So you are a skilled and successful web designer/developer and you want to start your own agency. Or, you are an agency owner and you want to grow or improve your agency. This demands that you hire the right sort of people; else you will end up with not so much an agency as an expensive and painful train wreck of an experience. But what if you’ve never hired or successfully managed anyone before? Or, what if the people you have hired often turn out to be the wrong people? Do you know what qualities to look for in your potential employees? Are you sure?
In this article I am going to describe in candid terms whom you should and should not hire as you build your design practice. I am not going to dwell on the standard, milquetoast assessments or politically-correct references you are likely to find in magazine articles on this subject. I will instead concentrate on actually relevant issues and qualities, in plain terms.
I have some experience in these matters. Before beginning a design career I spent 12 years as a corporate general manager for a retail chain and in that time I helped to double its size. Later, as an agency designer I witnessed the usually predictable results of many good business choices and bad business choices, and I formed a very clear understanding of those things that distinguish the two. As a design agency owner, I have worked to quadruple the size of my practice over the past 24 months since starting, thankfully improving the companys health, prospects, and reputation at each step.
I did none of this alone. In all of my business successes I’ve had help; usually it was significant help. And that’s an important point; as a business owner and manager it is your job to build the sort of environment and culture that succeeds because of mutual, coordinated effort. If you do it all yourself you’re building nothing and whatever success you have will be only one thin layer deep. In business, this amounts to worthless and irresponsible behavior. So here I’ll offer some advice and insights into hiring the kind of people to help you properly build your business.
First, a caveat:
No matter how much you enjoy design, no matter how good a designer/developer you are, no matter how much you want to own your own agency, do not attempt it unless you are wildly enthusiastic about business. If running a business is not your first or second love, do not waste your time; you will fail. Love the business or don’t go into business for yourself.
Whom to hire
This sort of advice fits very neatly into a list. Here’s my list of advice on the kind of people you should hire. If your potential hire is lacking in even one of these qualities, pass. Or, if they’re already working for you, replace them with someone more suitable before they wreck your agency.
1. Hire only exceptional people.
You cannot populate your staff with less-than-exceptional people and hope to succeed. Just because someone knows how to use Fireworks or how to write html or css does not mean that they’re valuable. Hire only those who are exceptional in some specific way. Your own situation, experience, and criteria will determine just what sort of exceptional quality is appropriate (but keep in mind that all of the specific qualities in the list below are still required, not optional).
(1a) Regarding recent graduates:
Those who are just beginning to try and enter the workforce must still be exceptional in some way(s) or they’re not worthy of your attention. A lack of work experience is no excuse for a lack of significant expertise or some other extraordinary quality. If someone spends their time in school learning merely what is taught or developing nothing more than the academically-expected skills, they’re a waste of your time. Ignore them in favor of those who have appropriately articulated and/or developed some unusual expertise and enthusiasms beyond those of their academic peers.
2. Hire only exceptionally moral people
No advice is as important as this. Inviting someone of questionable or unknown morals into your enterprise is about the dumbest thing you could do. All the skill and enthusiasm in the world cannot compensate for moral ambiguity in someone you work with. And this must be important to you, too; else all of the advice presented in this article is wasted on you …as will be your employees. Don’t get this one wrong.
3. Hire only exceptionally intelligent people.
If you are smarter than anyone working for you, you’ve made a mistake and your business has big problems. Everyone you hire should be smarter than you are. Everyone. If your ego or insecurities demand that you be the smartest person in the company, you’re too dumb to own or run a business.
4. Hire only disciplined, responsible people.
Sloppy, slovenly people can create nothing but a sloppy, slovenly agency. Furthermore, your agency is not a children’s daycare center; everyone you work with must be able to do their job without your day-to-day management. Your staff must be practiced at managing their own time, their own projects (to the degree you define as appropriate for your agency), at staying on task, at collaborating with others, and generally at delivering work on time according to pre-defined schedules (hint: a deadline is not a mere suggestion). This sort of performance requires discipline and responsibility. Your interview process must work to establish a candidate’s habits as concerned with these qualities.
5. Hire only exceptionally enthusiastic people with a “startup minds.”
You need curious, enthusiastic, meddlesome, insatiably tinkering people working with you. If you opt for people who behave like mere production artists or who fancy themselves 9 to 5 code monkeys, it will be only a matter of time before your agency fails. The right sort of people are always wanting to build something new, something innovative …and yes, may eventually leave you to go on to greater success, but this is a good thing! The alternative will do your agency no good while they’re with you.
6. Hire only healthy, active people.
You already know this; every human being does and has for millennia: flaws of health and fitness are clear indications of other character flaws (most related to irresponsibility). Those flaws will be manifest in a person’s quality of work and the quality of their contribution to your business. A strong agency cannot be built upon irresponsible, deluded, or weak people.
7. Hire only family-focused people (if they’re married).
Someone who neglects one’s spouse and/or children is someone who has screwed-up priorities. Avoid them. These kinds of people have no place in an environment that requires responsibility. Of course, this means that your agency must be family-friendly to begin with and you must set that tone by your own behavior and/or your clear policies. If your potential hire describes staying at work until 8 or 9pm on a regular basis and then playing video games until all hours of the night/morning, you’re talking to a troubled (immoral, untrustworthy, sick, etc…) person. Pass.
And finally, some advice on general hiring strategy…
8. Hire to fit your specific needs and business strategy.
Never, ever hire someone who simply has the general skills you need and then, later, try and work out how they fit into your enterprise and your goals. That is an inefficient and strategically irresponsible way to run a business. Instead, determine the specific sort of staffing need you have and hire to fit that specific need precisely.
Standards Compliant
Today’s troubling worldwide economic situation makes following this sort of advice a very good idea. But I’m not offering it because of the current economic climate; making good choices for the sake of expediency is no nobler than making expedient choices for the sake of appearances. In the end, your standards are either uncompromising or they’re not standards at all, regardless of the economic climate.
As an agency owner or potential owner, you’re either serious about building a healthy business or you’re not. You’re either uncompromising in making responsible business choices or you’re not. How you come down on these issues is a matter of grave importance for you, your clients, and those you work with. And never forget that the staff you hire forms a very clear window into your character and the character of your agency. Birds of a feather, indeed.
From:http://www.andyrutledge.com/hiring-the-right-people.php
