I hire people with multiple jobs. Here’s my one red line

Let’s talk about the biggest fear of all employers—hiring someone who works for a competitor. Recently, this happened to me. I run a company that actively hires part-time employees. Around a third of our team works part time. One of our employees has been with us part time for five years and consistently outperforms expectations. Simply put, I couldn’t care less how many hours someone works in a day. However, when we interviewed this candidate, we found out that he worked for a competitor. He didn’t actively hide this fact—he simply didn’t think it mattered. He was wrong. It did. Some companies might see this as a sign to stop hiring people with multiple roles. We took the opposite approach and realized we needed to add some clarity to our hiring practices. How to hire part-timers, and what to expect of them Let me take a step back and explain our hiring philosophy. We’re fine with multiple jobs, because we find it correlates with the best talent. Most employers think people juggle extra jobs just for the higher income or to stay safe if layoffs happen. Honestly, the cash is great, but that isn’t the real story. In my experience, the best pros choose this path because they genuinely want to stay sharp. They see a wide range of experience as their real safety net and the best way to grow. At our company, every role is written in terms of expected results. It’s a dead-simple rule, yet somehow most companies completely miss it. Think about it this way: if you hire someone to sweep the yard, what exactly are you paying for? Are you paying for the act of sweeping, or for the fact that the yard is actually clean? Not responsibilities, or time commitments, or “being at the office earlier than everyone else.” Results. That clarity makes it immediately obvious whether a part-time candidate can perform. That’s why our interviews don’t follow the usual script. Candidates have become way too good at the game, talking about their background and acting out stress scen