Write on Time: Should You Hire a Friend?

by Melody Brumis EBSTC Senior Member

Melody Brumis is active East Bay STC member. Currently, she and Adrienne Tange are co-owners of Write on Time Solutions, LLC is a technical writing company that creates clear, concise and accurate technical documentation or Web content — always on time and on budget.

No. Not if you are hiring him just because he's a friend. He has to be able to do the job.

How do you discover this? You have to go through the same process you would an unknown job candidate. Carefully review his resume before calling him in for an interview. And, check references. Check his last employer and gather as much information as you can. Discovery may be in the little things. A pause, cough, before answering the question: "Would you hire Fred back again"?

Steps for Hiring the Right Person

Martha Stewart, in her book The Martha Rules, has a chapter called "Build an A Team." In this chapter, she outlines the following steps to take to ensure you hire the right person:

1. Create options by considering several candidates.

2. Check those references!

3. Make sure all involved employees meet the candidate.

I have had the good fortune of being hired by friends, so I thought it would work to hire a friend. Not always. What I forgot was that I was hired by friends from the East Bay Society for Technical Communication. I had been an active member of this organization from newsletter editor to president, and these friends had seen my work. Also, every one of these friends went through the entire hiring process before bringing me on. I got no free passes.

So, what do you do when a friend screws up? I won't go there. I will say that early on Adrienne Tange, my business partner, and I had the "friend" discussion. We decided whether our business, Write on Time Solutions, flourished or not, we would remain friends. We remind ourselves of this occasionally. And, we keep ourselves to our individual high standards in all our work.

Would You Hire a Friend?

Would you hire a friend? I'd love to hear your experiences. You can write me at mbrumis@writeontimesolutions.com.

One friend I asked about hiring a friend said, "You must make sure they have the same standards for work as you do." Another said, "Hire, yes; roommates, no!"

Melody and Adrienne are writing this column to help you achieve small business success. If you have questions, e-mail them at info@writeontimesolutions.com. They will address your questions in future columns.