YOU SHOULD ONLY HIRE TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE!

In his new book Zero to Sixty, Bob Franquiz writes that he thinks you should hire only two types of people: products and projects.

According to Franquiz, products are the people “who are already highly developed. We could liken ‘products' to a baseball team that signs a high profile, highly productive free agent. The team knows what they are getting because they have already seen the player produce.” These ‘products' because they have already proven themselves elsewhere, will come on to your team and help you hit it out of the park.

Projects are the people you see in your organization that have an enormous amount of underdeveloped potential. Bob says, “You see the value they could add to your organization with the right time, training, and coaching.”

So... if you're in the process of hiring a new staff person, which are you looking for? A ‘product' or a ‘project'? Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Projects don't cost as much financially. Think interns, recent college grads, or business leaders.
2. Products don't require near as much training or leadership.
3. Projects many times have a much larger learning curve than Products. If you're hiring someone to alleviate the load, the Project will probably not be able to do that initially.
4. Products are ‘plug and play' and can make a more significant contribution from day one.

There you have it! Projects and Products. Two totally different kinds of hires. Knowing which one you need BEFORE you hire can save you a lot of time and headaches.

Originally written by Todd Rhoads