When it comes to up-scaling and expanding your business, there are plenty of things to be considered. For instance, most companies cannot successfully expand unless they hire more employees. This is especially the case for companies that are run by solopreneurs, entrepreneurs or just a small group of relatives. Although you may not have needed to hire outsiders in the past, you will need to do so to take your business to the next level. However, if you have not hired employees in the past, it can be difficult to know how to find and retain the best candidates. With that in mind, here is a list of seven tips to help you do just that.
1. Make Sure Your House Is in Order
One of the first things you need to do before you start hiring employees is to make sure you are in compliance with all legal obligations. For instance, given the present COVID-19 pandemic, you will want to make sure you are going above and beyond to keep workplace safety in mind. You will likely need to:
- Get an employer identification number (EIN).
- Register with your state’s labor department.
- Purchase workers’ compensation insurance.
- Set up a payroll system.
- Implement work safety measures.
- Create files for employees.
- Set up employee benefits.
- And more.
Either way, make sure you have taken all the necessary steps to allow your company to legally take on new employees.
2. Focus on Potential
Since you are a small business owner, when it comes to hiring new employees, you should be focusing on potential, above all else. Sure, while there may be some industry veterans who are interested in working for a smaller up-and-coming company, most experts prefer to work for larger companies. This is because companies that are more well established are typically able to provide higher pay, better benefits, more flexibility and so on. Therefore, in order to find the best employees, you may need to hire someone who has less experience but an impressive level of potential. This is one of the best ways to find hidden gems in your talent pool.
3. Use Skill Assessments
Given the fact that you may be hiring applicants with less experience, you may want to use skill assessments to ensure they truly have the skills they claim. Unlike applicants with more extensive work histories, those who you hire based on potential will probably not have a list of former employers who can verify their skill sets. Therefore, you may want to either create your own skills assessments or use a career site that offers its own assessments. This is one of the few ways you will be able to verify the skills of many of your potential new-hires.
4. Conduct Multiple Interviews
No matter if you interview them yourself or if you have your friends or family members take over the subsequent rounds, you should be sure to interview them multiple times. This will allow you to get to know them better and also allow you to see multiple facets of their personality. Therefore, you can do a phone interview and an in-person interview or you can have someone else interview them for the first round, then interview them yourself for the second round.
5. Create an Onboarding Process
Next, you want to make sure you have designed an efficient onboarding process. You will want to include things such as:
- Creating their files or accounts.
- Deploying all tech (including laptops, software, phone, headset and so on).
- Create new ID or an access fob.
- New hire greeting events.
- Training sessions.
Either way, you will want to create an onboarding process that makes sense for your sector and that allows you to optimize their talent and effort from the very beginning.
6. Hire Based on Most Immediate Needs
Although every employee comes with their own unique sets of strengths and weaknesses, you must make sure you are hiring based on your most immediate needs. For instance, if you need someone to work directly with your customers, you will want to hire someone who has great customer service skills, above all else. While their roles and duties may change over time, you should be sure to hire new employees based on your present needs.
7. Entrance Interview
It doesn’t matter how great your employees are if you can’t keep them. In order to find out the best management styles, the more effective incentives, etc., you should be conducting entrance interviews. This means you or another employee would ask questions to find out what can help you retain them as an employee. This will give you the best chances of keeping your newly hired staff for as long as possible.
Overall, when it comes to hiring employees for the first time, there are plenty of things to consider. Not only do you need to make sure you are focusing on potential, assess their skills, etc., but you also have to make sure you are taking the time to find out what you need to do to keep them as an employee. Either way, hiring employees is a multi-level process that should be handled with the utmost care.
