DUH! We’ve heard this a million times and every time it sounds more cheesy and cliché than the last time. What makes an organization great is how those people collaborate. Collaboration is a tough goal. It requires a clear vision, an earnest commitment to consistent values, integrity, and trust. Easy peasy, right?! Sure. You just need loyal employees, perfect leaders, and a great market constantly demanding your products or services. I’ll stop selling a pipe-dream. Let’s get down to brass tacks and I’ll lay out a plan that I’ve seen actually work. Consistently.

The first step in becoming an employer needs to be identifying and recognizing needs. You need another set of hands to fulfill your commitments. How much involvement do you want from this set of hands? What do you want the hands to do? When will the hands be doing enough? Too much? If you’re at the point in your business where there are more commitments than you can honor, you need support. Unfortunately, the path toward onboarding an employee is like drinking from a fire hose. Let’s slow that faucet and instead focus on your business.

Who are you (as a business) and what do you represent? This is not your product.  This is a question about your values. When something doesn’t go according to plan or a behavior is demonstrated you don’t agree with, these are the things that keep you up at night.  These are instances that are out of alignment with your values. THESE are your NON-NEGOTIABLE TRAITS and they are what your business should be built around.

Step one is actually to define your values. Everything else about building your business needs to correlate to these tenants. They are your foundation and personify what makes your organization a desirable place to work.

Step two then becomes defining your needs. What areas are you focusing the wrong assets on (your time) that prevent you from performing your primary role? You got into business for a reason and that is to perform YOUR DREAM! Let’s get you back on track to doing that. Together, we will identify what functions need to be redirected into an additional role(s). You’ll need a candidate profile, a job posting, and a compensation metric to make sure you’re ready for the financial burden of an employee.

Step three is probably the hardest one, but the biggest key to a meaningful employer relationship. You’ve identified your needs, now consider the needs you’ll meet for your employee. This is the employer exchange. Employees need to know what is expected of them, how their performance ties into the success of the organization, what makes them successful in their role, and a realistic understanding of the opportunities they have with the business. They also need all the tools to get the job done.

You’ve likely heard the horror stories of the new employee that showed up on day one, but didn’t have an assigned desk, or a chair, or maybe even a clear boss. These flawed first impressions pave the way for costly turnover. By taking the step to identify what your EMPLOYEE needs, you’re already a better leader than most. Identifying and providing the necessary success tools to your employee fosters trust. You’ve shown they matter to the organization and all you had to do was consider their needs. Now, follow that trajectory and provide honest guidance, clear expectation, and allow for meaningful feedback. We’ll get to that part. For now, just appreciate that you can get back to YOUR DREAM for a moment.