Whether you are setting out to hire the first employee in your new business or have a few already, there are always important factors that you need to consider. These come from both a business perspective and from a candidate perspective. You first need to understand why, when and how you will employ someone before doing more research into the hiring process.
Why and When to Employ Someone in your Business
For small businesses, it can be difficult to determine the right time to employ someone. It can often feel like an added job on top of an already stacked workload. However, this is probably a sign that you need an extra hand. One of the major indicators that you need to employ someone is that you do not have time to take on extra work or that you are having to turn away work regularly.
If you are in this situation, then you can be relatively confident that should you hire a new employee that they would have sufficient work to do once they start. Part of the process of hiring will be to define a job description. If you are unsure what to include then it may be worth re-considering whether or not it is the right time to add to your team.
Before You Start the Hiring Process
If you have identified that there is a definitive need for an extra pair of hands in your business, then there are some considerations you need to think about before putting an ad out there. One of these is insurance. If the new employee will be working with you on your premises then you will probably need to have some kind of insurance that protects against injury, for example.
Another consideration is your budget and how much you will be able to pay a new employee. If you have a small budget, then you may only be able to employ someone on a part-time basis, or they may be at entry-level with little experience. Whoever you bring into your business should be helping you to make more money or free up your time to help generate more income.
Advertising Your job
Thanks to the internet, it is relatively easy to get a job advert up online. However, one of the problems with this is that you can be inundated with applicants who are not suitable for the job. Going through all of these takes a lot of time which is exactly what you are trying to find more of.
Another route that you can explore is speaking to specialist recruiters. If you are looking for someone in a particular area such as accounting or marketing, then it may be best to let the recruits come to you with applications who have already passed their vetting process. Recruiters usually have people on the books and sometimes it can simply be a case of matching the right candidate with the right job.
The Hiring Process
After putting the job advert out, you will likely be getting applications coming in regularly. One tip that can help you to be more productive when reviewing these is to ask applicants to start their application is a certain way. This may be to answer a question or to include details at the beginning. This will help you to pick out the people that are really interested and have taken the time to read the advert properly.
When it comes to interviewing prospective candidates, it is a good opportunity to test the skills that they have listed on their CV. Asking them to take a short aptitude test in a specific program or to complete a short task is a good interview technique. You should always try to have at least 2 interviews with candidates to get a good feel for what they are like and if you think they will fit with the rest of the team.
When offering a contract, one key piece of advice to follow is to prepare the work contract before you make the candidate an offer.
Inductions and Reviews
Once you have found the right employee for your business, you can offer them a contract and agree a start date with them. Onboarding and inductions are really important. You should introduce them to the rest of the team and brief them on the relevant health and safety requirements for the job and the building you are working in.
Post-day one, you should have regular follow-ups with them during their first few months to monitor how they are settling in and to review their performance. Most employment contracts have a probation period of 3-6 months that allows both parties to review the job before extending the contract indefinitely.
Training and Development
Ongoing training and development are crucial both for your business success and employee retention. You should be checking in with your employees to ensure that they have everything they need to be effective and productive and that they are happy with the work they are doing.
Sometimes employers might even offer to pay for courses and further education to retain employees and to help them to develop the skills to grow within the business and drive it forward. Online training is very popular as people are able to gain many different qualifications from studying online statistics masters to MBA’s to nursing degrees. They also allow employees to remain in full-time work while studying, which is a huge benefit for employers as they get to keep staff while they are upskilling.
Getting Hiring Right
For a small business especially, hiring can be a time-consuming process, but the benefits often far outweigh the time commitment. Understanding when the right time is to hire an employee is crucial and knowing the impact on your budget will ensure that your business can handle the extra expenditure.
Putting thought into the hiring process will ensure that you get the best person for the job and committing to ongoing reviews and personal development will help you to retain the best employees that will help you to grow your business.
