We spend a lot of our lives at work and it’s no fun to work with people who behave like cold fish. Find out how the Beauchesne family have approached the challenge of recruiting the type of people who contribute to an awesome work environment:
Who were the first people to join the business?
It was very much friends and family at the beginning. We had a lot of things to do, there were only a few of us to do them, so our friends and family started volunteering. My sister, who was a book editor, wrote our press releases. My buddy Jordan, a graphic designer, drew our logos. There are countless examples of friends who came and helped us. When we could finally afford to pay people it just made sense that we would hire them. They had already been volunteering and doing a good job.
How did this shape the culture of the workplace?
At any point, any person in the organization felt comfortable saying: “I think there is a better way to do this” or “I don’t think we should be doing that”. We were all friends and family, everyone felt comfortable with letting others know what we were really thinking. Everyone worked that much harder.
What limits did you experience?
I didn’t have that many friends when I started the company! We had to start bringing other people in and we needed to find a way for them to feel comfortable in this pretty unique dynamic. The best way we found was to become close friends with them because then suddenly they felt just as much a part of it as anybody else.
How has all this affected your approach to hiring?
A big part of our hiring practice is hiring people we feel we could be friends with. It’s different when it’s ‘I get to work with my buddy’ and it changes the dynamic in a really cool way.
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