True, not every business requires employees right out of the gate, especially if your workload is small enough to allow you to handle the tasks alone. But, at some point in the growth of every business, you find yourself needing more hands or skills that you don’t possess. Thus, hiring new employees is a common practice as your business grows. For new businesses hiring their first employees, you might not know where to start when faced with hiring new employees.
However, as your business grows, it becomes more and more important to get help and build a team. Trying to continue doing everything yourself eventually limits your growth and may mean you face an increased chance of disappointing customers when you don’t have the resources to meet delivery deadlines. Delaying hiring new employees eventually stops growth in its tracks. Failing to hire the right employees can mean excess costs relative to productivity, failing to drive customer satisfaction, headaches that distract you from your main roles, and, even, legal troubles for your business. Because employees have the power to make or break your business, here are some tips to help you to hire the right people for your company.
Hiring new employees
Hiring new employees may seem like an overwhelming task, especially if you haven’t done it before. Making a hiring mistake is expensive, so don’t rush into hiring. Also, consider alternatives, such as using gig workers to handle specific tasks if you don’t have a sufficient volume of work to employ someone full-time (more about this later).
Before you consider hiring new employees, build a long-range plan for growth that lays out milestones and the resources needed to reach each milestone, including the skills and people needed. This will help guide you on when it’s the right time to hire new folks and the skills you’ll need.
Consider your own personality and skills. As your company grows, you will likely find that your role shifts from an active worker to a manager, so it’s important to make sure that you build up the appropriate skills to ensure you can teach and manage your employees effectively without micromanaging them. This is a big inflection point that distinguishes long-term success for a fledgling business.
Create detailed job descriptions
The first step to hiring new employees is making sure that you know exactly what you need. Hiring an unskilled worker to cover a vague job description is likely frustrating for both you and your employee. Instead, hammer out a concrete and specific job role so both you and potential employees understand exactly what is expected. This is helpful for you when looking for candidates, as you now know what skills and qualifications you want. It’s also helpful for the candidates, as they know whether or not the job is right for them.
Consider job descriptions for similar roles listed by other companies on sites such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed to get an idea of what to include in your own job description. For instance, when hiring new digital marketing staff, here are some of the requisite skills to look for.
Also, consider what types of education and experience candidates need to do the job well. Increasingly, companies require a college degree when college graduates aren’t necessarily any more qualified for the job than non-graduates. As to experience, expect to pay more for employees with experience. Consider the type of experience, as well. For instance, workers with experience working for small businesses and nonprofits often need to wear multiple hats so they acquire a broad range of experiences while workers in larger companies might do the same work day after day, giving them years of experience in one facet of the job but little ability to do other things or juggle multiple demands.
If your expectations are clear from the get-go, it also makes it much easier for you and your employee to settle into your respective roles. This makes managing your team simpler than if you were all working from a vague description of a job role.
Hire slow, fire fast
One principle to consider when hiring employees is to hire slow, fire fast. This means that you should take your time when looking at candidates and make sure that you have a rigorous interview process to make sure that you’re getting the right people. You should also implement a probationary period after training. This period gives the employee time to settle into the role, but if it doesn’t work out for either of you, then you can both move on and try again. Setting realistic goals and implementing a program of feedback so employees understand how they measure up helps salvage a hire that didn’t work out at the get-go. Sometimes working with an employee who isn’t measuring up to make them more effective results in some of your best, most loyal employees.
Hiring and training employees isn’t cheap, so it’s always better to get it right the first time around or work toward a program of improvement to get employees up to speed. However, it’s even more expensive to keep on an employee who isn’t right for the role. If you do have to let them go, make sure that you’re respectful as it always pays to have good relationships with others in your industry.
Building a team
Once you have one or more employees, it’s up to you to build them into a team that works together effectively. Part of this does crop up in the hiring process, as you do need to think about how people will work together and whether a candidate will mesh well with the rest of your team. However, team building is more than simply throwing a group of people together and hoping for the best. There are plenty of reasons to invest in team building so that you can make sure that your employees work effectively together.
If a team doesn’t work well together, then it can be harmful to your company. A team with poor morale is less productive and can even work to a lower quality. Not only that, but your employees may consider going elsewhere if they don’t feel appreciated in a team.
Over time, you should also consider training your employees and encouraging them to continue their education. This means that you can cultivate qualified and loyal employees, and it also helps them to advance in their careers.
Consider outsourcing
In some situations, hiring a dedicated employee isn’t necessarily the best option. Many companies outsource certain services to freelancers or other companies. Outsourcing is the right decision when the skills you need are very expensive and/or you don’t have enough work to justify hiring a full-time employee. In these cases, it makes financial sense to outsource to a firm specializing in a specific area or use gig workers for more occasional needs. For instance, consider the situation below for satisfying your digital marketing needs.
As you can see from this image, outsourcing allows you to enjoy high-quality services for far less than it costs to hire employees to cover those services. This means that you don’t have an important part of your business covered by someone who isn’t qualified.
There are a number of common things to outsource to other companies and freelancers. For example, outsourcing your accounting and payroll means that you can get a professional eye to oversee your finances and make sure that your taxes are paid correctly. Outsourcing your IT services is another option, as most businesses rely heavily on technology, meaning that you want excellent service.
Conclusion
Every business is different, so when hiring and outsourcing, follow this advice to ensure you support your growth with the right new employees.
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