Hiring family members (yes or no?)

 

This is a tough situation to deal with!

In fact, one of our clients hired a family member recently… and didn’t have a good time dealing with all the challenges!

The back story… 

He wanted to find a good salesperson and ended up hiring someone close to him. 

The family member in question is a high-performer… so it was a good starting point. 

But it only led to trouble. 

That’s because the salesperson started performing poorly and even created troubles with other employees. 

So now our client’s in a tough position, as you can imagine. 

And that leads to the lesson when hiring family members. 

If you can’t treat your family member the SAME way as any other employee, there’s a problem. 

First of all, it’s tough to give honest feedback to someone you care about, especially when they’re performing poorly. 

Then there’s the whole ‘they’ll take care of me because we’re close’ way of thinking. 

This isn’t a good reason to hire someone, either. And it’s not a good reason to keep someone. 

The only thing to care about is whether they’re a good fit. 

If they have the skillset that you need and are willing to work hard, then consider hiring. 

But before you do, ask yourself if you’re willing to let them go if they don’t perform. 

If you can’t, don’t hire that person. In the long run, this can do more harm than good.