Hire Slow.....Fire Fast

Did you know that the median nonprofit spends 73% of it's budget on personnel?   Yep, three quarters of the cost of doing business is your people.  It's another reason why having the right talent in place means more than the right strategic plan or the right social media buzz.

But our experience is that nonprofit leaders (especially in human services or education) are reluctant to do what's best and cut underperforming employees loose.   Oh, there are the toxic employees, but were not talking about those.  It is the ones we like personally...the ones who work hard, get along with others, display all the emotional intelligence called for by management experts.....and yet they're not getting the job done.

In this two minute clip, Ken Schiller, co-founder of Texas restaurants Rudy's and Mighty Fine Burgers, provides an excellent example of well liked and respected employee who was an excellent manager when the company was small but did not grow as the company grew.  Becasue Schiller really liked the guy and appreciated all he had done in the early days, there was severe hesitancy to make the move.  But Schiller learned from this and his advice to us all is Hire Slow, Fire Fast