Do you hire relatives?
As long as the relatives you hire have the skills needed for the job, and the company needs the work done, it should work out fine. However, if you hire a relative just to give them a job, you are looking for trouble.
About Kathleen Chitester
Kathleen Chitester has more than 30 years of business experience in positions ranging from marketing manager to vice president. Most recently, she has held executive and/or board positions at Chitester Management Systems, RedVector.com,
Questamente, and Pay Per Visit Email. She is an avid runner and lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband, David.
Kathleen Chitester has more than 30 years of business experience in positions ranging from marketing manager to vice president. Most recently, she has held executive and/or board positions at Chitester Management Systems, RedVector.com,
Questamente, and Pay Per Visit Email. She is an avid runner and lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband, David.
David Chitester
Serial Entrepreneur
We are fam-a-lee.
You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your relatives. But, you can choose whether or not to hire them in your business. I have colleagues who are adamently against hiring family members. I know others, however, who think it is great. I fall into the second group and here is why.
I met my wife, Kathleen, shortly after starting Chitester Management Systems in 1995. She was working for a competitor and we were teaming up to submit a proposal to the Department of Transportation. Once we started dating, she moved to Tampa and came to work for Chitester Management. In the past 15 years, we have been side by side at Chitester Management, RedVector, Questamente, and now, Pay Per Visit Email. We have had differences of opinon at times, but we always get things resolved. (She is usually right).
Also, in 2004, we decided to bring my brother, Tim, into Chitester Management as a partner and president. He built up the business and led the negotiations to sell it to Hill International in 2008. Other relative success stories include hiring my father-in-law, Dave Morris, to run a long term project, and hiring my nephew, Chris Chitester, as an intern when he was in college. In every case, it was a win-win situation.
I think, when it comes to hiring relatives, the same rules apply as those dealing with other employees. Some may turn out to be good decisions, others not so good. At least with relatives you have some idea in advance what the person is like and whether or not they can do the job. That cannot be said when you hire a complete stranger, no matter how much interviewing you do.
