As your business grows you need to know how to build an effective team that will help you scale to the next level.
Emily Perron is sharing exactly how to put together an effective team that helps you continue to scale and grow your business.
IE 127: How to Build an Effective Team with Emily Perron
If hiring and building a team for your business were easy, everyone would be excited to do it.
The problem with continuing to do all the things in your business is that as you grow, you will quickly head toward burnout if you don’t outsource some things.
Maybe you already have a partial team in place but you know you need to add to them. But the stress you experienced when finding those team members was enough to make you not want to do it again.
The thing is, when it comes to taking your business to the next level, you have to begin to outsource some of the things you are currently doing so that you can focus on the things that make money.
Emily Perron will be sharing her 5-step strategic hiring process with us today. Emily has years of experience hiring and managing employees at both the corporate and entrepreneurial level. She also hires employees and freelancers for online entrepreneurs.
Let’s jump right into her strategy for building a team you can count on!
Step #1 – Organizational Strategy
While this may sound fancy, it really just means looking at where your team is today and figuring out what you want it to look like in the future.
This begins with looking at each team member you currently have, what their job is, and how well they’re performing in that job.
If you are overwhelmed with team members that you are managing, it may be time to hire a project manager to oversee some of them to free up some mental space for yourself.
Your organizational strategy is simply setting up the positions you need in your business.
This step isn’t the nitty gritty of the hiring; this is setting up your organizational structure that you will begin to fill in.
An organizational strategy will save you money. If you have several team members but some aren’t effective and some are, you’re wasting money on the ones who aren’t.
Getting a better structure in place will save you money and allow you to hire better people.
Step #2 – Job Posting
Job posting isn’t a new concept but you don’t want to waste time with less than stellar applicants.
You have to learn how to create job postings that grab the attention of the best freelancers out there.
Emily uses a 5-component strategy for her job postings:
- General description of the job – what the job entails overall
- List of responsibilities – what you need the person to do
- Preferred qualifications – the education, experience, or background of the applicant
- Company description – who you are and why others like working for/with you
- Application instructions – how you structure your application process
If you’ve been relying on hiring friends/family, or recommendations from others for your hires, you may need to develop a true strategy around this aspect of your business.
Something as simple as nailing your job postings brings you the most qualified applicants for your team.
Step #3 – Selecting
This is by far the biggest change Emily has made in her own hiring process.
Moving from an intuition-based selection process to her new method cut her stress level drastically and made her hiring process much more successful.
But how do you find the perfect candidate for the job in a pile of qualified applicants?
Emily uses a selection spreadsheet for the candidates she chooses to take to the next step, after initially skimming their application and making a quick decision to either trash it immediately or add them to the spreadsheet.
Once they make the spreadsheet, she further divides them by the information they shared through the application process and gives them a number rating.
She then chooses the top 8-12 to get a work sample from. This allows her to gauge the quality of their work, their accuracy, and their work style.
After the work samples are done, they are also rated. The top 2-3 after this step are the ones who go through the interviewing process.
Step #4 – Interviewing
We’ve all been in job interviews. We all know the discomfort of being the one who’s being interviewed and if you’ve hired anyone, you also know the feeling of awkwardness that can come with being the one doing the interviewing.
The best way to begin your call with the applicant is to set clear expectations. Leave time for them to ask you questions instead of being the only one asking them.
Ask evidence-based questions. You’re looking for specific experiences from previous jobs or freelance positions. And notice how they respond. You can usually tell by their tone of voice if they’re being honest in their answers.
Emily shared several more steps in the interviewing process so be sure to listen in to the entire episode to get all the crucial information she shared.
Step #5 – Onboarding
How do you set yourself and your team up for success? With a strategic onboarding process.
Onboarding can include everything from extending the offer, signing the contract, settling on the payment amount and schedule, and other items that may be important to your business.
Emily uses a 30-day trial period for any new hires. This gives you and the new team member an easy way out if things just don’t go as smoothly as you hoped they would.
A kick-off meeting within the first week sets your new hire up for success and gives them vital information.
This meeting allows you to share more specific information that you didn’t share during the interviewing process. You may also want to give them their first assignments at this time but be careful not to overload them at the start.
It is crucial to give feedback during this onboarding period, especially praise for the things they are rocking. You will also need to give encouragement and assistance for anything they are struggling with.
Again, listen in to hear details on Emily’s 30-60-90 day plan to continue meeting your new team member’s needs and the needs of the company.
Plus, be sure to watch Emily’s webinar on The Secret Recipe to a Caring, High-Performing Team.
Action Steps
So, what is your next step? Now that you’ve heard the plan, where do you start?
You start at the beginning, with an organizational strategy. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, schedule a strategy session with Emily.
You’ll spend an hour with her chatting about your specific business with a 30-minute follow-up a few weeks later. She also includes all the templates she uses with her own clients to set you up for success.
Action Steps:
- If you liked this episode of Influencer Entrepreneurs, please subscribe and leave a fabulous review!
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- Join the conversation on Instagram by tagging Jenny when you’re listening to the podcast. She’ll send you a personal message whenever you tag her.
