Hire Slow, Fire Fast

We have all heard the saying “hire slow and fire fast.” Sounds like good advice, but what does it mean in application?

Hire Slow

• Get the job posting right. Make sure you are hiring for what you really need and that your posting reflects it.

• Ensure alignment on the hiring team. Everyone should be on the same page about the candidate profile you are seeking.

• Keep the job posting open for at least a month. To be honest, when I see a job posting open for less than a month I assume they already have someone in mind and are just going through the process.

• Make a recruitment plan that goes across the organization and involves significant outreach to connecters in your community who will also share the role.

• Don’t skimp on interviews, but also make sure you are making good use of your candidates’ time. Remember, interviews are not just about you deciding if you want to hire but if the candidate wants to accept an offer.

Fire Fast

I want to caution that I don’t actually advise you take this statement literally. Instead, I believe this advice is less about the actual amount of time it takes to fire someone, and more about having transparent, widely understood, and values aligned processes that deal with performance issues or fireable offenses. Too many of my clients have either created a process unique to an individual or figured out they didn’t have a process too late.

It’s important to remember how you fire someone is not just about that person, but about the rest of your staff who are watching and making assumptions about how they or others may be treated in the future. Since you often can’t share why you fired someone with your staff, it’s important that they trust a fair process was followed.

This work should be done before you need it, so that when it is needed you are prepared instead of feeling stuck or like it’s too much work to even tackle. Everything is harder when there is a person involved.

At The Spark Mill, we help with the hiring as well as putting systems in place to support performance management issues. Let us know if you’d like to discuss either.