investing

Hire Like an Investor

To succeed in the long run, businesses need to take an investor-like approach to hiring. So how do you hire like an investor?


Top talent is the fuel that drives growth and innovation in the highly competitive world of financial services. Company leaders need to think like strategic investors do as they assess potential opportunities and manage their portfolios. To succeed in the long run, businesses need to take an investor-like approach to hiring. By implementing an investor’s perspective to hiring, you will construct a diverse, talented, high-caliber workforce that will provide significant returns on your investment. So how do you find the hidden gems among the resumes?

Evaluate Candidates Like an Investor

Conduct Thorough Due Diligence

Before making any investment decision, investors conduct extensive research and due diligence. Similarly, when hiring, it's essential to thoroughly vet candidates to ensure they possess the necessary skills, experience, and cultural fit. Rigorous background checks, credential verification, and reference interviews can provide valuable insights into a candidate's qualifications, but ensuring fit is also imperative. Skills can always be taught, but personality cannot. 

Analyze the Potential Return on Investment (ROI)

Before investing, investors always conduct a thorough investigation with careful consideration. Similarly, when hiring, properly assess candidates to see if they align with the company's culture and possess the relevant skills. References, a background check, and credential verifications are a few methods used to determine if a candidate is qualified to work for the organization, and interviews can help determine if their personality is a fit. Evaluate the applicant's potential contribution to the company versus the cost of hiring and training them by assessing the prospective employee's ability to maximize profits and expand the company's growth.

Diversify Your Talent Portfolio

Assembling a team can be compared to strategically planning a wise investment. To reduce risks and maximize returns, shrewd investors distribute their wealth among several ventures. Businesses ought to treat their teams similarly. Seek out individuals with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities. Your team will be able to tackle difficult tasks and adapt as necessary in this way. Don't limit yourself to a single type of person or ability. Look for people with various skills, ways of thinking, and experiences. This way, your team can handle tough challenges and pivot when needed. Analyze your current hiring process and notice roadblocks that may affect hiring diverse talent. Expand where you recruit talent, use inclusive language in job descriptions, and hold leadership accountable for inclusive hiring.

Implementing an Investor-Driven Hiring Process

Develop a Structured Hiring Methodology

Establishing a systematic and uniform hiring process is essential to making well-informed hiring decisions that are valuable to your company. Start by outlining the precise abilities, credentials, and characteristics needed for each position. Next, create a multi-phase screening procedure that enables you to evaluate applicants in-depth concerning these standards.

Employ skills evaluation tools, like case studies, simulations, and coding tests, to impartially assess a candidate's technical aptitude and problem-solving abilities. These evaluations can offer insightful information beyond what is mentioned in a resume or during an interview.

Use behavioral-based interviewing strategies, such as asking candidates to explain particular circumstances they've faced and their responses to them. This strategy can provide crucial insights into a candidate's capacity for making decisions, communicating effectively, and handling pressure.

Engage a variety of people in the hiring process, such as supervisors, subject matter experts, and possible coworkers. Their varied viewpoints and experiences can help uncover any blind spots. They can offer insights into the work environment and corporate culture, which can help you determine how well a candidate might fit in with the organization's environment.

Employing a systematic hiring process will enable you to make better hiring choices that fit the needs of your company and its values, ultimately fostering the expansion and success of your organization.

Prioritize Ongoing Talent Development

Firms need to proactively evaluate and develop their talent to generate long-term growth and success, just as investors constantly review and optimize their portfolios for maximum returns. Regularly review the abilities and performance of your staff to find out where they are strongest and where they could need further guidance or learning. 

Organizations need to proactively evaluate and develop their talent to generate long-term growth and success, just as investors constantly review and optimize their portfolios for maximum returns. Regularly review the abilities and performance of your staff to find out where they are strongest and where they could need further guidance or learning.

Make considerable investments in programs for learning and development that give your staff access to workshops, training sessions, and educational materials. Develop strategies based on each employee's unique strengths and professional goals to ensure that they obtain the assistance they need to improve their abilities and talents. Also remember to cultivate soft skills like flexibility, problem-solving, and communication in addition to technical skill growth. Studies have shown that employers who invest in the learning and development of their employees can see their profits increase eightfold, along with increased retention rates. By pouring into your employees, they pour back into you.

Continuously Optimize and Refine Your Hiring Approach

Developing an investor mindset while hiring requires regular evaluation, modification, and optimization. Keep a close eye on the results and contributions of your most recent hires, and collect input from supervisors, coworkers, and the staff members themselves. Employees leaving should be interviewed to learn more about their experiences and the factors that shaped their decision to leave. This information can be priceless in addressing any potential pain spots or cultural challenges that might be affecting your capacity to draw in and keep elite employees. Examine this data to find patterns and places where your operations may need to be modified.

Keep up with the most recent developments in talent acquisition and management, including best practices, emerging technology, and trends. Engage with thought leaders in the field, take part in professional networks, and attend industry conferences to stay up to date on new tactics, resources, and methods that could enhance the hiring process. Through consistent observation, assessment, and improvement of your hiring procedures, you ensure your company stays adaptable and competitive in the always-changing talent market.

Doing your homework, thinking about what each hire will bring in the long run, and aiming for a team with varied skills and backgrounds will make good hiring choices that lead to success. With a clear hiring plan, ongoing development, and always aiming to improve, the investor mindset will help your company put together a team that can deal with whatever the world throws your way.

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