Debra Schindler-Boultinghouse, President
As I sat down to think about what I could write about both today and over the next couple of months, my mind was guided again back to the Goldman Sachs class I participated in last year, which I wrote about back in November.
Last August, as I was putting together my final report for the class, I had most of the information in place, but was searching for a title for the report. After the hard work and late nights I’d invested in the course, I wanted the title to be one that conveyed a lot of things at once, an all-in-one title that was sweeping and specific at the same time. I finally settled on “The Stay is the Game”. On its face it may seem like a pretty straightforward title, but underneath, there’s a wealth of meaning
And so I wanted to write a couple blog posts about what it means to “to stay” in tough times, and specifically in this post, how to stay aggressive in hiring employees in tough times.
The natural instinct of most business owners I know, myself included, is to cut back and do less to try to conserve funds when times get tough. What I’ve learned…from surviving the recession that hit Houston in the early 80’s, and this most recent one, is that cutting back, becoming leaner and more efficient is great: but not if it makes you less competitive.
In Genesis’ case, it may have made immediate financial sense to not spend the money to update our website, to not hire somebody to be in charge of making sure our customer base was happy, to not add sales people. But ignoring those needs in the name of “saving money” is a short-term fix that has medium and long-term consequences.
In the cases above, had we not redone our website, people searching for terms like “VoIP” or “Small Business Phone System” would have passed our website up in favor of ones that were more engaging. Had we not hired a person to keep up with our customer base, we wouldn’t have known that X Company was ready to upgrade their phone system, but had forgotten that Genesis installed their system years ago and was now looking at going with a competitor. Were we not adding sales staff, who knows how many opportunities we’d be missing.
More than just the new hires, however, the secret ingredient for success in 2013 is a great team of enthusiastic, intelligent employees who care about the company and its mission. In each of these cases, I look for people and their attitudes before skill sets, though having a foundation in whatever job a person is applying for is obviously important. Knowledge can be taught and people can be trained. But an office full of positive, can-do people is what truly makes Genesis “stay”.
Up next: How to “stay” in a positive light in the minds of your current customers.
-By Debra Schindler-Boultinghouse