When you need to fill several positions quickly, it’s hard to keep priorities straight and plan for the long term. So Janice Downing, CEO of Fredrikson Human Resources Consulting, Ltd., in Minneapolis, offers a couple of pointers for growing companies who are undergoing hiring.
“There are a couple of things that employers don’t do because they don’t think that they have the time for it,” she says. “The first is, they don’t take enough time to define what they are really looking for. You might only be hiring for first-shift production now, but eventually, are you going to need second-shift employees too? You should at least keep in contact with the people who prefer second shift, because they’ll be hard to find later.”
"We are very strong believers in not splitting the focus. The purchase of a building is just another non-core thing that we'd be dealing with. It adds complexity"
The second issue companies need to consider, Downing says, is what qualities they’ll be looking for in employees over the long term. As your company grows and changes, employees will need to take on new responsibilities. If you’ve hired flexible people, it may be possible to accommodate some of the company’s growth not by adding people, but by moving existing ones.
“Look at your employee base and think in terms of who are the flexible people,” she says. “Who are the change agents that get things done? Who are the people who are willing to do something different?”
If you plan for changes in human resources, those changes will become less overwhelming, she says. And good planning can help the changes seem less overwhelming for employees, too. Keep an eye out for signs of employee distress—dazed looks, lack of direction, and so on. Give the employees a mechanism for venting and complaining.
“It usually has to do with communication,” Downing says. “Educate your employees about the changes. Say, ‘This is normal, and you will be confused. We’re going to grow, and we’re going to add 50 employees by the end of the year. We may not have all the answers, and it might not be the way it used to be, but we can work through it.’”
