Before you hire a new employee, do the job yourself

One of the best things you can do as an entrepreneur or CEO is to fully understand your company. This doesn’t just mean knowing what products you make, or how your day-to-day operations run. Managers, or anyone who is hiring for a meaningful position needs to understand what they’re asking employees to do. This means understanding the minute ins and outs of your employees’ responsibilities. If you have no idea of their job responsibilities, it becomes very difficult to effectively manage or support your employees. This is especially true for technical positions.

Being ignorant of their responsibilities means that there’s no way to know if they’re delivering quality work. An employee who isn’t being managed effectively is a waste of valuable money and resources. They may be extremely capable and have great potential, but if their supervisor has no idea what their job entails, it’s a waste of their skills.

So- what’s the solution? Many companies solve this problem in the short-term by hiring recruiters, and requiring potential employees jump through lots of hoops to demonstrate their skills.

EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE YOU HIRE SOMEONE NEW

Don’t just cross your fingers and hope you’ll find the right candidate. Educate yourself first. That way, you’ll know when you have the right candidate. You won’t need to guess.

Once you realize that you need to expand your company, spend a few days or even weeks doing the position yourself. This may seem daunting if you already have a full plate, but it’s worth the effort. Spending time educating yourself ensures that you’ll not only know the right person to hire, you’ll be an effective manager for them for their entire career with your company.

HOW EDUCATING YOURSELF CAN STREAMLINE THE INTERVIEW PROCESS

Once you’ve worked the position for a few days or weeks and have a rough understanding of what the position requires, you’re ready to start the hiring process. Educating yourself in this way will make the hiring process so much easier. Here are a few reasons why.

IT ALLOWS YOU TO BRING IN THE RIGHT CANDIDATES

In the past, many companies have used keyword matching to determine whether someone is a good match for the position. This approach is reductive, and may inadvertently eliminate someone who is extremely qualified but bad at formatting resumes.

IT ALLOWS YOU TO BUILD A RAPPORT WITH CANDIDATES

Any interview is going to be more comfortable and informative for both interviewer and interviewee when it’s conversational. Building a rapport with candidates is going to give you a better sense of their personality and approach to the work. If you don’t understand their expertise, the conversation will likely stay surface- or you won’t be able to follow if they do go into depth.

IT ALLOWS YOU TO FOCUS ON CORE SKILLS

There are lots of companies that spend the majority of their time perusing the very bottom of a resume for information on schooling and formal education. Sure, going to a great school is helpful, but it isn’t everything. Research has shown that only 25% of tech professionals think their degree is critical to their work. More companies than ever are hiring people without traditional four-year degrees.

Many hiring managers focus on schooling because they lack the confidence to determine whether a candidate is qualified on their own. Knowing about the position, and doing the necessary research allows you to look at their education as a part of the overall package, instead of as their only valuable quality.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

We would advocate for learning as much as possible about every position you hire, regardless of whether you’re early on in your career, or have an established business. This is especially valuable if you’re hiring specialized or technical positions. The more knowledgeable you are, the more effective you’ll be at managing your team.