Interior Designers – Do You Struggle With Hiring?
Interior design is a creative venture and who knew that we’d spend so much of our time running a business? When you’re growing, hiring is one of the most challenging parts of the business because you’re dealing with so many subjective issues.
Here’s a great post from Seth Godin. I’d recommend reading this one – his articles are always short and to the point.
My experience with hiring? Not always so good. I’ve made my mistakes and they were stressful and costly. Here’s my advice:
- Hire slowly and fire fast
- Read Be a Shortcut by Scott Halford. You’ll get some great ideas for interview questions and you’ll know what characteristics you want in a candidate. Then, once you find someone good, have them read the book, too.
- Create a clear job description.
- Look for interns first, or at least consider doing a probationary period with a new hire.
- Create a checklist for orientation with your new employee. If you have other employees, involve them in the hiring process and the orientation.
- Create an Employee Handbook with information you can use to bring your employee up to speed quickly.
- Always ask to make sure they understand what you’re asking then to do and have them feed back what they heard.
- Set up accountability systems with your employees. If something is assigned on a particular date, have them update the calendar with a reminder for both of you.
- Address problems immediately. Tell them what they are doing right, quick correction slipped in between, and then tell them why this is important. Finish with positive reinforcement.
- Don’t try to be your employee’s friend. Your job is to manage your business. It costs the equivalent of one year’s salary to train someone to work with you, and if you’re too friendly, it can make corrections challenging.
Hire for attitude, train for the work. I always had great luck with employees that had a food service background because of their customer service orientation.
One final note. I always told new hires that the relationships with our vendors, contractors and subcontractors were like gold. I actually fired people for being rude, difficult or demanding. This business is about well-oiled relationships.
What are your thoughts? Be sure to share with us.
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