5 KINDS OF PEOPLE YOU MUST NEVER EMPLOY

5 KINDS OF PEOPLE YOU MUST NEVER EMPLOY

Today we would be learning a topic that will set you thinking about the composition of your workforce especially if yours is a small business or a growing company. Finding the right team members is critical to the success of any business. A company is as good as its employees.

The problem of most young businesses is how to hire and retain the right employees. If you make the mistake of employing the wrong set of people, your business will be positioned for failure. Employees add value to the company by increasing productivity. Without employees, your company is a sole proprietorship which is limited to your personal productivity.

The right employees would multiply your efforts and help you achieve more. The reason most entrepreneurs are afraid to employ employees other than themselves is because of the fear of the source of their salary. If you fall in that category, my advice remains the same. One shall chase a thousand and two shall chase ten thousand. The task of two people cannot be effectively done by one person. The reward for two persons is related to the job done. If your employees enable you to double your effort and increase your output, they will also increase your profit base. And if your profit base is increased, then there would be salary to pay them. If you don’t get other people involved in your business, you will never be able to translate from an individual entrepreneur to an institution.

In my years of recruiting employees for different organizations and also as an employer of labour myself, I have come to identify certain types of people you must never hire. I don’t care if they are the last ones available on the face of the earth. If you do, you are preparing your young business for an untimely death. Hiring these set of people I am about to talk to you about is like chewing with a bad tooth. It would be better if you were alone.

Someone once said; “it is better to be alone than to be in bad company”. Employing them is a waste of time, money and every other resource.

The first kind of persons are:

                                                                                

THE OVER QUALIFIED:

These set of people know it all. They have enough working experience and they may have even started a business like yours which folded up and they want to impose their faulted ideas on you. They know what you should do and they hardly take corrections, they keep comparing your company with so and so company they worked with 28years ago and they always want to let you know that they have superior skills and knowledge. They are over confident. Confidence is good but arrogance is dangerous. Hire someone with confidence but make sure they are humble enough to learn new things.

These kind of people are UNTRAINABLE and the most annoying part is that they make you feel like they are helping your life by working for you. You don’t need these kinds of people on your team. You can never satisfy them when you meet these

kind of staff and you ask them; where do you work; you will hear answers like “Am just teaching in one small school for now”. This is my candid advice, if you have such people on your team, LET THEM GO.

The second set of people are:

FRIENDS YOU CANNOT DISCIPLINE:  

The best your friend can be is your business associate or business partner. Do not make the mistake I made some time ago where I had to employ a friend of mine. The resumption time in my office is 7am irrespective of your residential address. You are told that from the interview and there are no two ways about it. But this friend will always come at least 1hour later. If I complain, his countenance will change. Our dress code is corporate from Monday-Thursday, but my friend will never put on a tie. If I complain, his countenance will change. I couldn’t discipline him. If I tried to, he would give me a look that told me, “Is it because I am working for you!

These kind of people will never obey your company rules and regulation. Their attitude will gradually affect the loyalty and morale of your remaining staff. If you don’t remove them early, they will pollute the rest of your staff members. It is better you don’t employ them and you retain the friendship than to employ them and destroy your friendship. Don’t employ out of pity. Your company is not a charity organization. The fastest way to frustration is to employ someone you cannot control or discipline!

The third kind of people you must never hire are:

FAMILY MEMBERS WHO DON’T HAVE THE NECESSARY SKILLS AND EXPERTISE:

Don’t get me wrong, it is good to help our family members but not at the detriment of your growing business. If they have the necessary skills and expertise needed to get the job done. Beautiful, but if they do not please and please. DO NOT EMPLOY OUT OF PITY, your business is not a family meeting; you must never employ people who see your business as an Avenue for FREE MONEY they would not labour for. And the dangerous part of it is, if you fire them, they would go back to the village or wherever it is that they came from and say so many strange things that would shock you.

Sometimes, it is good to help such people from a distance. They misbehave because they felt it is their brother’s business and they can get away with it. Their superior or line manager can’t give them instructions because he is MD’s brother. Even your wife cannot tell them what to do because they feel they jointly own the business because it is their brother’s own. You must never employ out of sentiment.

If employing them will later cause a friction in your family relationship, it is better you do not employ them in the first place. Am sorry to say this, like most wives will tell you most times, it is better to employ a house maid commercially than to pick one extended family member to assist you. The outcome has never been good, the bottom line is, do not employ people you cannot discipline.

When I started business some few years ago, on of my mentors called me into his office and he said BASOLA, BASOLA, BASOLA, how many times did I call you; I replied “three times sir” and he shook his head and made a profound statement that has helped me a lot. He said “YOU MUST NEVER DATE YOUR FEMALE STAFF”. It is the fastest way to close the Heavens over your business and to introduce disloyalty. The day you try it, the next day she wouldn’t come to work early and there is nothing you can do about it. And woe betide you if she is your cashier; just know that half of your life is gone. Your cash book will never balance again and your money is soon gone. Your other female staff will loose their respect and confidence in your leadership.

The atmosphere in your office would be polluted and would no longer be conducive for miracles. Please listen to the advice my mentor gave me years ago. It would help you and save your business from eventual collapse. Help your unskilled family members from a distance and do not employ out of pity.

The fourth kind of people you must never employ are the;

UNSTABLE PEOPLE:                       

These set of people have worked 3jobs or more in the last one year. They cannot keep a job for a long time. They keep changing jobs. They are not dependable; training them is a waste of resource and time. If you build your business around them, they would disappoint you when you need them most. They would leave when you least expect. They are immature and nothing grows in heir hands. There is something pursuing them. As a young business, you do need people who will grow with you, not people who will leave you when you need them. Unstable people cannot prosper.

Let me quickly say this, MOVEMENT DOES NOT NECESSARY MEAN PROGRESS! Think about it!

A tree does not need to move from one place to the other for it to grow; changing jobs often can be likened to a NOMADIC SPIRIT. Nomads do not build houses, they don’t acquire properties and they don’t change clothes. Nomads do not make personal progress even though you can see much movement and activity in their lives.

The painful part is they make you believe them so much that you hand over certain important responsibilities into their hands and before you know it, they are gone! While working for you, all they do is edit their CV. They keep sending their CV to every nook and crummy yet they do not take time to develop themselves. They don’t have a steady address; they are currently living with a friend on the other side of town. They are irresponsible.

I have a problem employing anyone who does not pay house rent; I see them as irresponsible people who have nothing at stake so they do not value the source of income as they have one uncle they would fall back to. Then there are theses other people who don’t need the money, they just need something to make them leave the house, they don’t attach much seriousness to your job and they can leave at the slightest provocation. It is better you employ people who will help you move your business to the next level. By so doing, you have less worry about.

Till we meet again, I wish you a productive day!

                                                                                    

Basola Victor is the Principal Consultant/CEO of Business Skills Africa Limited, an Enterprise consulting firm based in Benin, Nigeria. He is the Author of “The Keys to Starting a Successful Business” and The HOST of RADIO BUSINESS SCHOOL on Radio Nigeria Bronze 101.5FM.