2:13
Peter Sorgenfrei warns founders against rushing to hire. He stresses clear job descriptions, multiple interviews with tests, and informal checks like calling candidates at odd times to assess whether they're actually a fit for the role.
Peter Sorgenfrei warns founders against rushing to hire. He stresses clear job descriptions, multiple interviews with tests, and informal checks like calling candidates at odd times to assess whether they're actually a fit for the role.
So let's say you're a founder and the company is going really well. It's growing and you need to do a bunch of hiring. The number one mistake I see founders make is they hire too quickly. They essentially make— maybe they make a job ad or maybe they tell their team, hey, we need to find somebody for marketing who knows somebody. And then somebody comes along, they're available, they don't go through a good process or any process, and they say, you're hired. And the reason that that's a problem is you essentially have a responsibility to yourself and to the rest of the team to hire people that are the best that you can possibly get. And in order to do that, you don't just pick who's available. They're available for a reason. You actually make a proper description of what the job entails. You have a proper process, which means more interviews than you think you need. More time spent with the candidates that you think you need, and then you go through a thorough evaluation of who that candidate is. Let me tell you a story. So I started a company in Denmark when I came back from, from the UK, and it was funded by a big conglomerate. I asked the question, I said, can I use intelligence tests as part of the hiring process? And they looked at me like I was crazy, and they're like, oh, we don't do that. I'm like, well, why don't we do that? Well, it's not common, or somebody even said it's not allowed. I looked it up. It's allowed. You can test people for anything. You can't discriminate against race and religion and other things, but, you know, you can actually test them for intelligence if you want. So my point with telling this story is, what do you need to do to find the kind of people that you need? Do you need to spend more time with them outside of the office? Do you need to give them tests? Do you need to— you know, I also used to call people up at challenging points, like a Sunday afternoon. I'd just ring them randomly. and say, hey, it's Peter from so-and-so company. Do you have a minute? Because it would tell me how they would react if we were in that situation in the future. So the number one mistake is hiring too fast, hiring somebody who's available, and not going through a good process. So if you're hiring now, spend more time doing that and you'll get the dividends later.
