Before we talk about building a team, let’s take a walk down memory lane.
Do you remember the first time you were on a team? It could’ve been a second-grade soccer team where everyone got a trophy at the end of the year regardless of how well the team did. Or it was later in life, a twelfth-grade capstone project that required collaboration for completion. No matter when you experience your first time being on a team, there’s one truth about them: they’re everywhere. So how can something so common be consistently mismanaged? It may have more to do with what we believe about teams in the first place.
“A team is more than a collection of people. It is a process of give and take.” – Barbara Glacel
In this article, I want to share the three myths that small businesses believe when building a team, why I think these myths exist, and how to overcome them. If these resonate with you, please share them with your team and consider working with mine.
Myth 1 when building a team: The right candidate is LOOKING for your business.
Every day in America, companies post, pray, and ponder over job descriptions, hoping they’ve cooked up the right recipe for the ideal candidate to manifest in their applicant tracking system and solve all their workload and team chemistry woes.
Building a team is hard and I’ve even been there myself. Thinking that the only thing standing between our open positions and success is a fresh job description with KPIs and culture. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Unless you are a household name like Apple or Amazon, how can we be so sure that someone even knows to look for us in the first place? Of course, we believe in our brand, mission, and team – but what do we do consistently to raise awareness about our businesses and their inner workings? Suppose you want to be found by the right candidate. In that case, you must think beyond the traditional job description and share what it’s like to work in your company. These days, 70% of job seekers are passive.
Stop believing that the right candidate is LOOKING for your business. More often than not, it would be best to source the right candidate for your business. What is sourcing? It’s when you proactively find candidates instead of posting a job and sifting through hundreds of candidates. As you make this shift when building a team, you feel empowered to make proactive decisions to land your next key hire. One potential decision you should consider making? Work with a recruiting agency that will source talent and use tools that reduce the time and cost it takes to hire for your organization.
Myth 2 when building a team: The right hire comes from the right school or company.
While so much has changed over the last decade within the recruiting industry, only some hiring managers have kept up.
There was once a time when notable schools and companies were reliable pipelines to fill cookie-cutter jobs with predictable expectations. I remember the days when building a team meant that applicants from relevant universities or companies were given an automatic second look – even if their qualifications weren’t quite there. Some would even get the benefit of the doubt when it came to salary since “they used to work at [fill in the blank], they must be good!” The problem with this way of thinking now (and quite frankly, always) is that it presents an unconscious bias against high-potential talent from non-traditional or traditional backgrounds without name recognition. Take the world of IT, for example, where the US Bureau of Labor Statistics says 25% of IT workers have no college degree. Are you willing to risk passing on game-changing talent because they don’t come from the background you envisioned they would?
Instead of believing the right hire comes from the right school or company, you should know that the right candidate can articulate their skills and how they align with what you need them to do. Interviewing is all about asking excellent questions and developing mutual trust. The next time you have an opportunity to chat with a candidate with the right experience but not the right name on their diploma, break out a few good questions where you ask them to describe their experience and what challenges they’ve faced along the way. Don’t hire based on which mascot they cheer for during March Madness; employ a team member for their ability to make an impact on your team today and tomorrow.
Myth 3 when building a team: We hire to find the right person.
One of these days, I might write a book about the parallels of marriage and building a team – but that’s a story for another time.
Right now, though, I want to address a myth we’ve been carrying for years in small business circles: there are no unicorns, ninjas, or rockstars. Instead, there are hidden gems, high-potential hires, and developmental candidates you take a chance on because you see something. Companies often want to pass on great candidates in hopes of finding “the one.” It prolongs the search process, adds extra costs, and reduces the candidate experience for everyone. You rarely find someone better qualified than the candidate you passed on because they nailed four things but were “eh” on the fifth.
Instead of believing you recruit to find the right person, consider recruiting to find someone competent in the role that vibes with your culture and is willing to be developed. Since we’re on the topic of teams, let me speak about a sports analogy: The NBA Draft. The most successful teams in the draft aren’t the ones who waste time trying to find someone who will be an MVP right away. The most successful teams in the draft are the ones who look at their organization’s style of play, which prospects play a similar kind of basketball, and who will train and study to perform at their best over time. It’s impractical to think there’s a perfect ready-made hire out there. Why? You have a unique culture, unique management structure, and maybe a few skeletons in your operational closet.
If you think about hiring as a big-picture project, your new hire will figure out how to paint themselves in that picture with you.
Inc. Business Media today announced the inaugural Power Partner Awards, honoring B2B organizations across the globe that have proven track records supporting entrepreneurs and helping startups grow. The list recognizes 252 firms in marketing and advertising, health and human resources, financial planning, engineering, logistics, and security, as well as other areas of business.
