Reply #12: as a business owner I look at hiring people a little bit different than non-business owners

[melm00se]

1st off: when I hire people I take a longer term view of a person.

a couple of examples:

I have 2 candidates for an IT technician position.

Candidate A is the best IT technician of the group
Candidate B is a middle of pack from a technician skill set but brings another set of skills I want to have in my company but in a different position.

I will pass on candidate A (as they will, more than likely, remain an IT technician through their stay with me) for candidate B as I will work to retain B and move him/her into the position that their skill set is best suited and will benefit my company more.

2nd example:

In business relationships are a big thing (networking and all that jazz). If a customer calls me up and says "my kid is looking for a job can you take a look at him?", sure as hell I am going to interview them and if they are close in the running and barring some sort of major defect, I would probably hire him/her.

Why?

If I don't give the kid a shot, I'd be jeopardizing a significant customer relationship, one that could significantly impact my business and, by extension, my employees.

Let's do a cost benefit analysis:

customer generates $1MM in revenue (or $200K in gross profit)
I employee 5 people based upon that customer's business.
- if I show some consideration my customer and, at the very least, interview the kid, I retain the $1MM in business (and it might increase) so I can continue to employee these 5 people.
OR
- if I don't show some consideration and I lose this customer because of it, I risk those 5 people's jobs.

hmmmmm....which one am I going to do? Which one would you do?

finally, as a business owner, I have plenty of HR type government regulations and record keeping that I adhere to (most with which I agree), please don't hit me with another one. It just sucks up time and money that could be used for growing my business and hiring more people.