Find the right people
Getting the right people in place in your business, especially if you started the company on your own, can be tough. You want to find people who share the same passion and commitment for the business as you do to help you grow.
“You’re only ever going to be as good as how good your employee base is,” Osterfeld says. “You can take any well-run company or any good concept and ruin it in a short period of time with poor people.
“The flip of that is, you can take some pretty underperforming companies and inject a new employee population that is immensely talented and turn that company around in pretty short order. In the end, people will always make the difference.”
Osterfeld uses a strategy of trying to find people that can move up in the company. He has a commitment to hiring from within, so he looks for employees who can become future leaders when he is hiring.
“When you hire from within, employees after awhile understand that and are more motivated when they see a company that’s not only growing, but as they grow, they are taking the employees to fill the upper-echelon positions from the existing employee base,” he says. “If you continually bring in outsiders, their sense of thinking is that there’ll be no room for growth. You’re going to have a hard time holding on to employees and garnering any loyalty with your existing employee base.”
Osterfeld says take the time to go through the interview process and make the right judgment on whether the candidate has the talent and aspirations to eventually move up to a higher position.
“I look at that individual before we hire them and ask myself, ‘Is this somebody who can come in and grow with the company?’” Osterfeld says. “Do they have enough talent and aspirations to want to move up within the company?’ If you do that, and you’re not shortsighted about your hiring, you’ll find that in four, five, 10 years, you have enough talent in the lower levels to replace the people in the upper levels; as there’s turnover in management or as you grow, there are new positions that become available.”
Osterfeld also keeps his eye out for young people who are talented and can bring something to the industry. While building his golf course, The Golf Club at Stonelick Hills, Osterfeld met a young man on the construction crew who impressed him by showing up on time every day, sometimes even coming early and staying late. He kept in touch with the young man throughout college and eventually offered him a job after he graduated.
“You ask yourself constantly whether or not you think that particular individual has talents that fit within your organization,” he says.
