Teams / Team Hiring and Managing
Hiring and Managing
Hiring the right people and managing your team successfully are among the most difficult challenges identified by team leaders. By now, you should have a vision for your team and a team structure that enables your team’s growth and evolution toward it. Your vision, together with your mission, values and unique selling proposition, will help to attract and retain talent who are inspired and motivated by what your team stands for.
Job Descriptions
Whether starting or growing your team, staff up according to the roles defined in your team structure. To hire team members, train them, and evaluate their performance, start by articulating their function. Job descriptions for each role in the team form the basis of your hiring and managing process.
Compiling a job description will create a profile of related work responsibilities, candidate qualifications and performance expectations. It should include an overview of the role’s function within the team and incorporate your team’s vision, mission and culture to help attract the best fit. Include other pertinent details such as job title, location and hours. It is recommended that you include a salary range and any other performance-based compensation potential so that you spend time only with candidates you can afford to hire. Including information on benefits, if any, and vacation and personal days is optional and could otherwise be used as leverage in negotiating an offer of employment.
The following sample job descriptions are provided as a guide to help you craft job descriptions for your unique team structure:
Hiring Process
The hiring process can begin once you have a job description prepared and posted. While job descriptions are unique and driven by the roles defined in your team structure, a standardized hiring process is applicable to filling any role and provides greater hiring transparency to all your team members.
Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
As with your clients, it is important to explain your UVP during your hiring process. Effectively articulating this will motivate agents to join and stay on your team.
This document will help guide you to present your benefits during interviews. Customize it accordingly and use it during your first interview with agents who are interested in joining your team. By presenting these points early, you are sure to move forward in the process with those who see themselves operating in your culture.
Skills Assessments
Everyone is good at everything, until they have to prove it. Before committing to a hire, assess your candidate to be aware of exactly what strengths and weaknesses you will be working with. Ideally, the candidate should complete this assessment sitting in the actual work environment, without access to a cell phone or computer, barring any portion specifically dedicated to testing computer skills. By sitting at the successful hire’s “future desk”, the candidate will also give you an indication of how he or she will interact with the other team members. Here are some templates that you can use and adapt to your needs and market:Reviewing Performance
Meet with your new hire to assess their progress and quality of work on a weekly basis. It gives you an opportunity to ensure they understand your expectations in practice and it keeps your new team member on track to achieve their goals while identifying any roadblocks you can help them navigate away from. A weekly status also allows you to gather information to support the three-month evaluation. At the three-month point, ask your new hire to complete a self-assessment. A sample has been provided below, along with a sample annual self-assessment.
Self-assessments should be provided to team members in advance of your scheduled evaluation meeting or performance review. Your performance review should recognize their successes as well as identify opportunities for focused improvement. Your new team member should provide their completed assessment to you in advance of your meeting so you understand how he/she perceives his/her performance and should be considered together with your own assessment of their performance results.
DISC Personality Assessments & Reports
Understanding what DISC can tell you about a prospective recruit or team member is a powerful tool for your business. DISC personality assessments measure how a person relates to systems and people, how they approach conflict, how they respond to different environments, as well as what motivates or deters them.
