Just as much as you need to ensure that you are the leader that your team needs, you must also take a closer look at the team’s individual members from time to time to ensure that they’re the right people, too. Making the wrong choice of hire can undermine the whole team’s performance and it’s your responsibility to make that right. Here are a few ways to do just that.
Be precise with your needs
When it comes to choosing new team members, one of the worst mistakes you can make is to leave your definitions of what you’re looking for so vague that you can end up hiring someone who doesn’t really fit your needs at all. You have to establish the processes that allow you to find qualified team members. This will mean writing effective job descriptions, knowing what duties team members will fulfill, as well as the qualifications that can show you that candidates bring those skills.
Research your candidates
Qualifications are one thing, but you also have to ensure that team members are a good fit in terms of culture and work ethic. There are some things you simply cannot know without being able to see inside a person’s mind. You can, however, find the warning signs that they may not be a good fit. For that reason, background screening for employees can help you ensure that you’re not making any disastrous picks. Not all instances of a criminal history may discount an employee entirely. However, if you run a retail business and they have a history of theft, it’s reasonable not to trust them entirely.
Have your team work with you
It’s your responsibility as the business owner to make good personnel choices. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to do it alone. Encouraging your team to speak up about poor practices in the workplace can help feel like you’re watching out for them. You can go further with things like reasonable suspicion training that can allow them, in certain fields, to identify signs and symptoms of drug and alcohol use. This way, your team can be just as invested as you are in maintaining itself.
Be ready to act
If you find, for one reason or another, that a member of the team shouldn’t be a part of it, then there is really only one course of action. However, it’s important to make sure you are legally justified whenever it comes time to let an employee go so that you do not run the risk of landing in legal trouble. This can include, for instance, providing written warnings of the behavior when necessary and taking a closer look to see if you are in an at-will state and, if you are, what that actually means you can and can’t fire people for.
Mistakes can be made and sometimes you can end up with the wrong people on your side. However, the tips above can minimize that risk as best as possible while ensuring you know how to deal with those that slip through the cracks.
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