This article is part of Talent Insider, a series containing expert advice to help small business owners tackle a range of hiring challenges.
After having a bad employee experience, Hans Schrei, a cofounder of the cookie brand Wunderkeks, swore he would approach hiring differently this time.
"How we build a team is going to impact the culture of the company and how it progresses," said Schrei, whose company is based in Austin, Texas. "Now, every time we approach something, we're thinking long term."
Through Insider's first mentorship program for entrepreneurs, which was created in partnership with Indeed, Schrei worked with Judy Nam, Indeed's vice president of SMB marketing. They started their eight-week mentorship in September with the goal of recruiting several key hires for Wunderkeks.
"It's been impressive to see Hans' thoughtfulness and patience in the process," Nam said. "When you're a small business, one bad employee can make or break your whole business."
Here's what the duo learned and implemented.
Learning from the past
Entering the mentorship, Wunderkeks needed to hire a CFO, content manager, sales manager, and head of e-commerce as part of its focus on scaling up. Nam and Schrei started by unpacking his previous experience, then talked through ways he could prevent past mistakes from happening again.
Schrei is a thoughtful founder, but said that trait can become a hindrance when he has too many ideas. Nam's biggest role during the mentorship was helping him focus and establish a clear path forward.
"I need sounding boards because I tend to get up in my head," he said. "It was great to have someone who is experienced in the field, who is seeing all of these things at different scales."
His first priority was ensuring his future team would align with the company's culture. "That's a reflection of his dedication to who will be his future employees and preserving the culture of the company," Nam said.
In turn, Nam gleaned insight from Schrei's experience to take back to her role at Indeed. "Hans' thought process reinforced this notion of how important hiring is and how important our role is in helping small businesses hire," she said.
Establishing a hiring strategy
At the beginning of the mentorship, Nam expected to jump straight into helping Schrei write job descriptions and interview questions. But they ended up using much of their time to think strategically about the organization. After walking through some scenarios, Schrei was surprised to learn that his org chart wasn't as linear as he expected.
"I like Lego bricks and neat Excel tables, so in my head it was going to be like seven little interchangeable pieces and they're going to look the same," he said. "The reality is that a more accurate org chart will have different shapes."
Then, they discussed the right hiring pace and the roles that Schrei should prioritize.
"It is hard to hire five people out the gate," Nam said. "We talked a lot about the order of importance of the various roles that they're considering."
Through this process, Nam discovered Indeed could help business owners in the same way to think more strategically about timing.
Setting clear expectations
Once they discussed the overall strategy, they set clear expectations for each role and mapped out how their functions should tie back to the company's performance. Ultimately, these steps will help Wunderkeks measure employee performance and hold workers accountable.
Nam compared this part of hiring to building a sports team. "You need players to have particular roles," she said. "You want to give people expectations and help set them up for success. That starts with being clearer in the beginning about what you expect but then also creating that culture."
One of Schrei's questions for Nam was, "How do I know if a person is going to be a good fit?" So they discussed the characteristics he values, such as commitment to the company's mission more than the brand itself. For instance, it can be tempting for a consumer brand to hire its target customer, Schrei said.
"Differentiate the serious people who want to be in it for the long haul," Nam added. "Versus those who want to do cool social and community stuff for this cool, fun brand."
As a young company, Wunderkeks also needs people who are comfortable with a lot of change, rather than needing stability. "They're going to be super hungry and super excited about what they can build," Schrei said.
Schrei and Wunderkeks' other founder, Luis Gramajo, have recently begun interviewing candidates for a partnerships manager, the role they determined they needed to fill first.
Through the mentorship experience, Schrei has learned that hiring should be personal and deliberate, thinking of employees as people, not numbers, he said.
"Being a small-business owner is like having a family," Nam said. "Every person who joins the team does feel like a member of that team."