MY MISTAKE: I HIRED THE WRONG PEOPLE, AND KEPT THEM FOR TOO LONG

Ellie Dix runs board game company The Dark Imp (thedarkimp.com). When she ran an earlier education company she made several hiring mistakes that she regretted.

I hired people because I was desperate for someone to help share the workload. I often hired quickly, appointing the best available from a pool of underwhelming candidates. I should have waited. I should have looked properly for the right sort of person and not wasted time when I was presented with a group of poor fits. But my biggest mistake was not to move them on more quickly. It’s hard to move people on. It is a difficult conversation, and it’s one you have knowing that you are causing them all sorts of problems. Not only will they be without a job, but they may struggle to find another with a chequered employment history. Also, I always knew that there would be an increase in workload for me in the short-term. That’s a hard situation.

WHAT I WISH I’D DONE

I wish I’d moved people on quicker when I realised they weren’t going to fit properly or weren’t effective enough. I wish I’d put the needs of the rest of the staff above the needs of the individual causing trouble.

WHAT IT TAUGHT ME

I got better at hiring and I got better at firing. I developed much more effective hiring processes that better reflected the sort of work they’d be doing. I got the team involved in the interview tasks. They would have group tasks that I wasn’t even present for. If the team vetoed someone, they would not be hired. I introduced trial periods, focused on support in the right directions, avoided ignoring warning signs and started moving people on quicker. Your people are your biggest asset, your biggest expense and your biggest risk. The difference between getting the right ones and the wrong ones could mean the difference between success and failure of the business.