Why Proper Hiring is the First Step to Team Success Your hiring needs should align with your bigger picture.

I recently shared a post on my social media about the role of hiring in team building. It spoke from the roots of building teams from the ground up. It's a meaningful conversation. The people your business needs at an early stage will be much different as your company matures. However, many of the fundamentals of team building can apply at any time in your organization's lifetime.

Team building ultimately starts with hiring. Before you begin the hiring process, you must consider the big picture and how to fill it in with the right people. You must consider everything you need: the teams, competencies, personalities, characteristics, etc. It will be a handful of different things that should align with your bigger picture.

We started with a thought exercise at my company. I evaluated what expertise we had and what the business was going to need. We would need someone on the technology side, someone experienced in insurance, marketing and so on. We considered different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences that would fit, along with expertise. We needed first-principle thinkers, problem-solver creatives and people with good networks that BriteCo serves. There were also the more general attributes: courage, self-awareness, collaboration and others. When we interviewed people, we listed qualities we look for in pivotal team members. We also looked at what we didn't need. You don't always have to fill roles. It can vary for every company. For example, you may not need a CFO or a CTO. Don't just look at what you want. Also, consider what you do not wish to do.

Related: 10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees

When you're interviewing candidates, there has to be some connectedness. You have to see eye-to-eye and be a fit. You're probably going to have disagreements. You must work through things with people where a general alignment can help. Some of the best conversations we have are during disagreements. As long as you can work through the issues and problems, differences can be productive. You may encounter head-butting situations where you can't work through problems together. People might also be digging in their heels without collaboration, which can create stopgaps and block your company's flow and progress.

Team building can be highly unique today, as many companies have work-from-home or hybrid environments or rely on contractors or gig workers to grow their businesses. Some companies are entirely remote. We've found that bringing remote employees into our office is enormously helpful for team building. However, we know that isn't always possible for some companies. In that instance, make time with people a standard part of your process.

Some tactics are weekly standing Zoom calls, daily check-ins on Slack and Teams, and so on. Traditionally, interactions that help support team building occur in the office and contribute to a successful group. You must create similar opportunities for this engagement and connection with your remote and hybrid workers. These interactions don't just allow you to build strong relationships with your teams. It can also let you regularly cultivate your company values, work ethic, mindset, approach and other attributes among your employees.

Related: 3 Strategies to Optimize Your Hiring Process and Find the Best Employees

Motivating, inspiring and energizing teams are enormous parts of leadership and occur as employees interact with you and other leaders at your company. You won't have this kind of interaction with remote and hybrid workers. That means you have to forge ways for these employees to regularly see or hear how you operate, interact, what you say, do, etc., as effectively as they would if they were in the office.

Good processes, systems and tools that help foster connections and communication need to be in place to help, regardless of whether your teams are remote, on-site, or hybrid. But, especially so with your work-from-home talent. The systems and means you put in place to foster and maintain presence and connection with out-of-office workers can have extra value because employees can connect and interact with each other whether they are in the office or not – this is also very important to team building. Strong relationships between your workers can incite natural collaboration, teamwork and other benefits for your business.

Related: 5 Hiring Strategies You Should be Using in a Labor Shortage

For example, I know a company that has a hybrid workforce. Its leadership and teams use Zoom and Microsoft Teams daily and weekly to communicate and work together. Virtual collaboration tools are a regular part of the job, including between workers who are together on-site. Regardless of your employees' locations, this universal use creates continuity and consistency in how people interact across the organization. With seamless use among everyone, there is less of a gap between in and out-of-office workers.

The company's leadership is encouraged to regularly use the tools with their teams. Employees reach out to each other every morning on Microsoft Teams to check in, say hello and review the day's projects. Personal chatter typically occurs in an office kitchen, at the deskside, or during lunch. These interactions can help build relationships between your company and workers and your workers and their colleagues. It resulted in employees actively lending their contacts and relationships to each other at the organization and stepping up when needed help.

Last, make your company and product information readily available to your workers. We've created video libraries with insight and information about BriteCo and our industry. It's an example of having the resources available for people to tap into, learn and stay in touch with company news and happenings, whether in-office or remote. It helps ensure people are versed in and aligned with your brand, business and mission — another critical element in team building and success.