Before You Hire Anyone, Do This First

Most hiring mistakes don’t start with the wrong candidate.

They start much earlier - when a growing business hires under pressure without properly defining what problem the new role is actually there to solve.

At first, hiring feels like progress. The team is stretched, work is building up, and bringing someone in feels like the obvious next step.

But poorly planned hiring decisions are expensive in ways most businesses don’t fully anticipate. Not just recruitment costs, but management time, slower performance, team frustration and the disruption that follows when a role turns out to be different from what everyone imagined.

That’s why one of the most valuable things a growing business can do is slow down slightly before recruiting.

Four ways to resource a need

Most businesses default to employment because it's familiar. But there are usually four options worth thinking through before you commit.

Employment is the right choice when the work is ongoing, central to the business, and needs someone who builds knowledge over time. It comes with the most cost and the most obligation, so it should be the answer you choose deliberately, not the one you fall into.

Outsourcing makes sense when the work is specialist, relatively predictable, and doesn't need to be done inside the business. Payroll, bookkeeping and certain IT functions are common examples. The output matters more than how it's produced.

Freelancers and contractors work well for project-based work, peaks in demand, or skills you need occasionally but not enough to justify a permanent hire. The right freelancer can add real capability quickly, without the overhead of employment.

Restructuring existing work is the option people forget. Sometimes what looks like a need for a new person is actually a question about how existing roles are designed. Before you add headcount, it's worth checking whether the work could be redistributed, simplified or removed.

None of these is always the right answer. The point is to think through them before deciding, rather than after.

If you do decide to hire, start here

Assuming employment is the right call, the next thing most businesses do is write a job advert. It's usually the wrong place to start.

Before you write the advert, you need to be clear on what the role actually is. Not the job title. Not a list of responsibilities. What does success look like?

Specifically: what should this person have achieved in their first 90 days? What does good performance look like at six months? What does the team around them need from them, and how does the role sit within the business?

If you can't answer those questions clearly, the advert will be vague, the interview process will be inconsistent, and you'll end up assessing candidates against criteria you haven't quite agreed on. The result is usually a decision based on who you liked rather than who fits the role, and then surprise when it doesn't quite work out.

It's also worth agreeing, before you advertise, what you'll do if the right person doesn't appear. Hiring into a gap under pressure tends to lower the bar. Knowing in advance what you'll do if the search takes longer than expected gives you better options.

When you're considering a departure

One question the diagnostic asks is whether, when someone leaves, you review the reasons and use that insight to improve how you design future roles. It's a small thing, but most businesses don't do it.

Exit conversations, when they happen honestly, are some of the most useful information you can gather about how your business actually feels to work in. They tell you things that are rarely said in normal working life.

The learning doesn't have to be dramatic. Sometimes it's simply that the role needed more support than it got, or that the brief wasn't clear, or that the team dynamic was harder than expected. Knowing that shapes how you approach the next hire.

The short version

Before you hire: consider whether employment is actually the right answer. Look at outsourcing, freelancers, restructuring existing work.

If you're hiring: define what success looks like before you write the advert. Agree on 90-day outcomes. Make sure everyone involved in the process agrees on what you're looking for.

When someone leaves: find out why. Use it.

None of this is complicated. It just requires doing it in the right order