There is one thing that I hear more often than I care to from owners because the problem and the answer are right in front of them. They say, “I can’t find good people to hire.” This is frustrating because they have the right tools, but because they hired poorly from the start no one who could help them would want to help them.

Bulldog Rule # 14 - The right people never want to work with the wrong people

You may think your business is a great place to work, but if you are having a tough time finding quality workers, you may want to take a good look at the group dynamics of your store.

I am not saying that you can ignore the obvious areas of salary, compensation, or required perks of the job. If you are not up to industry standards then forget finding the person you need. Even if you do luck out and find someone who meets your needs, they will be gone like the wind when they find a better fit for their career.

Look at the group you have representing your company and find your weak link or links. I was managing a store years ago and was given the ability to hire anyone I needed. I had an eclectic group of people, but they got along and helped build a strong base of customers. It is not always about having a person with a strong resume on staff, but also about how well they interact with the rest of the staff and the customers.

I had to add a person that my boss hired to my payroll. He had great skills and a great big ego to match. My boss let me know that this guy was a great salesman and would have my profits jumping higher and higher. What actually happened was he ran away my good employees and when I had to hire people to fill roles instead of having the right people on staff, I lost sales. This guy left when he had enough bruises to his ego. Then I rebuilt my team.

It may be tough to see the people on staff who are keeping great people from joining the team. I had the opportunity to work with a team one time that functioned well and got along, but the ones who had the answers would not help anyone else. They were afraid that by letting anyone know how to do a job they were going to be replaced. When these people had to be out of the office for a few days was when the walls came tumbling down. Too bad since it also drove the company down.

I had always asked, “Why should I hire you?” when I was interviewing someone. Turning that statement around the interviewee can ask, “Why should I work here?” If you can’t talk about the culture of your organization in the first few sentences then you don’t have a good atmosphere to work in.

You should have a good mix of people on staff and yes, they will not always get along. The red flag you need to look for is when you have people who are driving the rest of the team crazy.

Do not confuse a problem with a person. If you have a product or service that does not work and a good person in charge of that product, do not cut that person from payroll.

The best advice I can offer is to let the team help you hire. That way you get the best feedback on the person and you have the team to help welcome the person into the business. If the person is wrong for the job, you can go back to the team and look for feedback on where things went wrong.

In the end, do not look for a team that looks the same, acts the same, or has all the same goals. The best teams (and the places that everyone want to work) have a good mix of backgrounds, skills, and talents and are focused on new and better ways of building a better company.