Do you need someone to hit the ground running (BIG), or is it better to hire for future development (SMALL)?

This is the question that all senior leaders are pondering at the moment, especially when they have to pay well above market for talent.

Three conscious factors decide whether hiring BIG or SMALL is better: Money, Resource and Time. It’s a complex balancing act of weighing up Risk vs Reward and certainly far from a perfect science.

Now try looking at this through a slightly different lens. 

A Managers objectives:

Most senior leaders are typically on a three-year roadmap. Year 1 - establish and build; year 2 – results; year 3 - succession and continuity planning. If you are at the start of this roadmap, you may be more likely to hire for the future as you have time to develop others. If you are towards the end of the roadmap, you may be more inclined towards succession planning in your absence and therefore looking for someone who can impact quickly.

Your Financial horizon:

Your financial objectives may be to get immediate results, or they may be stretched over a medium to long-term horizon. This is a significant factor in deciding to hire BIG or hire SMALL. The loss in productivity while you develop someone and the cost impact on your own time should never be overlooked. If you measure productivity over time, how long will you wait before you hit break even and start recouping costs? Every headcount is a cost, some more than others. Planning around your financial horizon is essential in every hire you make. 

Retention:

Retention is the final consideration. What if you sacrifice your time and effort to develop talent, and just as they hit their stride, they get poached? Would you have been better off just hiring BIG from the start and maximising the immediate return early to free up your time to focus on your short-term objectives? 

My advice to any hiring manager is simply know what you need to deliver and by when, and build the profile of your perfect candidate from there. Decide if you want to invest upfront (and how much) or over time (and how long). There is no perfect science to this, but if you state these objectives honestly and clearly to candidates, you will hire the right people.

If you would like to have a conversation about recruiting the right people for your organisation, please reach out to me at Morgan Consulting via:

✉️ rshukla@morganconsulting.com.au

📱 0406 772 286

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