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Fire Up Your Company’s Success by Knowing

How and When to Hire
by Dennis LaRosee
What’s the secret ingredient for a roaring fire in your fireplace — the kind of fire
that comforts you for hours on a bone-chilling night? Is it the aging of your wood,
the choice of oak over birch, or the ratio of kindling to logs? While all these
considerations are important, the crucial ingredient is attention. How consistently
you tend the flames determines their ultimate shape and intensity.

I think of the fireplace image when clients ask, “When is it safe to hire again?”
Their concern is timely. As we gradually move into a period of new growth,
companies are naturally cautious about planning for additional salaries. The
questions they may forget to ask, however, are: “Where are we heading? What will
be the shape of our business in six months, next year and in two years? Who are the
people we need now to get there? Are we ‘stoking the embers’ enough to meet our
future goals?”

Just as manufacturers buy raw materials with an eye toward current business
conditions and future opportunities, large and small organizations should be
forward thinking when they evaluate investments in their people. Consider the
following as you develop a hiring framework:

What is the current state of our employment situation? Are we fully staffed or
are our people approaching burnout from too much overtime? Take the
temperature of your organization.

At what point in the future do you expect market conditions to evolve,

resulting in increased demand for your products?

Given the timing of that demand, what resources will you need to have in
place—in sales, customer service, manufacturing, and logistics, for instance:

To what extent can your current workforce stretch to meet those

demands?

Will key people be able to hit the ground running when demand
increases?

What is the optimal lead time for hiring to enable these people to
succeed?

In short, companies need to be able to accept the risk of making reasonable

predictions about their businesses’ growth, and continually plan for the people who
will help them sustain those expectations. This, of course, requires expertise in
understanding the ideal behaviors and drives of individuals who will be most
successful in key roles.

Those drives will change as the business environment evolves. Iron Mountain
Records Management provides an excellent illustration. Its parent company, Iron

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Mountain Inc., has achieved an enviable reputation as the world’s trusted partner
for outsourced records and information management services — with more than
200,000 customer accounts and 53 years of success.

At a point when revenues for Iron Mountain Records Management had grown from
$100 million to nearly $1 billion, the company took a renewed look at its people.
Management realized it needed different kinds of individuals to rise to the next
plateau.

In its high-growth stage, the company had sought out employees who could sustain
a fast pace. In a new expansion phase, it needed people who could think
strategically, marshal teams together and communicate effectively. The company
began building behavioral profiles of ideal candidates, with emphasis on strategic
and people skills. Applicants for new positions also completed a workplace
personality survey to help Iron Mountain Records Management place them in
positions that would leverage their “behavioral strengths”. Among resulting
benefits: improved employee retention, better understanding of how to bring out the
best in individual employees, and more powerful teams as the company moved
ahead.

If, like Iron Mountain Records Management, you envision expansion opportunities,
take a renewed look at your current people, too. In addition to hiring, should you be
redesigning specific positions to gain more from your existing people? Should you
shift people into new roles — particularly at the senior level? Are your current
leaders able to capitalize on the new opportunities at hand?

This is a particularly important consideration if your organization is emerging from

a hiring freeze or a period of downsizing. Companies in those situations often give
their remaining employees additional responsibilities without fully considering
whether this will improve or reduce their ability to succeed. For example, after
layoffs, businesses may simply shift the responsibilities of terminated employees to
those closest to them. Now is the time to reevaluate these assignments — and
remove the burden from those individuals who will gain new energy and improve
performance when their jobs fit their “workplace personalities” once more.

No matter what the season — or the current economic barometer — companies

should fan the flames of growth through their people. Spark existing employees’
productivity by matching them with jobs that fit like a glove. Understand where
your next windows of opportunity lie, and in what areas you should be staffing —
or realigning — now to prepare. What behavioral strengths will individuals need to
succeed in these key positions — and to fire up your success? For blazing growth, a
continual look at hiring is essential.

Dennis LaRosee is Senior Vice President of PI Worldwide, an international

management consulting organization headquartered in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Using a proven, proprietary management tool known as the Predictive Index®, as
well as a flexible suite of skills-based workshops (the Predictive Leadership Series),
PI Worldwide helps companies align individual performance with their specific
business goals for improved bottom-line performance, productivity and
profitability. Contact Dennis at DLarosee@PIworldwide.com and visit
www.PIWorldwide.com.
Many more articles in The HR Refresher in The CEO Refresher Archives

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Copyright 2005 by Dennis LaRosee. All rights reserved.

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