Changes you perhaps should consider

Is that new hire not working out? Maybe your hiring process is at fault.

The possibility pops up during a conversation with Vince Racioppo, president of the Center for Expert Performance Inc., Highland Park, and a consultant the rest of us perhaps should get to know.

For example: "Businesses often hire below what they need," Racioppo says. "They hire cheap, on the assumption that 'We can train them (new hires) up.'" That assumption can be costly, however.

Say, for example, that you're hiring a sales person not quite ready for your prime time - but you expect your sales manager to train him up. The danger comes when your sales manager must take time away from her accounts to provide the training a new hire needs to get up to snuff.

If the trainee lags and the trainer must devote otherwise productive time hoping to get the new employee to an acceptable level - well, says Racioppo, "Sometimes hiring up the food chain is necessary - and cheaper in the long run."

Cheaper in the long run? "What's your turnover rate?" Racioppo responds. "What does it cost you to replace a failing worker?"

If you're one of those managers who believes in building a team, Racioppo has some thoughts on the types of behaviors you likely should create. For example:

• Trust. It's almost the type of team-building trust that (hopefully) occurs when you fall backward - trusting your teammates will catch you before you hit the ground.

• Healthy conflict - which, when you think about it, is a good way to ultimately reach the strongest idea. "Don't worry about hurting feelings," Racioppo says.

• Commitment. It's all in when the team commits to a decision or process, Racioppo says. "Oh, you didn't mean me, did you?" doesn't fly in his team process.

• Accountability, which tends to come somewhat naturally as the team process kicks in and team members hold each other accountable.

• Results. Each team member should be pointed toward the same result, whether it's profits, meeting a client deadline or something else.

The process of hiring up - spending a little more time (and money) to bring an individual on board whose skills and ability to mesh with the company and its culture will speed the success process - and melding individual workers into an effective team doesn't come naturally to many entrepreneurs.

For one thing, the business and its balance sheet must be ready. So must the individual at the top.

The types of situations that drive entrepreneurs to Racioppo, or someone like him, tend to be that the owner is spending too many hours working on rather than in the business; a sometimes verbalized but sometimes not expressed belief that "Nobody else cares as much about the business as I do;" and an owner who, Racioppo says, is "too wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of the business."

© 2018 Kendall Communications Inc. Follow Jim Kendall on LinkedIn and Twitter. Write him at Jim@kendallcom.com. Read Jim's Business Owners' Blog at www.kendallcom.com.