Episode 065 – Grow your tribe to have the best team for success!

Episode 065 hiring your tribe… Grow your tribe to have the best team for success!

The topic for today’s episode 65 we will be touching on hiring. How to hire, when to hire, when is it the right time to grow your team and to select the right candidates to be able to fulfill your desires and expectations.

Now it’s not easy sometimes because you want to hire someone that is going to be able to take the torch and excel with this job.

As an employer or someone who is paying for hired help you were going to encounter highs and lows, ups and downs, I am going to present you with a few key things to consider when hiring. I wish I had a list like this when I was hiring it would’ve help me learn so much about what’s necessary.

Depending on how formal the job is that you are looking to fill for an assistant, a production assistant or an admin there should be some key standards that you should take into consideration.

1). Resumes. Request resumes! Hiring somebody without any type of summary of their qualifications or education may not be the smartest thing, you’d like to get an idea of where this person has worked before, how long they’ve worked at each job and attention to detail. You might get a recommendation that a friend of a friend is looking for a job and you my just hastily bring them in for an informational interview and feel as though it went so well that the resume isn’t necessary.

Personally I think that’s a huge mistake. The person that you hire should be prepared, they should be able to show that they have taken the time to prepare this document. It’s not unheard of in this day and age and no matter how extravagant or menial job. Resumes are important.

2.) It doesn’t go without saying that recommendations accompany the resumes, yes…would be nice. Not necessarily mandatory, however nice.
A recommendation of somebody who has worked with this person that could enthusiastically recommend them and just get it and idea to why they would recommend them.

3.) Sit down and have an informational interview, something casual, depending on the formality of the position you’re looking to fill. I would say sit down and just have a candid conversation something relaxing and get to know one another, see why they’re interested in working with you.

I have found in my experience I have found that when there’s a candidate who is aware of your services or artwork who really respect you as an artist and as a business person, that person is more likely to have a better connection with you and to evangelize and to support you on so many levels. Because the thing that they are bringing to the table is genuine and enthusiastic. They want to work with you, they want to learn from you, they want to be part of the process and be able to support you and when I tell you that having employees who respect you and your artwork from the get go, the word-of-mouth travels fast.

Several of the folks who became our sales team when I had the galleries started out as collectors and were so excited about what we were doing and the product that we are creating and the growth that was happening wanted to be part of it. Of course we brought them on because we already had a connection with them. To this day these are not only former employees, they are long life friends.

4). If you are bringing in additional people to take on additional responsibilities and you already have employees are working for you, include them into the interview process with the potential candidate, I have found panel interviews to be more beneficial because you can talk as a group and a lot more questions can be addressed in that interview format.

5). What do you pay? I have had several conversations with so many artists and creative people over the years and there’s always the one looming question is what do I pay my employees?
Of course it goes without saying that each job could be a different rate, if you’re looking for an overall assistant I think of her hourly rate that you’re comfortable with that is in parallel with the job that you’re looking for if you’re looking for someone to be a wrap, that’s a whole different pay scale, if you’re looking for someone to do production work for you at your studio or gallery that could be a different pay rate. Depending on where you live, if these are part time or full time positions, is this something that’s going to be commission plus hourly rate, there are so many different variables for this.

One thing I will tell you is I have seen a lot of artists looking for studio assistants and are offering to pay them with product, if this is a decision that the two of you have made you should have a document outlining that and of course keep an ongoing time card. You should be keeping an ongoing time card regardless but if you are going to be doing something where you are paying this person in product because that is what they want then of course you have to get it in writing. I have to tell you there’s something satisfying about getting paid actual money, but I have seen it and sometimes the expectation isn’t as enthusiastic as time progresses. But it is also comes down to the person that you’re bringing on, your artwork, what they’re bringing to the table and so many things and that would been something that you would need to determine if it’s going to work for you.

6.) And of course last but certainly not like at least, get someone that you can really trust and that you can confide in. Someone that you can make sure cares about the integrity of the work just like you do. It is your name on these products, it is your artwork that is being represented and there’s absolutely nothing wrong for standing up for yourself to make sure that your product line or you’re at work carries the integrity that it deserves.

If you have someone who is doing framing for you, make sure that they are properly trained and make sure that they are really good at that task and that they care about the way that they’re doing, for example, let’s say you’re teaching them framing and cutting mats or framing up the pieces, explain and demonstrate to them to make sure that there is no debris between the glass and the artwork, all these final touches make a huge difference. In time it’s also best to create an ongoing work manual of the tasks that you need to be done. To be clear and concise with your direction and expectations from the very beginning will eliminate a lot of confusion, heart ache, heartburn and hard feelings.

If you like to have things done a certain way, be sure to write it down,if you don’t like things done in a certain way, document that as well.

And the flipside I’ve also seen employers talk horribly to their staff and to their hired help, if you want those people who respects you, please respect them and that they are people too. It’s a two-way street. Be professional and diplomatic.

If you find yourself hiring staff because your business is thriving and you have the opportunity to hire assistants, that’s amazing and I’m so proud of the fact that your business is growing, it’s so great!

I also suggest that you keep this so saved in your podcast library because you will definitely need to reference again in the future.

Cheers!
Sonya

For the full summary of these show notes visit me at http://rockstarmentor.com/blog