Business Consultant Says Hiring Process, Not the Market, Is the Real Problem for Small Firms
Efraim Ben Shachat, a business consultant who says he has advised more than 1,100 companies in the past six years, argues that small businesses often blame the labor market for staffing problems when the real issue is how they recruit and manage workers. He is offering a free lecture on June 22, 2026, at 8:30 p.m. titled, "Where Do You Find Perfect Employees?!"
Ben Shachat did not come from academia. He previously owned and ran a nationwide metal workshop and two building-supply stores, then sold those businesses, studied organizational consulting at Bar-Ilan University, and founded the company Yeadim. He lives in Yitzhar in Samaria and is the father of six. His core message is that businesses in the same market can have very different results, one with a stable, committed team and another constantly replacing staff, so the difference is not the market itself.
He says the first hiring mistake is recruiting before defining the job clearly. He describes an exercise in which an owner and a veteran employee separately write down what the role includes, often revealing major gaps in understanding. When responsibilities are unclear, he says, the chances of finding the right fit drop sharply.
The second mistake is hiring under pressure. "One of the most expensive mistakes in a business," he says, happens when someone quits and the owner needs a replacement immediately. His rule is, "Hire slowly, fire quickly," because a bad hire costs much more than a careful search in salary, management time, training, energy, and sometimes team morale.
His third point is that many owners do not manage expectations. He says management is not just assigning tasks and supervising, but creating clarity. Employees leave not only over pay, he says, but when they do not know what is expected, do not get feedback, and do not feel they have a future. In his view, good employees are essential to a profitable business and to an owner’s quality of life.
