Hi, it’s Victor Cheng. Today I want to talk about two quick tips and strategies for smart hiring and recruiting.

First thought is: when you hire — in your company, in your department, in your division, whatever context you are hiring in — you always want to be very aware of your weaknesses.

One useful staffing strategy is to hire people who are very good at the things you stink at. For example, I have a great appreciation for attention to detail. The problem is I’m not very good at it personally. So, I have surrounded myself with a team of individuals who are all very, very good at attention to detail because that’s one of my big weaknesses.

Second strategy is: when you are trying to recruit somebody with a unique set of skills and you are having difficulty… I always use the example of trying to hire somebody who is a rocket scientist and is also a fashion model. Those skills sets by themselves are difficult to find, let alone both skills sets in one individual.

In those situations, it makes sense to consider splitting the role. Rather than one new hire, one person on the team who can be your company’s spokesperson and a rocket scientist, it makes sense sometimes to split the role into two different individuals. So, one rocket scientist and one model who can maybe perhaps be a spokesperson, that kind of a thing.

The reason to do that is because sometimes when you go out to the labor market, the particular configuration of skills you want doesn’t really naturally always fit in a single human being. Or if it does, it’s extremely rare and extremely expensive.

The strategy there when that doesn’t work, is to split the role. And that’s why when you staff and you build out your teams, the way you do it is a bit dynamic. Meaning, you need all the skills to exist on your team to be successful, but you may not necessarily need all those skills to exist within one person on your team. As you hire one person, it can sometimes change what you are looking for in the other people.

Those are my two tips for today. Let me know what you think about this video blogging format. It’s a little new for me. I’m obviously in my car, waiting for my kids to be done with their various school activities. It’s a great way for me to get more content out more easily. Let me know if you like it or not. Any constructive feedback would certainly be very much appreciated. Thanks, and have a great day.