Who is your ‘weakest link’?

“Hire the Best Person” is a business mantra that has been around for a long time.

And yet the radio networks continue to hire mediocre people and they’re the ones who give you the most grief. Luckily the real duds usually fire themselves.

Mediocre staff don’t do enough of the bad stuff and a lot of the time they are nice people so it’s a challenge for employers to move them on.

The other problem is managers have a tendency to hire people they like and if a friendship develops, they are even harder to fire.

I once asked a network CEO why a mediocre performer still had the position of Assistant PD in a capital city.

The CEO told me that he was a good friend of the Group PD so that person survives even though the people he works with know his weaknesses and work around him, adding to their own workload.

Hiring the best person also means you don’t need as many staff because the stars pull more than their own weight.

So next time you go to hire someone, remember you don’t have to necessarily like them just make sure that they are the best person for the job.

Greg Smith is a Director of Radio Today.