Why Hiring Is So Hard (And How To Fix It!)

Thinking of Hiring a Virtual Assistant?

When you learn that employing someone is not as simple as it should be, almost everyone who has ever employed someone for the first time is taken aback by the realization that they have made a mistake.

Believe me when I say that I found out the hard way for sure.

Therefore, why is it such a challenge to recruit new employees? Why does it seem as if you’re trying to find a needle in a haystack? And even if you do find someone, why don’t they just do what you want them to do if you find them?

In this essay, I will discuss five factors that contribute to the difficulty of the recruiting process as well as provide solutions to the problem.

If you put these suggestions into practice, it will fundamentally alter the way you think about the recruiting process and make it function one thousand times more effectively.

Let’s get into it:

1. Hiring & Managing Is A Skill That Needs To Be Learned

The act of hiring is not the challenging part.

In point of fact, employing someone is a really simple process.

Because there are millions of individuals in the world looking for employment, finding employees is not at all difficult. You may receive hundreds, or even thousands, of answers to a job posting within a single day if you put it in the appropriate location.

It’s not difficult to hire someone, but it is really challenging to do so effectively.

And it’s not natural.

If you run your own business, you are probably extremely familiar with the way that your brain functions. You were born with a brain that is predisposed to finding solutions to a wide variety of challenges. You are naturally creative, and you have a vision of how things should operate as well as the standards you have for whatever it is that you’re working on. You have high expectations for yourself.

Therefore, it is only logical to believe that everyone you employ would be similar to you; yet, in fact, there are VERY FEW individuals who are similar to you.

This indicates that the individuals you recruit, particularly if you hire them at a price range that is considered entry-level, are likely to need a significant amount of assistance.

You are going to need to acquire this talent if you want to be able to properly recruit someone and manage them.

But there’s no need to be concerned about it since it’s exactly the same as everything else you’ve done. You run a business, and this is one of your primary responsibilities. Learning is something that you do like a champion, thus you simply need to learn it as you would any other ability.

Did you know that if you read the five most influential books on any topic, you would know more than ninety percent of the people who really work in that field?

You may acquire the knowledge by reading books, or you can enroll in The Outsourcing Blueprint, which is our newest training program and will provide you with all of the relevant abilities.

2. You Need To Hire At The Right Level & Price

Attempting to recruit someone at a price that is outside of the appropriate range is a common but significant error that many individuals do.

For example, getting a virtual assistant is one of the first steps that a lot of individuals do when they start their own business.

It’s hard to resist the temptation when you consider the fact that you can pay someone $8 per hour to work for you.

However, once you do so, you will see that difficulties begin to arise, and the overall cost will be far higher.

Taking $8 an hour as an example, the following are some of the ideas that have occurred to me:

Due every other individual in the world is also seeking to give them $8 to perform something, they don’t take the job all that seriously because of this fact. Who gives a damn if you fire them? There are one thousand other individuals who are also trying to employ someone for a low price.
They will contract their job out to a third party, such as their relative.
They often lack the expertise, which causes the task, which should normally take only 10 minutes, to take them three times as long.
After that, they are ten times more expensive since you have to really spend time teaching them.

Therefore, you need to make sure that you recruit people at the appropriate level. We categorize freelancers into three distinct levels: beginner, intermediate, and expert.

Entry-Level

Entry-level workers are often available at a reasonable cost, but they are employees whom you will need to instruct on everything. You should not demand these workers to have any prior experience. Outside of the United States, this would normally be between $8.00 and $10.00 per hour.

This works very well for entering data or for anything else that doesn’t take a lot of ability. When I speak to customers, I find that most of them have more success recruiting people at the top end of that range.

Mid-Level

At the mid-level, you must need someone who has past experience. Think of charging between $10 and $15 an hour for their services, depending on where they are located and whether or not they are in the United States.

This is beneficial for jobs such as graphic designers, web designers, video editors, and other similar occupations. Despite the fact that they have prior expertise and skill, you will still need to define the direction and offer a lot of input in general.

Expert-Level

The highest possible level is the expert one, which costs between $15.00 and $20.00. At this point, this level has worked in the industry for a significant number of years.

