Don't Hire an Individual, Hire a Group

It has been a busy week, with a group of 5 new team members all starting on the same day.

Why would a small business like ours, with only 15 people in the team, decide to recruit an additional 5 new starters in one day? Aren't the risks too great? The burdens too burdensome?

We've hired in groups twice before, and it has been one of our most successful tactics for building our company culture, and for creating a high performing team. The benefits far outweigh the the overheads, both financial and managerial, .

I was fortunate enough to participate in a Vistage UK session with David Smith, author of "Asda Magic." He gives 7 great principles for creating a high performing culture, and we have applied a few of these to our recruitment and professional development programme. We are fully committed now to hiring in our new consultants in groups, and it works brilliantly for us.

Hire for Attitude: Training for Skill

We hire the people that we know are going to be great to work with: the brightest inquiring minds, people who will naturally go the extra mile. When we meet them we say "wow!"

But we also know they aren't digital marketing experts yet, so we have designed and deliver Hallam School, an intensive two month boot camp where we teach our new joiners the art and science of digital marketing.

A cohort of five makes this cost effective for the business, gives us the critical mass we need to deliver the training, and makes it more fun for us to share our skills and knowledge with a group.

Have Fun At Work: We Want You to Enjoy Your Job

Teams that have fun do better. And by hiring in a group of 5 new joiners, we've created a group that will have the same experiences, will learn together, and will have fun together. Being part of a group helps to meet each new member of team's social needs, and gives them an instant support network.

And this fun comes from the top down: as Managing Director I want them to see first hand how passionate I truly am about digital marketing. Together with the rest of team we can all share with them our love for the work we do, and to demonstrate how much we enjoy working with our clients.

That kind of joy at work is contagious.

Hiring in a group of 5 new team members gives everybody in the business the opportunity to sit down and spend time together, sharing our purpose and our focus and our plans.

Communication is the Rocket Fuel of Success

And for this group of young professionals, it really is all about the experience. They are more questioning of senior management they want to work for an ethical business, they want to know everything about the business, and they want to know they are playing an important part in our success.

Communication underpins that feeling of belonging, kick starting the process of making them feel this is their business. And of course, with a group this size it makes face to face communication the obvious way forward.

Hiring in as a group gives us a greater opportunity to make them all feel included both as part of their individual cohort, as well as part of the existing bigger team.

And there is the added benefit of reinforcing channels of communication amongst of all of us in the company. Colleagues actively participate in delivering Hallam School, sharing their skills and experience. Working alongside our new cohort reminds us all of our strategic plans