time workers to replace my assistant and expand the firm. Without the requisite due diligence, I hired a friend of a friend and two people from the agency I had previously used. One of the employees from the agency quit to pursue other opportunities within the first two weeks. The other had such a bad attitude during her orientation that I did not continue her assignment.
It was much harder to release my friend’s friend, who I had hired out of sympathy. She was struggling financially, and I thought the right thing for me to do was help her. In addition to paying her well, I fed her, trained and retrained her, sent her for outside training, made excuses for her poor attendance, and did her work–all while not paying myself. This misguided decision cost the business a lot of money, and it cost me substantial time and energy.
Two years later, I asked this employee if she could honestly say she had been giving me her best work. She admitted she had not, and we created a powerful plan that would leave us both in positions to move forward with ease. Later, I hired her back! Not surprisingly, that didn’t go any better.
Many of Our Clients Make Similar Hiring Mistakes
Those of us who grew up poor and improved our circumstances through education or entrepreneurship often want to lift others up. Intending to give guidance and opportunities we wish we had gotten, we make exceptions to our proven methods. We search for people who have been abused, oppressed, and overlooked, and we hired them regardless of their skills and experience. Despite our best intentions, we set them up to fail.
Don’t beat yourself up over this. We all experience conflict. Forgive yourself (Choice One) and do better.
If you’ve hired too quickly and are considering termination of an employment relationship:
- Make a list of the contributions the employee has made. Even if the overall performance is not up to your standards, you might discover that there are valid business reasons to keep working together. Rarely is an employee a complete disaster at work. Get clear on what is going well, too.
- Draft a job description with clear performance indicators. Stay on PARR: Plan, Act, Revise, and Repeat, until you get the results you want with this employee or someone else. Don’t leave anyone to read your mind or figure it out on their own, and don’t keep people in positions they can’t succeed in.
- Request a meeting to create an action plan you can work on together. Keep the tone positive, and focus on mutuality. Use the performance indicators from the job description. Set clear goals with deadline dates and objective measures. Allow the employees to self-select what is right for them after the retraining period. You will usually see improved performance or a resignation letter. Don’t take it personally. If you’ve done your job well, the next best action will be obvious for both of you.
Not sure if it’s time to let go?
Nance L. Schick Shares with Upjourney Her Tips for Quick Thinking