I hate hiring employees from large companies. Help!

Dear Aunty,

We are stuck! We have been struggling to grow for the past few years and blaming the external environment. But now we are facing the fact it is “us” not “them” and we need to change fast as there are several compelling opportunities for us to chase.

I have some passionate employees who have been with us from the start. However, they cannot “see” the future. They have always worked in small business and I am concerned they don’t have the skills to get us to the next stage. But they have so many great attributes. And I hate hiring people from large companies who go into shock when they learn they have to do more than two things at once.

Help!

Dear Help,

You are in Half Way Land; half way between small and medium, half way between start and grow, half way to the next stage of your business. And how frustrating is it? Huh? When I am in Half Way Land I almost die of impatience! You can see your future business but everyone else sees the past one. You can see where you need to go but your staff like things the way they were before. And why not? That is what they know best.

We know that as companies grow they need to fundamentally change their culture, their systems, their structure and the way they do things. The problem is your existing staff have no experience of working within those structures so how can they put them in place? How can they know what is needed?

Now, exceptionally bright staff can learn, adjust and grow. But many others can’t. In this situation you need to bring in some staff who are from larger companies. These managers already have the experience of knowing what to introduce in order to cope with larger quantities of product and to maintain the service levels while growing.

You can get great employees from large companies. Just make it very clear in the interview that they will need to work on 10 things at once – not one.

And that water comes out of a tap – not a water cooler. They get so used to the excitement of juggling lots of balls and never knowing the temperature of the water in their glass, that they never go back!

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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