Hiring Practices: The Hidden Danger in Waiting too Long to Hire Additional Employees

It is always a little scary to hire additional employees. It is a good hiring practice to first make sure you have the business to support them, as you certainly don’t want to let other valuable employees go in order to afford new ones. It is human nature to want to make sure you have “all your ducks in a row” before you proceed with any decision, especially with one as important and costly as hiring for key positions.  It is normal for employers to be hesitant in proceeding with such a significant decision to alter the human capital of their company. As a result of this hesitancy, employers may end up not hiring anyone even though they need additional support to accommodate the increase in their business. Employers might think that resisting the need for additional employees is a pretty good plan, as it will keep their costs down as their profit increases. But wait just a minute - there is a hidden danger in this approach that every company should be aware of.

As your business continues to grow and your current employees are saddled with more and more work, they start to feel a great deal of pressure. You may not even notice this struggle, because some employees will often rise to the occasion and continue to perform at a very high level. But, how long can they maintain this workload?  By the time you notice the effects of this pressure, many business operations have experienced the effects, and could be suffering. Maybe orders are not getting filled in time and your customers are starting to complain, or even worse, they are starting to consider switching to your competitors. Employers will start to see some cracks in the morale of their employees. This, of course, makes the entire situation worse as employees are no longer motivated to do their best work.  

It is at this stage that your key employees will start to consider those offers and calls they’ve been getting from executive search experts - calls that they previously ignored. Your employees may even make some calls themselves, to inquire about positions elsewhere. They may attend some of those interviews that the recruiters want to set up and in some cases, you may lose employees to other companies. You may even lose them to your competitors.

This, of course, exacerbates the entire situation because now you are falling farther behind with your orders when you simultaneously have to spend an appreciable amount of time hiring replacements for anyone who has left. It is right about at this point that the decisions you made in your hiring practices, to wait a little longer to hire additional employees, do not seem as beneficial as they once did.  

So, what is the solution to this problem? You still don’t want to hire additional employees if there is a possibility that your business won’t end up supporting these new hires. You don’t want to have to let anyone go. The solution to this does not lie in either hiring or not hiring more employees. It really lies in who you hire and the time you put in to make sure each additional hire will give you the most benefit possible.  

It is, therefore, worth taking the time to really look at exactly what you need in a new employee. It is crucial to have your hiring managers determine exactly what they want and need, and to articulate that clearly on paper.  This can be somewhat time intensive, however, it will save you valuable time. This will also help give you that perfect new hire who will add a great deal to your company when you really need it. Hiring the right person is the best hiring practice to help your business grow and to help you maintain your current key employees. Additionally, it will aid you in keeping your workforce happy and ignoring the calls of your competition’s recruiters.

Anderson Sterling Associates is nontraditional recruiting firm founded by a former Human Resources manager. Anderson Sterling has spent over 25 years helping technology companies hire their key employees more effectively and at a lower cost than most traditional search firms. Learn more about our approach for talent acquisition online today. For further information, please contact Victor Goodman at vgoodman@andersonsterling.com or call (310) 459-8100.