It’s a tricky question I imagine many, if not all, professional firms have to face: when is the right time to hire more professional staff?
Do you add to your staff before the work comes in? There are many advantages to doing so. Your new hire(s) will likely be more up-to-speed when the new files begin and more familiar with your firms’ other professionals and the culture.
Or do you take a more conservative approach and wait until the work has been secured? That can be a risk, however, as the hiring process can eat up valuable time and resources.
There’s likely no correct answer. We all have to decide what’s best for our own circumstances.
But there’s one hiring scenario that, to me, is much easier to figure out. That’s when an exceptional professional becomes available. Someone you would greatly regret losing to a competitor.
When someone of that quality can be added to your staff I believe you need to bring him or her on board. If the workload doesn’t justify it at the time, I feel certain it won’t be long before your investment is returned to your firm.
Exceptional people attract clients and they will more than earn their keep down the road.
We recently had just such a scenario present itself. Don Perron, whom I’ve known and respected for more than a decade, retired from the OPP, where he held many senior positions.
We’d worked together and I always said to him, if you ever retire, call me first. Which he did.
Don has joined us as a senior investigator and will play a major role in our firm in the years ahead. We didn’t conduct a cost-benefit analysis of him joining FFP. When you can draft an all-star player you just do it. The team will be better and the better teams tend to be winners.
