| Friend,
Step #3 In Hiring The Right Person For Your Dojo:
Now that we've hammered out a job description and decided on what skills and traits we want our ideal hire to have, it's time to deal with the next decision...
HIRING FROM WITHIN, VS. HIRING FROM OUTSIDE THE DOJO
Most of us just want things to be easy when we're hiring someone to fill a position in our martial art school. We don't care how; we just want it done and done fast with no hassles.
So, we usually try to solve our staffing problems in the simplest way possible - we walk out on the floor or into the waiting area of our school and spend about five minutes looking for a likely candidate.
For example:
"Jake has been training with me for a while. He always shows up to class, seems to love training here, and has excellent technique. I think I'll reward him by making him my new assistant."
Do you see the problem with this approach? If not, let me spell it out for you. The problem here is that Jake hasn't had a say in whether or not he's really even interested in helping you out around the dojo.
Jake probably has other responsibilities. A family, a day job, school, or whatever. Training at your dojo is probably his recreational activity, and he's likely not even interested in taking a side job working for you. And you're about to muck up his fun time by making it work instead of play.
Here's another common scenario:
"I know Johnny's mom doesn't work, and she seems to be a really strong supporter of our school. I think I'll offer her a position working the phones and the front counter a few hours in the evening. I mean, she's here anyway most nights."
Again, there are some problems with this approach. For starters, just like with Jake you have no idea if Johnny's mom is even interested in getting a part-time job.
She likely has her hands full with her kids, taking care of her household, and community involvement. Just because she's a stay-at-home mom, it doesn't mean she isn't busy.
But the real issue with both of the above scenarios is motivation. Because once you approach Jake or Johnny's mom with an offer for employment, they are going to feel OBLIGATED to help you. Jake especially is going to feel pressured into helping you, because he's your student.
And Johnny's mom, to a lesser extent, is also going to feel like she needs to help you out, because if you're this desperate for help then you must really need it. And this martial arts thing has helped her kid so much, she doesn't want it to go away. So, she's likely to say yes to your offer.
So, at this point you're thinking, "Great! That sure was easy!"
Not so fast. Now, you've just hired someone whose only motivation for working for you is because they like you. That's a really bad premise for taking on a new hire.
See, you want to hire someone who is really MOTIVATED to work for you. You want someone who really needs a part-time job, and who really enjoys doing martial arts and who would love to get paid to teach classes.
And in the case of hiring front office help, you want to hire someone who actually likes doing clerical and customer service work. I know, that's sounds crazy - but there are plenty of people out there who really enjoy that sort of work.
So if it's between working in a boring old office somewhere, or working in a positive and upbeat environment like a martial art school (and the pay is better), which do you think they'll pick?
My point is that you need to find the right person for the job, not just from an ability standpoint, but from a motivation to be hired standpoint. Chances are good that if you hire Jake, eventually he's going to want to quit because you just turned his one recreational activity into a job.
And Johnny's mom? Once she starts working for you, she may not be as much of a fan as she once was. People are funny that way. Seeing the actual day-to-day operations of your business can alter their opinion of you. And then, you end up with a mom who is telling all the other moms things that they don't really need to know.
So, does this mean that you never hire from within?
Nope. It just means that if you do, you need to hire the right person. More on that in tomorrow's email.
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
P.S. - I've had good success and poor results with hiring from within. Tomorrow we'll talk more about how to hire from within properly, and later in the week I'll discuss hiring using more traditional methods.
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