All 252 companies received top marks from clients for being instrumental in helping leadership navigate the dynamic world of startups. These B2B partners support entrepreneurs across various facets of the business, including hiring, compliance, infrastructure development, cloud migration, fundraising, etc., allowing founders to focus on their core missions.
“Trusted B2B partners provide guidance and expertise that founders rely on at various steps of their organization’s journey. Partners that possess a demonstrated ability to deliver quality support are at the core of entrepreneurship and help bring big ideas to life,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Business media.
Jumpstart:HR President/CEO Joey Price says the following about this award:
“The recognition that Inc. provides winners of the Inaugural ‘Power Partners’ list will be a great benefit for Jumpstart. We’ve spent a decade developing custom solutions for winning startups and small businesses and this feels like a congratulatory ‘job well done!’ We plan to maximize the awareness and recognition this award provides by reminding our current clients of the caliber of our team, encouraging new team members to join a thriving remote-first organization, and encouraging current team members that our mission is one worth chasing together. At Jumpstart, we believe that employees desire and deserve to work for an organization where they enjoy Monday morning just as much as most enjoy Friday evening. We look forward to building upon this honor by bringing our drive and outcomes to more organizations across the United States.”
Since 2011, Jumpstart:HR has been providing innovative approaches to shaping culture at some of the top performing organizations across the US. Our approach to workplace culture, compliance, recruitment, and employee relations has supported organizations from restaurants to non-profits. More specifically, Jumpstart’s success has been working with firms in the following industries:
Professional Services
Digital Services
Non-Profit Organizations
Government Contracting Agencies
Hospitality, Restaurant, and Retail
And more…
While a hallmark of Jumpstart’s service offering is confidentiality, clients go on to support causes and organizations that are highly visible. Our client organizations provide direct services and support to brands like:
Meta (Formerly Facebook)
The NFL (National Football League)
Numerous Several Federal and State Government Agencies (Ex.: The Small Business Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
And the following causes on a national and international scale:
Gun Violence Prevention
Remedying Food Insecurity
Health and Fitness
About the Power Partners Evaluation Process Inc. partnered with leading global social and media intelligence platform Meltwater to develop a proprietary methodology that uses a sentiment from online conversations about organizations and translates it into numerical scores. Companies were evaluated on commitment, reliability, trust, creativity, supportiveness, and other virtues that offer value to clients. Inc. also conducted surveys to gather client testimonials as part of the process.
The November 2022 Issue of Inc. magazine is available online now at https://www.inc.com/magazine and will be on newsstands beginning November 8, 2022.
About Inc. Business Media
The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community they need to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
ABOUT JUMPSTART:HR
Jumpstart:HR is an outsourcing human resources firm providing innovative and fresh ways to drive human performance and interconnectivity in the workplace that meet the needs of emerging small businesses and teams. They are professionals with the experience and passion for transforming and inspiring workplace culture. Jumpstart:HR is committed to building better businesses and lending their expertise to solve organizations’ most complex people problems.
To learn more about Jumpstart:HR, visit https://www.jumpstart-hr.com or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Press Contact:
Kyerra Hawthorne
klindsay@jumpstart-hr [dot] com
844-907-0731
@jumpstarthr
Employee Handbook is also known as an employee manual, staff handbook, or company policy manual.
It is a document which defines a company’s key policies and procedures and outlines its company culture.
The employee handbook can be used to bring together employment and job-related information which employees need to know.
Typically, it has three types of content:
Cultural
A welcome statement, the company’s mission or purpose, company values, and more.
General Information
Holiday arrangements, company perks, policies not required by law, policy summaries, and more.
Case-Specific
Company policies, rules, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and other information modeled after employment laws or regulations.
Here are the important benefits of having an employee handbook:
Formalized Policies
A handbook can provide employees with a clear understanding of what they’re responsible for, including how to request time off, how to call in sick, and who to go to with questions about policies or procedures.
By outlining all policies and expectations on both sides of the fence, confusion and inconsistencies are essentially minimized in the workplace.
Promotes Open Communication and Transparency
Open communication is key to a positive work environment. By giving new hires your handbook, you’re letting them know your mission, purpose, and core values. This sets the stage for a positive business relationship and lets team members know who they can go to with questions about their employment, rights, and work environment.
Time Saved
A well-written employee handbook offers answers to the most common employees’ questions. By having an employee handbook, you will avoid constant questions over policies. Employees will be able to look up the answers themselves, thus saving your time.
Legal Disputes Prevented
Lawsuits are a threat in every business, no matter its size or industry. If yours should face a lawsuit or discrimination claim one day from a current or former employee, your handbook could play an influential role in the final outcome. For this reason, make sure you have an expert review your handbook’s wording.
Company culture outlined
An employee handbook is much more than a list of policies, rules and regulations. A great employee handbook clearly communicates your company’s mission, vision and its values, thus outlining your company’s culture.