These individuals serve in the capacities of advisors, coaches, and senior-level project managers. They are of great use to you in situations in which you are at a loss for what to do since they are able to provide direction in this regard.

Not only are they capable of carrying out the project, but they are also capable of being accountable for the project’s overall success.

3. Not All Freelancers Are Amazing

I have a fantasy that everyone was prepared to be a fantastic freelancer, but the fact is that it is VERY DIFFICULT to find outstanding individuals.

Because we have numerous companies and utilize HR software, I am able to monitor how many individuals apply, how many get through the first round, the second round, and so on, and what percentage of applicants are successful.

Only approximately one percent of candidates, on average, should make it through the procedure if it is carried out correctly. Although I’m sure you find it hard to believe, it’s the honest truth.

Eliminating potential candidates from consideration is the last thing you want to be doing with your time. As an entrepreneur, it is imperative that you give your attention to expanding your company.

As a result, this is the motivation for our work here at VA FLIX. We will do the preliminary screening for you and eliminate 99 percent of the applications so that you can be linked even more quickly.

4. You Need Buy-In

It is important for the person you are interviewing to make a good impression on you. You want them to demonstrate not just that they are capable of doing the job, but also that they are effective communicators and have a positive attitude because, let’s face it, nobody likes to go to work with somebody they don’t like. You want them to show you how good they are going to be in the long term.

However, from the perspective of the freelancer, they want to ensure that they are obtaining reputable customers as well. They desire to work with customers who are fun to collaborate with and who will assist them in accomplishing their objectives.

And if you can inspire your independent contractors, they will work more efficiently for you, they will work harder for you, they will go the extra mile for you, and they will take care of you.

Therefore, devoting some more effort to securing buy-in is one hundred percent the right thing to do.

The interview is the first step in this process. When I’m in the initial conversation with a potential client, I prefer to construct a picture of how pleasant it will be to work with us.

Then, when they have been employed, it is essential to properly onboard them into the company. We spend around the first part of the day welcoming them to the team, discussing the culture of the organization, introducing them to important members of the team, and discussing the history of the firm as well as the objective and everything else.

When you make an effort like this, you build rapport, and people start to care about what you have to say. Additionally, this will help avoid flakes, which is an issue that can be really bothersome. When you don’t obtain buy-in, one of the consequences is hiring someone who simply disappears or doesn’t show up for work.

Obtaining buy-in from the other party is very important and will be profitable for the entirety of your partnership.

To wrap things up, the following is the fifth most challenging reason to recruit people:

5. Everyone Needs Coaching

When I first began, the first thing I did was get my freelancers set up, and then I simply let them run. I had the impression that they were doing well.

Well, here’s the problem: if you employ freelancers and you let them do their thing, this is what’s going to happen. Here’s what’s going to happen.

You are going to wait a month before contacting them again because you think to yourself, “Perhaps I need to follow up and see how they are doing,” but then you remember that you are quite busy and decide to put it off.

So, let’s say that another month has passed, and you’ve finally found a few spare minutes to catch up on everything that’s been happening.

When you check up on their work, you will find that it is worthless one hundred percent of the time, and I do mean one hundred percent of the time. Here is what is going to happen.

To put it another way, at least in your head.

The most difficult aspect of this is the fact that it is not their fault.

You can clearly tell that everyone requires coaching. Even employees making six figures that we’ve recruited need to be coached.

Not because they lack the necessary talents or because they are incompetent; on the contrary, they are outstanding. But they can’t read your thoughts, so they rely on you to offer continuous feedback and to point them in the right direction.

Setting up weekly one-on-one meetings is the most straightforward approach to accomplish this goal. You will get together at this time once a week for around half an hour.

You will start by asking them what they did the previous week and providing feedback, and then you will ask them what they intend to work on the next week, or you will work with them to scope out what they will be working on. They are free to inquire about anything, and you are obligated to assist them in overcoming whatever challenges they may be facing.

Your employment responsibilities expand when you move away from being a sole proprietor since you are now a manager, and it is a manager’s responsibility to get the maximum productivity out of their direct reports.

If you do not already have one set up, get a weekly time scheduled with each of your reports as soon as possible.

This will make your life much easier and increase the quality of the work that goes into your reports, saving you a ton of headaches.