There are few decisions as important as hiring employees when running a small business. Hiring the right person can take your business to new heights. On the contrary, it doesn’t take long for the business to go in the ditch if a wrong person comes onboard. After all, all businesses, large and small, are largely dependent on their employees to keep them going. The owner or the manager alone cannot take care of everything.

Attrition remains a big problem for all small businesses. It is not surprising to find replacement of the entire workforce within a year. Many small business owners feel as if they are in the constant hiring mode – advertising, interviewing and onboarding employees. How can you expect to do rigorous job when you are always in the hiring mode? However, taking right steps early on and spending extra effort in finding and retaining good employees can pay off in reduced attrition rate, taking care of the nipping the problem from the bud. In an earlier post, I discussed 5 things small business owners must do when hiring. Here we will look at the corollary. What are the traps small business owners should avoid to ensure they don’t end up with bad apples in their employee crew?
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The success of any business is largely dependent on its employees. Good employees can help improve the business, and by the same token, bad employees can sink it into bankruptcy. That is why hiring good employees should be of paramount importance to all businesses, and particularly so for small businesses.

In my observation, most small business owners consider employee hiring a necessary evil they have to deal with when current employees leaves. They approach the hiring process in an ad-hoc fashion and try to get someone quickly so that the business can get back on track. The problem is hiring this way does not get you the right employees you need to make the business successful. Eventually, either you will need to fire the employee because he isn’t the right fit or the employee himself will leave. In the end, the cycle has to repeat and soon you find yourself in the endless hiring loop.
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