It all starts at the conception of your company’s new position. Often times, business owners create vacancies with certain people in mind. We have all encountered it on the other end when searching for positions—you apply for a job that you’re overqualified for. You exceed the years of experience and education requirements. You submit your application. Weeks, sometimes months go by. You reach out to follow up, only to find out that they hired someone else. Perplexed as to why they didn’t even have the audacity to send you a generic rejection letter, you check LinkedIn and see that they hired someone with no experience, no education and no ability to succeed in the position you would have kicked ass at. Of course, it was someone with an in, a connection, someone assumedly similar to them.
It is difficult because as a business owner, you want to hire people you know, people who align with your morals and values, but is that what you should be doing? Well, yes, of course it is. To an extent. Let’s explain it with an example: Say you own a small retail shop in downtown Chico. You sell toilet paper, something that everyday consumers need. Would you put a disclosure up in your storefront saying you will only sell to people that are left-handed? (If you would, I cannot offer you any insight and you should just stop reading now.) No way would any logical business owner do something like that. It would diminish sales and put you out of business. It is the same exact thing when hiring employees. Not only that, but you should want to hire a diverse workforce. Most people see this as having employees of different races, religions, ages and sexual orientations. No, no, no. (By the way, equal opportunity of protected classes just listed is not an option, it’s just the law) That is not what we are referring to when proposing you hire a myriad of employees. When selecting staff, leaders should hire varying personalities, backgrounds, dogmas, demeanors, energy levels, senses of humor, oddities; you get the gist. Sounds skeptical, right? Here are two of many reasons you should be actively dissimilating your employee pool:
1. It is inevitable that you’ll be working with various types of individuals, whether they be vendors, clients, customers, competitors, suppliers and so on. By having distinguishable personalities, communication styles and strengths on your team, you automatically improve your bottom line, whatever it may be. Most business is built on human interaction and relationships being built. The more diverse your employees are, the better the odds different types of people will mesh with them, resulting in increased success. That is simple probability.
2. One of the biggest employee relations issues is polarity in the workplace. People naturally find similarities, establish silos and from then on there is an invisible, or sometimes not so invisible divider. This destroys teamwork, decreases cooperation and eliminates any chance of unity in carrying out your business’s mission. People often work better and more effectively with different personalities and perspectives. If you’re already doing your the best damn job possible, there doesn’t need to be someone out there just like you, duplicating strategies and ideas.
In every area of life, it is fascinating to interact with people who are opposite of your disposition, temperament and who possess subjective viewpoints. Imagine the possibilities and potential if you applied that mindset to your hiring practices and business model? I mean, look, you just spent the last six minutes listening to my perspective.