Why Your Team Needs a Proactive Hiring Process

Of all the “hidden” costs of owning a business, the time it takes to find and implement a new hire is one of the largest.

Hiring someone new is far more involved than figuring out salary and benefits. The soft costs of lost productivity, added stress, and time to interview applicants can negatively impact a business’ bottom line.

Successful advisory business owners need to approach hiring the same way they build their business in every other area: by creating a proactive process. To do that, they need to assess when it’s time for a new hire and to really understand the difference between hiring proactively and reactively.

When to Hire?

There is no hard and fast rule that tells you when it’s the best time to grow your team. That’s a common reason why so many advisors end up burning out before they realize they need help.

If you’re more of a proactive business leader, you would measure your team’s workload, capacity and stress levels, make projections and estimate how much a new hire could improve your operations and internal efficiencies.

However, most advisors often enter the hiring process in full-on reaction mode where stress, overwork and burnout are driving the hiring decision, not economics. When it comes to hiring, you can either approach it reactively or proactively, and there’s a huge difference between the two.

Perils of Reactive Hiring

Reactive hiring is like picking a gas station after you’re on empty. Of course, you’d prefer to get the cheapest or highest quality gas, but your options are limited to whatever is within walking distance.

When you hire reactively, you’ve reached the point where your business can’t grow or function correctly without a new recruit, so any decision you make often is rushed.