Growing companies add employees at a rapid clip. They also tend to handle human resources in an ad hoc function for too long. This is a mistake. A full-time, seasoned HR director can implement a formal recruiting strategy to ensure that your company staffs up smartly. He or she can reduce turnover by helping to identify promising individuals at all levels of the organization, and ensure their regular promotion. An HR director can research other screening best practices such as personality tests to see if they are a good fit for your company. And they can manage and bid out employee benefits programs, including health insurance, employee visas and green cards, and a 401(k) retirement plan.
Dig Deeper: More Tips on Hiring an HR Director
Building a Management Team: The Chief Technology Officer
Identifying a talented CTO can seem like a daunting task for an entrepreneur who is not particularly conversant when it comes to new technology. Of course, that's why it pays to have a smart CTO play a leadership role on your management team. To hire a CTO, you must first assess your company's short- and long-term technology needs. Try to identify the areas where you technology is strong, as well as your vulnerabilities. And ponder the job description: Will your CTO's No.1 goal be to build and maintain a website (or a series of them), or to manage and protect a trove of customer data? Will he or she juggle software development projects and new product launches? If you answered yes to all of these possibilities, then maybe you should spend a little time rethinking and resetting your priorities. One of the most important things to remember when it comes to hiring a CTO is that you shouldn't expect the person to be a super hero. Their ability to produce results will depend in large part on your ability to chart a strategic vision for the business, and to set clear milestones for achieving that vision.
Dig Deeper: More Tips on Hiring a CTO
Building a Management Team: The Chief Executive Officer
If you are like a lot of entrepreneurs, your self-esteem and sense of identity depend to some extent on the fact that you are the boss. But being in charge is not necessarily every entrepreneur's strong suit. Many creative people who are adept at seeing opportunities and responding to them with agility and cleverness start great companies, but quickly tire of the mundane taks of building an organization beyond a certain point, and creating standards and processes. If you are one of these business owners, than it may be time for you to stop thinking like a boss and start thinking like an owner: It may be time to bring in an outsider to serve as your company's CEO. This is not a decision to take lightly, and anyone you bring in had better have the emotional intelligence to know when to challenge you and when to defer to your judgment as the founder. You will also need to acknowledge that this is a two-way street. Some employees who are loyal to you may not be loyal to the new CEO, and he or she will have every right to fire them, no matter how hard that is on you. But the upside may well be great: You may be more likely to find happiness and satisfaction in your work if you pass the responsibility for daily operations to a seasoned executive who can ace them, freeing up you to focus on developing the company's strategic vision.
Dig Deeper: How to Hire a CEO
Building a Management Team: Additional Resources
Finding top-level talent can be tough, and sometimes requires hiring an executive search firm. Here are some tips for working with a professional headhunter. Read more.
Negotiating pay packages with senior executives can cause entrepreneurial sticker shock, especially if your company was originally bootstrapped and you have traditionally developed talent from within. Here is what to know about setting salaries for your management team. Read more.
As you build your management team, you should also think about their career paths—because your top managers ambitions probably do not culminate with their current positions. Smart succession planning is a good way to provide key executives with an incentive to remain with your company for the long term. It can also provide you, your investors, and your top customers with peace of mind. Read more.
Finally, a little motivation: Holding out for the perfect job candidate may be frustrating, time consuming, and costly, but making a mistake in hiring can be disastrous. If you want to add to your management team but you haven't yet found the right person, don't be afraid to hold out, says Dr. Pierre Mornell, a psychiatrist and expert on hiring. He offers these tips on why you should avoid compromise candidates at all costs—and how to jump-start a lagging job search. Read more.
