Hire slow, fire fast
We just went through a round of redundancies and for anyone who has ever been part of that process (giving or receiving of such news), you know how terrible of an experience it is.
Regardless of whether the impetus is individual performance, market trends, company funding or something else, it’s never easy to let people go.
But this is also one of the realities of building companies - even when the markets are strong and your business is on fire, you may still have to let people go. This is especially true when you hired wrong. It sucks, but it happens all the time.
How does this happen?
You were in hyper growth mode and just threw bodies at the problem
Downstream consequence: you either have too much fat in the business (sorry, it’s crass but it’s true) or the ratio of managers to doers is out of whack - the people are great but you can’t justify their costs
You met someone talented and found a role for them
Downstream consequence: they are a top performer but a toxic culture killer (see profile C below)
You met someone nice and found a role for them
Downstream consequence: they are an underperformer but everyone in the company loves them (see profile B below)
You had a point-in-time problem that you couldn’t solve internally so you hired someone full-time to solve it
Downstream consequence: you should have hired a contractor and there is actually no real role for them long-term
One of your investors recommended a hire and it was awkward to decline
Future problem: honestly, could be any of the above
And the list goes on….
One of my favorite visuals to represent the importance of hiring the right talent for your organization is the Performance Culture Matrix.
I’ve seen a few different versions of this but the basic premise is that a combination of employee output and behavior has a meaningful impact on how that person will influence your company’s culture. Hiring incorrectly, be that because the person didn’t have the skill set or alignment with the organizational values, can be detrimental to company performance.
As tempting as it is to view people as the solution to most problems and hire blindly to achieve your company goals, think twice and cut once. This applies to both the hiring process and the tough, but often inevitable moments when you have to let people go.
The negative impact that hiring wrong can have on your organization and on that person’s career, is not worth the short-term high.
