PhotoMerchant Round Table: Hiring Staff
PhotoMerchant interviews successful business owners and industry experts, Doug Hall of T8 Photography, David Ryall of Photo Hendriks, and Steve Saporito, the Portrait Studio Doctor on the ins and outs of hiring staff for a photography business.
PhotoMerchant: At what stage in a business’ life should a photographer think about hiring staff?
Doug Hall: If they are so busy that they can no longer meet the deadlines for client delivery, then they’ve started looking for staff too late. That’s why it’s important to look ahead and plan to hire to meet the needs of their growing business.
David Ryall: When back-end work is restricting them from servicing clients, they need to hire. A photographer’s focus should to be talking to clients, making sales, and doing the shooting.
Steve Saporito: I think photographers need to look at hiring when they feel that they don’t have the skills to do parts of their business efficiently and properly. Many of them believe they have to do everything, and they’re marketing, but they don’t know how to market, and they’re selling, but they don’t know how to sell. If for example they identify that they’re not great at converting enquiries into bookings, then hiring a person to do that is much cheaper than doing it themselves.
PM: What if they feel like the revenue they’re generating won’t cover hiring staff, but hiring staff will help them generate more revenue?
SS: Sometimes you need to take a leap of faith. Obviously you need to be able to pay the staff, but money isn’t the only resource. Excess capacity is a resource. So is a database of leads. All you need to do is hire someone who loves being on the phone and they will convert those leads so all you have to do is what you’re good at: shooting.
PM: How do you find staff for a photography business?
DH: We have an established network in the industry and find people through our network.
DR: We recruit our photography staff through TAFE. At the photography course graduation show we collect their business cards and contact them directly to see if they want to interview for a position.
SS: We advertise; Gumtree is a great resource.
Write the job description, be very clear about what you want, and incorporate that into the ad. Then look for evidence on resumes that people have done the sorts of things you’re after. It’s also important not to hire someone exactly like you because that person will come with the same deficiencies you have, and you’ll end up with the same problems.
DR: For photographers who are just starting out and looking to employ staff, be very specific about intentions for that employee. Writing a detailed job description is crucial for the new employee and for yourself. You need to be clear about what tasks they’re taking over, and what you’re going to do with your extra time so you’ll be able to step back and let them do their job.
PM: What qualities are more important: skill and experience, or personality and fit?
DH: Passion and fit. You can train people to give them the skills they need, but it is very difficult to motivate people if they only see the position as a job.
DR: Personality. They need to have a bit of aptitude, but if you have someone with the right attitude, you can teach them anything.
SS: It’s very helpful to use behavioural questions in the interview, because personality and fit are more important. You can teach skill. The right personality and the right fit will absorb like a sponge and take on the skill. You can’t teach or change personality.
PM: How long should someone take to learn something like lead conversion?
SS: With personality testing, we’re looking for someone who likes people and has good communication skills. I come in and do a day’s training with them and the next day they’re booking people. They should be booking 2-3 quality people a day. Within a couple of weeks, they should be booking 5-8 people a day. Those specific targets need to be communicated clearly to staff and monitored closely.
PM: When hiring experienced photographers, are training and brand orientation important, or should you let them do their own thing?
DH: There is a balance that needs to be taken here. People need to feel like they belong to the business and have control over their part of it, but they also have to have the same outlook that the business has so the clients don’t get confused. With photographers we don’t want them to change from the way they shoot, because our clients choose the photographer for their style and their work.
DR: Definitely it’s important. Even in a small business, they’re still representing you; it’s your name on the door. You have to treat them as a partner in the business; they’re part of the team, representing one brand, one image, one ideal.
PM: What if it’s not working? How can you approach the awkward issue of having to let someone go?
DH: Start by contracting the staff on a job-by-job basis. It’s a good way to see if they fit into the business, and if their work is good enough. It also lets them decide on the amount of work they want to do, so they have the right work/life balance. For the relationship to work, the business and the staff member have to both be happy.
DR: We do it as directly as we can. If we see issues, we’ll raise them with the staff member and give them coaching and opportunities to change. If it’s a serious problem we’ll write them up officially and document it. If they need to be terminated then that’s the course we take.
SS: It’s much easier to coach someone than performance manage them. If you’re continually coaching and monitoring someone, then you shouldn’t have to performance manage them.
If you to have someone who isn’t meeting performance levels, that person will set a new low standard for your whole team. Your team will respect you more and be more productive once that person has gone. If you avoid termination it will pull the rest of the team down and they will begin to lose respect for you as a leader.
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Doug Hall is a partner with T8 Photography, a Canberra-based wedding and portrait business with 12 staff members. |
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David Ryall is the Managing Director of Photo Hendriks, a Perth-based school and team photography business. Photo Hendriks has 19 staff members. |
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Steve Saporito runs The Portrait Studio Doctor, mentoring portrait photographers all over Australia. Find him on Facebook. |