Important Note :
A handbook needs to reflect compliance with applicable federal, state and local law.
A handbook should be tailored to your organization and should reflect how you conduct business
For more information about employee handbooks or other HR solutions, contact us today at jumpstart-hr.com/contact
TL;DR: New video conferencing tool 8×8.vc makes it easy to connect with employees and customers on the go key features at no additional cost.
Video conferencing is cheaper than travel (and with 8×8, it’s free!). Let’s say you want to meet with a customer in another state to go over plans for a new project. You’ve got everything spec’d out and your team is excited about what the project could mean for your organization. But there’s just one problem — the best way to convey all sides of the plan would require at least three of the main contributors on the project. Sure you could hop on a plane (BTW — I LOVE planes) but what if the cost to get everyone in front of the customer was more than the value of the project? What if you’re only planning to meet for an hour? What if you need multiple meetings over time and it’s just not feasible to have key team members shuttling back and forth to the client site because it’s not in the contract? Have you ever been in this predicament? Video conferencing is the best solution for these problems because it helps bridge the communication divide while also having the feel of a face-to-face meeting. With 8×8’s new, free video conferencing software, you can meet over video and not worry about time limits, usage, or anything like that. It’s free and limitless — the power to be productive is at your fingertips!
Video conferencing brings employees together. When you run a startup or small business, you don’t always build your team from the talent pool in your backyard. For example, my company has employees and contractors who live in three time zones… An in-person meeting just doesn’t work for us! If you’re reading this article, you’re probably running a business that is very similar — am I right? These days many businesses know that the best talent isn’t always living in your backyard and many employees value the ability to work remotely for their employer. So, what’s the best way to keep everyone in the loop and build a sense of community? Definitely not email threads and “instachatbook” messages where you’re wondering if it’s okay to send that emoji that gets your point across. It’s video conferencing! Employees use video conferencing for many different reasons. With 8×8, it’s super easy to connect with colleagues in another county and another cubicle. You can have a standing meeting room, which makes it easy to share a custom URL with your teammates. You can also sync your availability with your calendar so people know when to chat about work and when to chat about your holiday plans! Did I also mention that you can meet via a web browser, tablet, and cell phone?
Video conferencing is a great way to make a first impression with prospects and potential new hires. Pro Tip: If you want to make a good first impression with a business colleague, you might want to have a pretty sweet looking office. Advanced Tip? Show that office off on a video conference call. Super-Next-Level Tip? Show that office off in HD! 8×8 offers feature-rich HD video and audio conferencing at no cost. That means you can leverage the space around you to help make your meeting participants feel like they’re right there with you — and do so with crystal clear visibility. Because let’s face it, as much as people lock into what’s being said at a meeting, they also want to see surroundings. Get good lighting, set up in your conference room or room with a view, and nail that next presentation or interview!
Video conferencing extends your ability to create meaningful content. This might actually be one of my favorite reasons for using video conferencing software. You don’t have to use it only for meetings. With 8×8, you can record podcasts/interviews, create video SOPs, share your screen and create training guides, and more! If you don’t think video is a popular form of content, think again! Over 500 million hours of video content is consumed on YouTube every day. Create internal and external video content with 8×8 and watch employee engagement and your marketing efforts soar!
Video conferencing is the communication tool of today — and tomorrow. Ask any millennial today and 8 times out of 10, they probably won’t be able to tell you the last person they talked to on the phone. The same number of millennials likely would tell you that they suffer from “app fatigue,” a condition that causes burnout due to the number of chat, email, text, and phone apps on our phones and the constant need to switch between them all to communicate with those who are important to us. But, remember what I said earlier about video consumption on YouTube? That trend alone is a good indicator that people crave video. People consume video to be entertained, to be informed, to learn new skills, and to keep in touch. Software like 8×8 makes that possible at work with a simple setup process and many key features. Want to know how many people attended a meeting and how many minutes they spoke in the meeting? 8×8 meeting analytics can show you. Worried about people not being able to speak up in heated discussion or one person monopolizing camera time? 8×8 has a hand-raise feature that let’s you acknowledge who wants to speak next. Video is the primary replacement for face-to-face communication when meeting IRL isn’t possible.
So, there you have it! As we look at 2020, you should consider using video conferencing software more often to communicate with employees, customers, and potential new hires. Not only is it the most preferred method of communication behind face-to-face meetings, you can have memorable meetings for free with 8×8’s new software offering. Take that next step and go register for an 8×8 profile for free today! And after the ball drops and we welcome 2020 with open arms, reach out to a colleague over video to say “Happy New Year and we’re going to have an amazing year together!”
)
Listen to the latest episode of our weekly Small Business HR podcast.
