Hey guys, it’s Rick - Elijah Tooling.  Give me two minutes and I’ll make it worth your time!

By the way, Joe just reminded me, it’s probably going to be more than two minutes, but if you’ll give me the FIRST two minutes I’ll give you a reason to watch the last whatever few minutes.

So today we are going to pick up where we left off on our Tips for employers and employees, today.

We’re going to talk about hiring and firing a little bit.

So we already talked in a previous video, so go look it up, about firing somebody. And sometimes, you know, there’s this sense that –oh that will be fun – it’s never been fun for me, but necessary. It reminds me of one of my employees once. She was so intent. She wanted to fire somebody.  She would kid about it “I want to fire somebody” someday, and as it turned out, she was the one that got fired. So that was ironic, unfortunate really, honestly I didn’t mean for that to happen.

But when it comes to the other part of the equation, hiring, what are you supposed to look for?

What matters to the employer and then what matters to the employee?

So, we’re going to talk about that in the context of a parable that Jesus spoke from the Bible. I think that it may be one of the most insightful things that I have read about hiring. Believe it or not! Believe it or not.

So, are you familiar with the parable of the talents?

Right. Yeah.

What was it about?

So the story goes that, what is it? A farmer, or something, gives all his three workers different amounts, different talents.  He gives one one talent, one five talents, one ten talents.

And a talent is money?  Right, it’s a currency. Right.

He wasn’t a farmer, well, he –they call him the master –probably a landowner.

You probably wouldn’t like it if I came into the shop today and said “I’m your master”. That would be kind of weird.

But in the context of that time he was an employer. Right. And the people that he entrusted – the word is used-entrusted his possessions to, were his employees. Right.

And, just like the story, an owner, an employer, entrusts something to his employees. And so, I like that concept because it involves trusting somebody. Right.  And it also involves, stewarding.  Them stewarding something. Right?

So how’s the story go?

So each of the people did something different with their money.  The person with ten talents, he went and he invested it, did what he could so that when the master came back he had twenty talents of total.

So, he doubled – he doubled his investment – what was given, yeah.

And it actually says another thing that I thought was important, which is, he went out and immediately….

Right. He didn’t waste time.

I mean he was EXCITED about the mission, the vision.

And there’s another thing that I find really interesting.  And if you’ve invested money, if you know anything about investing money, do you know anything about investing?  A little bit, right?
A little bit.

We’ve played in the stock market a little bit. Yeah.

How hard is it to double your money?

It’s pretty difficult. It takes time.

So that guy that he entrusted those funds to… was skilled.

So that’s another part of the equation we don’t really think about.

How did he do that?  He was skilled.  He was a skilled employee.

He immediately went out.  I mean he was excited. He knew his job and he went and did it. Right.

So what else happened?

So, the person that was given ten talents, came back with another ten.  The person that was given five talents came back with another five, did the same thing, but the person with one talent, he went and he buried it, because he didn’t want anything bad to happen to it, I suppose.

So, another part of the story was that the employer entrusted the amount that basically fit the skillset of the person that was there.  Right.

It says that he, a… one got ten, right? He was the one that he entrusted the most to. Right.

And then one got five.

So, he actually kind of did it according to their ability. Right.

And that’s common, right? Inside of a business or any kind of relationship there’s going to be some people that come to the table with more skills.  They might be… you know… I won’t put all the adjectives on there, but, we all have our pluses and our minuses.  And he recognized that when he entrusted these things to them.

So the guy that, that buried it? Right.

You know what it says?  He was afraid.  And I thought about that.  He says “I’m afraid, I couldn’t do the job, because was afraid”.  Afraid of what?

Afraid of failure. Afraid of the master. Afraid of the employer.

He’s actually, like, doesn’t trust.

So, the employer entrusts something to him, but in return, he doesn’t entrust himself to the [employer].

That’s a really fascinating concept.

So when I’m an employer, if I use this, if I say that these are principles to hire by, I’m looking for somebody who believes in me. Who believes in this company. Who believes in what we’re doing.

Wouldn’t you agree? Yeah.

You were going to add something?

Well the one thing I kind of like about this story is that, we talk about how the person that was given one talent was afraid while the other people they went out immediately, did what they could to double it.

So, that kind of, when you think about that, it kind of says that the other people probably took RISKS.  The person who had one talent only did what he was COMFORTABLE with.  Right.

Everyone else went outside their comfort zone. Right.

So, an employer is always looking for somebody that’s willing to take that risk.  Who’s willing to go out on a limb for them.

And they’re independently doing it: they didn’t have to have somebody else [manage them].

The story doesn’t say that the master had told them to do something with it.  They just kind of doubled it. So…

Right. Right.

Well, it’s a cool story and honestly I hope that it’s beneficial to you because the point is:

You’ve always got employees, you’ve got employees that are coming to you, sometimes out of the woodwork, and what they want is they want to get paid well. I mean, that’s there thing. What, how many benefits you got? What’s your number of vacation days, your holidays?

What are all the things that you’re going to benefit me with?

And, yet, the other part of the equation is, How are you going to steward what has been given to you?

And the employer is going to be looking for someone he CAN entrust that stuff to.

And, what happens when that happens? He’s gonna throw more and more responsibility at that person.

He’s going to give them a greater influence. Right? That’s just a natural thing but we don’t really think about what that means in the context of the give and take of that particular situation. Right.

You with me there, brother? Actually this is my son – if forgot to introduce him at the beginning. But, my youngest son and I’m hoping that some of these tips can help him in the future.

Listen, I’ve taken enough of your time. Thank you SO MUCH for joining us today. See you next time.