Hire Slow, Fire Fast
April 29th, 2008One of the first lessons Lawson Barttell, my mentor taught me was to “hire slow, and fire fast”. What does it mean? Take time on the hiring process and make sure you have the right person. Then secondly fire employees quickly if they give you good reason. The ability to fire folks quickly is a good one to have. It’s one way to save a company from corporate cancer; a non-motivated workforce.
I see two main benefits to hiring slow and firing fast. First, your team quality increases. If you continually shave off your bottom 10%, while hiring the best candidates, your team will really shine. Some of my best employees have come from word of mouth. I wouldn’t be able to say that if below average employees were sending their friends my way. They would be on the same level because folks usually have friends that are similar to themselves.
Secondly, everyone knows you expect excellence, and won’t settle for half-hearted attempts. Fire that deserving employee, and just watch the passions in the workplace grow. Down the road it will lead a higher retention rate.