You posted a job three weeks ago after an employee gave notice. You’ve interviewed several people. None of them feel like the right “one.” One candidate was a great culture fit, but doesn’t have a key skill you need. Another had solid experience but doesn’t know your industry well enough. A third has never used several parts of your specific technology stack. So you keep the search running, waiting for the “right” candidate, while your team absorbs the work of that vacant role. Here’s an uncomfortable truth: the perfect external candidate for a certain job might not be available at the time you need them. The skills gap you’re seeing in this example could be resolved a few different ways. And the difference between trying something different and staying the course could determine whether you fill that role in three weeks or three months. The Real Question: What Should You Hire For? Which skills does a candidate need to bring to the table from day one? Which can you teach them or provide training for? And are there any parts of the role that might be covered by someone who’s on your team already? Most business owners don’t make this distinction. They write job descriptions that ask for everything — then wonder why no one applies, or why the people who do apply aren’t a fit. There’s a better approach, and it starts with getting clearer on what’s a must-have skill and what’s a nice-to-have skill. How to Determine Must-Have versus Nice-to-Have Skills Think of a simple 2×2 grid. Or draw it, if you’re so inclined. One axis or dimension to consider is “Easy to Find” versus “Hard to Find” skills. The other would be “Easy to Teach” versus “Hard to Teach” skills. List every skill the role requires, and place each one in a box. Easy to Find + Hard to Teach: These are must-haves when you’re building a job description. The hard work when assessing candidates is judging their ability. Hard to Find + Hard to Teach: These are what some might consider unicorn skills. If these are truly must-haves for what your business needs — which they likely are, but maybe not — consider what you’re willing to negotiate on to hire the person who has that skillset. Easy to Find + Easy to Teach: These are your baseline skills. Hire for them, but don’t overweight them in your decision. Hard to Find + Easy to Teach: These are where you find training opportunities, whether skill-specific or industry-specific. Can these be nice-to-haves on a job description that you can train new hires on if needed? The Costs of Too Many Must-Haves When businesses don’t separate what to hire for from what to train for, a few things tend to happen — and all of them are fixable once you see them clearly. Hiring timelines stretch. You interview more people, wait for the “perfect” candidate, and the role stays open for months while your team absorbs the extra load. Narrowing your must-haves shortens the search. Job descriptions shrink your talent pool. A posting with fifteen requirements — half of which don’t actually matter — discourages strong candidates before they ever apply. Realistic requirements attract more of the right people. Early turnover becomes a pattern. When new hires are expected to know things they couldn’t possibly know yet, they feel set up to fail. Structured onboarding fixes this — not a longer hiring search. First-90-days attrition is a burden on any business, especially when the cost of replacing an employee can be more than that employee’s annual salary. It’s also one of the most preventable problems in the hiring process. How to Build Skills After the Hire Hiring the right person is step one. Developing them is the ongoing work, and for small businesses, it’s where the real competitive advantage gets built. The good news: you don’t need a formal L&D department or a six-figure training budget. The businesses that develop strong, loyal teams typically do a few things consistently. Map the skills your new hire needs to develop in their first 90 days. Don’t leave this to instinct. Write down the context skills they’ll need to learn — your processes, your clients, your tools — and assign each to a specific week in onboarding. A simple checklist works. Pair them with a mentor or subject matter expert. Structured mentorship accelerates learning and helps new hires feel connected to the business faster. It doesn’t have to be formal — even a designated go-to person for questions in the first 30 days makes a meaningful difference. Build regular check-ins into the rhythm. Monthly one-on-ones aren’t just a management nicety — they’re how you catch disengagement early, surface skills that aren’t being used, and keep development on track. Ask: what’s going well, what feels hard, and what do you want to learn next? Create visibility into growth paths. Employees who can see a future at your company stay longer. That doesn’t require a rigid career ladder — it requires managers who have the conversation. What does growth look like here? What would it take to get there? Use cross-training to build depth. When employees understand adjacent roles and functions, your business becomes more resilient — and your people become more valuable. It’s one of the highest-return investments a small business can make. We’ve written more about what structured internal development looks like in practice — including real examples of how it plays out at ESC. READ: Modern HR Recruiting and Internal Career Development The ROI of Investing in Your People Small business owners often treat training as a line item to cut when things get tight. That instinct is understandable. When an employee leaves, the cost to replace them — recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, and the institutional knowledge that walks out the door — typically runs 50% to 200% of their annual salary. For a $50,000 role, that’s anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 in real business cost. Compare that to the investment in a structured onboarding program, a mentorship pairing, or a skills development conversation that happens consistently. The math is rarely close. Beyond retention, the return on employee development shows up in a few other ways: Faster time to productivity. Employees who receive structured training reach full performance significantly faster than those left to figure things out on their own. Reduced management overhead. When people know what to do and how to do it, they need less hand-holding. You get time back. Stronger internal pipeline. Businesses that invest in development promote from within more often — which means less external hiring, lower recruiting costs, and leaders who already know your culture and your clients. Higher engagement. Employees who feel invested in are more likely to invest back. Engagement drives discretionary effort — the kind you can’t hire for. The question isn’t whether small businesses can afford to invest in training. It’s whether they can afford not to. Strategic HR Gets Easier with a Partner Figuring out what to hire for and what to train for requires a clear picture of your business, your roles, and your market — and it’s not something most business owners have time to step back and think through on their own. At Employer Services Corporation, we help Buffalo businesses design realistic job descriptions, build onboarding processes that prepare people to succeed, and think strategically about developing their teams. Learn more about our HR consulting services or reach out to start the conversation. You don’t have to figure this out alone.