Part 2: Laying the Groundwork for a Trusting Relationship With Our Employees
Part 2
Laying the Groundwork for a Trusting Relationship With Our Employees
By Chuck Baren, COO of HirexHire
HirexHire is Building a Great Company for Great People.
Part 1 of this 6-Part blog series explained why we believe that is important. Read Part 1 here. In Part 2, we discuss a foundational layer of all great companies - a trusting relationship between management and employees.
At HirexHire, we know that great people want to work in a trusting environment. There are many reasons why that is true, but if you’re not sold on that statement already, imagine working with people you couldn’t rely on for help or who didn’t trust you to do your job well. Great people don’t stay at those places very long.
HirexHire Team Outing | SPIN Chicago
Defining Trust at HirexHire
Trust means a few very specific things at HirexHire. It means our employees are trusted to make smart business decisions every day, and our leaders are trusted to respond productively when employees come to them with a problem or concern. We view trust as an essential element of a great work environment and a big part of our growth strategy.
Earning Trust at HirexHire
Trust needs to be earned, so it is important that we all understand what we mean by trust and that we hold each other accountable to that standard. At HirexHire, we will always support our people if a problem arises when they can answer ‘yes’ to the following 3 questions:
Can you justify your action or decision to your clients?
Can you justify your action or decision to your teammates?
Can you look in the mirror at night and sleep well knowing you did what you truly believed was right?
Of course, the best decisions are not always made, but we do not fault our people for doing what they believed was the right thing to do. Instead, we help them understand why and how to make a better decision next time. We also look for trends - repeated mistakes or a series of bad decisions - that should be addressed. Leaders who speak this language and support their employees in this way earn trust more quickly.
The trust we give to our employees will only result in good outcomes if they trust their supervisors and HirexHire leadership to respond productively when they bring issues to their attention. This means helping to resolve them in a productive way before more significant problems unfold and saving any warranted direct conversations until the immediate needs are addressed.
Employees will not come to us with issues if we do not respond well. In that case, they will either go to peers for help, which creates more distractions and adds risk to others’ work, or they will not seek help and allow issues to persist. Either way, the likelihood of an issue worsening or creating new problems increases. And when a problem blows up, the people who needed to know about it will be the last to find out. And that isn’t good for anyone.
Policies that support a trusting environment
HirexHire is a young and progressive company. We have adopted some increasingly popular approaches to establishing trusting relationships with employees, including unlimited vacation and sick days, a hybrid or a fully remote working environment, and allowing full creative expression of dress code and physical appearance. Our policies demonstrate that our employees are trusted to make good decisions. We also ensure every employee has a weekly 1-1 meeting with their supervisor and that both parties hold that time sacred. More about 1-1 meetings will come in Part 5 of this blog series.
By being transparent about our philosophy and policies, we hope to prove to our current and future employees that we understand what trust looks like and how to practice it. We thoughtfully put the time and effort into laying the groundwork for a trusting relationship with our employees as part of our mission to build a great place for great people to work.
Thanks for reading Part 2! In Part 3 of this blog series, Chuck will write about how to articulate a vision of the future that employees can understand, embrace, and help drive towards.
How HirexHire is Building a Great Place for Great People - Hire by Hire:
Follow @hirexhire on LinkedIn to receive each part as it is published.
About HirexHire
HirexHire (pronounced: hire by hire) is a Chicago-based recruiting and talent consultancy that integrates with companies short-term to provide long-term talent solutions.
We take a seat in our client’s everyday operations to understand their people, goals, gaps, and challenges. We then develop and implement the processes and technologies to execute a sustainable and scalable talent plan.
We partner with companies expecting or experiencing high growth, leading them to hire at scale or fill a critical role rapidly. We develop and execute creative strategies to carry out all aspects of the recruiting process: crafting job descriptions, building candidate pipelines, vetting candidates, conducting interviews, negotiating offers, and leading new hires to their first day on our client’s team.
HirexHire was founded in 2018 with an initial investment by founder and CEO Mike Durec. The firm found its first customers through Mike’s network in the Chicagoland startup community. Consistent success has led to a sterling reputation and steady growth. The company has more than doubled its number of customers, revenue, and employee base each year and is showing no signs of slowing down.
About Mike Durec
Founder and CEO
As Founder and CEO of HirexHire, Mike partners with operating executives and investors to develop and implement processes and technologies to successfully attract and retain talent.
In his past work as a corporate recruiting leader in technology, Mike crafted and managed strategies to hire thousands of professionals across many functional areas worldwide. He has led hiring initiatives in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Australia, and India. Mike brings practical leadership experience and a legacy of success to every engagement.
HirexHire now operates with Mike’s proven approach, deploying empathy with candidates and hiring managers and advocating for the best interest of both parties. Mike emphasizes the two-way relationship between the employee and employer, resulting in long-term people placement and greater work-life satisfaction.
About Chuck Baren
Chief Operating Officer
Chuck has more than 20 years of experience working in professional services for SAAS providers, most of which was with Fieldglass, where he helped it grow from 20 employees and no revenue in 2000 through its $1 billion acquisition by SAP in 2014. He regularly received high marks for the level of employee engagement of his teams for which he prioritized people management and the need to attract and retain top talent by building a great place for them to work. By the time he left SAP Fieldglass, the professional services team he led had grown to approximately 200 employees.
Chuck wrote about his experience leading his growing team at Fieldglass through challenging periods of rapid growth in Money Matters, Top Tips for Success, the Business Leaders Edition, volume 3. His chapter entitled “People Management is Key to Survival in a High Growth Environment” helped propel the book to Amazon Best Seller status in its first days of release.