6 tips for becoming a hiring ninja

Hiring is one of the toughest, yet most important tasks in your business. Your staff interacts closely with your clients and has a dramatic impact on your clients’ success. Their actions and their personalities shape your culture, your brand, and the very health and success of your business.

Several months back we hosted a Hangout On Air with three prominent business owners in the CrossFit community. Here are six best practices they shared in the Hangout that will help you be a hiring ninja.

1. Set a good example. Matt Sharp, owner of CrossFit Maximus, expresses, “Good coaching and leaders attract good people.” If you set the best example and are the best leader you can be, you’ll attract people with the traits you want. By building a great business—space, culture, values, staff, clients—the best talent will come to you.
2. Look for talent within. Brian Wilson of Potomac CrossFit suggests it’s important that you have “a good butt-sniffing phase.” A client who is top of their class, stays late, and asks a lot of questions might be hungry for more. After conquering all the skills they can as a client, they might want to move to mastery by teaching. JP Perelmutter from Brick CrossFit adheres to the philosophy of “Come in, work out with us, take some classes, be a part of the family, and we’ll go from there.” Since they’ve been training with you for a while, you, your staff, and your clients know them well and, besides, ramp-up will be a lot quicker.
3. Establish an apprenticeship program. You want to weed out potential hires that aren’t 100% committed to teaching and you need to get to know people before you hire if you weren’t able to find someone to hire from within. An apprenticeship also helps clients who are interested in becoming coaches. As an owner and coach, you realize how different coaching and training are, but a typical client might not grasp that on their own. Coaching requires a greater time commitment and more energy than training. Even outside a fitness-specific business, an apprenticeship is a great way to help prospective employees experience what it’s like to be a member of your team and for both of you to find out if it’s a good fit.
4. Stick to your standards. Have strict hiring practices. “If you’re the owner, whatever you think the bar is for hiring, raise it!” says Wilson. Never think you’re being too strict. Hiring is so important—it makes or breaks your business. Keep in mind that if you lower your standards, a poor hire will be a huge drain on productivity, revenue, and morale.
5. Get what you want. You likely have a checklist of "must haves” for a new employee. Be sure the candidate isn’t just good “on paper.” If your potential hire doesn’t have that “x-factor,” where you just know they’re the right one, then don’t make the hire! The right person—the one who can do more than just check off all the boxes—will come along.
6. Know when it’s time to cut someone loose. If you start seeing red flags—whether during the interview process, the apprenticeship, or even after you've made the hire—don't wait around to take action. At some point in your career, you’ll hire someone who seems like they’re great, but then three months or even a year down the road they disappoint. Know when to pull the ripcord and stick to your standards. Your staff interacts with your clients every single day. Brian Wilson of Potomac CrossFit advises, “Your clients and remaining staff will thank you for firing them—if you’re unhappy with them, your staff and clients will be 10 times more unhappy.”

If you don’t hire with thought and consideration, you’re putting your business’s well-being at risk. Hire with care and confidence!