Living in Costa Rica & Finding The Right Staff For Your Small Business.
“People are my greatest asset.” – Every Business Operator in the last 20 years.
The halls of business continue to echo the aging sentiment that “people are our greatest asset,” while the real-time demonstration of this philosophy doesn’t quite drill down to the front lines.
My wife and I came to Costa Rica because we looked around in the States and felt we could do things better; not just our lifestyle, yes that too, but even in the way we did business. There we both had good jobs, working for solid corporations, which both spoke to us being their “greatest assets.”
What we found in the long run is we measured up a little short in true value against other things, like oh say, the bottom line.
I once read in Jack Welsh’s book “Winning” (I’m paraphrasing) about how the most important job I would ever do was build my team, that it would be the task that would take me the longest to get good at, and that I would make less mistakes the longer I did it, so I set out to learn more.
In my former life I swear I read so much about building great teams, if I were to pile it all up, I could light a bonfire big enough to see the Gold Coast from the International Space Station. All the reading and all the hard knocks boiled down to some very basic concepts I packed into my bags when we moved here.
The basics of “hiring right” in Costa Rica start and end with the same things which make-up hiring right in more developed places. You will be spending a good deal of time with your “hire,” or at least your customers will, so you had better enjoy spending that time with them.
They should be all the things we look for back home: punctual, groomed, polite, mature, ethical, and posses all the values which reflect your business, this much we know. The process of hiring right in Costa Rica, beyond what we already covered, boils down to some four very simple rules beyond the obvious: don’t hire yourself, don’t hire non-Costa Ricans, DO hire Costa Ricans, and keep them by making sure you speak their language.
Don’t hire yourself; not because you’re not any good, you’re beautiful baby, you just can’t work here. It is so common to see Expat business owners working in their own business one may draw the conclusion it’s one of those maybe-laws, and maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t. The reality is that performing a job that can be done by a Costa Rican in prohibited and could get you in as much trouble as an expulsion from Club Costa Rica.
If you think I am making this up, ask around on forum sites or with other expats, it happens. You may be able to pay your way out of trouble sometimes but there are no guarantees, and if the powers-that-be want you gone, you risk losing your lifestyle in paradise. To me it’s not worth it. You may manage the day-to-day operations of your business and that is pretty much it. Anything else is questionable.
Don’t hire non-Costa Ricans. It is true you may hire anyone with a permit to work, Costa Rican or not, but I don’t advise it as a long term total solution. My wife and my business came pre-loaded with an employee who was not Costa Rican. She was Nicaraguan, fully permitted to work in Costa Rica, but keeping her on has not been without its stressful moments, which could have been avoided if she were native Tica.
If we could do it again we would have started with a Costa Rican. We now have another employee who is Tica and found it much less complicated getting her in position. To this point we see many non-Ticos working in businesses throughout Costa Rica, Italians, Argentinians, and others.
For whatever reason, each of these business owners feel the risk in running this play is worth the advantages of the hire, but I don’t share this sentiment. To me this is not worth any kind of negative press.
Hiring Costa Ricans will connect your business more to the country, to the people you will rely on when the slow season comes, and will be more aligned with spirit of the law. You can hire Costa Ricans who are bilingual if you need, a practice which non-Spanish speaking owners leverage when dealing with providers and peddlers.
You are less apt to draw the wrong attention with Ticos at your side and you can sleep knowing you are doing right by the people.
[Tip: Hire via referral, not via “help wanted” signs, or Facebook. Start with your attorney, your accountant, and every working professional you respect to collect referrals.]
Lastly, keep your Costa Rican employees working for you by speaking their language, and by language I mean their “culture.”
Down-to-business conversation may be the world we left back home, without so much as a “Hello” sometimes, but in Costa Rica this is not only seen as brash, but downright insolent.
One of the biggest cultural differences for expats to surf in Costa Rica is understanding the connection between the pleasant nature of her people and how they do not skimp on life’s pleasantries. Starting a conversation with “How is your family?” will render 10-times the absorption of rate of the communication over getting “straight to the point.”
Barking at your employee about why something has not been done will only mark you as a monster, a bad person to work for, and “the jerk nobody should buy from.”
Hire once, and hire right, but definitely hire locals to stay above board. Good luck with building your teams this season. May you work with people you trust and may you be profitable enough to fight another day.
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Written by VIP Member Damon Mitchell who spent over 10 years in the fitness industry before he moved to Costa Rica in search of a better work/life balance. Currently he lives in Playa Tamarindo in Guanacaste, where he and his wife Cristina are owner-operators of Pizza&Co pizza express, located in Plaza Conchal 2.
Daily, Damon runs on the beach or works out at Tamarindo Fitness Center, keeping fit by doing a combination of old-school weight lifting, calisthenics, TRX, stability ball work and just about anything he can do to create new and fun exercises. Most recently he is learning to surf.
You can email Damon here if there is anything specific about staying fit and healthy in Costa Rica you would like him to cover in his next article.
Living in Costa Rica & Finding The Right Staff For Your Small Business.
Article/Property ID Number 4512
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Andrew Makarik
to@welovecostarica.comAndrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.
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