You’ve set up your small business and it’s thriving, so what’s next? As you begin to grow and expand and the work continues to roll in, you’re going to need more help to carry out projects and jobs successfully – and that means hiring more staff.
Hiring the right employee is a challenging process and one you need to be getting right. Get it wrong and it can be expensive, costly to your work environment and time consuming. Get it right and you’ll be paid back in increased productivity, morale and a positive relationship moving forward.
Here are four steps to hiring the right employee for your small business:
- Define the job and the qualities needed
First things first – work out what it is you want from your new employee. The best way to do this is via a job analysis where you clearly define what the responsibilities of the role will be, and the skillset required to carry them out. If you are looking to target the 68% of American’s who use Facebook by hiring a social media marketer for example, then you instantly know that seeking someone with experience of marketing campaigns for an online audience is going to be high on the list of qualities. By having clearly defined skills that you require, you can write a specific job advert targeting exactly the sort of person you are looking for.
- Review their credentials and experiences
With a clearly defined skillset from your job analysis, you can work out which of your applicants are most suited to the role through their experiences and credentials as listed on their resumes. If they’ve previously worked in a role that is close to what you are hiring for or have experience in the field, then that’s a huge advantage. When Apple hired Timothy Twerdahl as their Apple TV Vice President of Product Marketing, they were bringing in a man who had worked previously for Time Warner, Amazon Fire and Netflix – some of the biggest streaming services in the world. Hiring an employee who has previously worked in similar roles for rival companies can bring you fresh ideas and plenty of past experiences which can be invaluable to your company.
- Ask the right questions at the interview stage
The job interview is arguably the single most important stage of the hiring process. It’s an opportunity for you to get a feel for the candidate, to make sure they are going to be the right fit in terms of working not only for you and your company, but also with your other employees. You’ll want to ask questions that help you find out more specifics with regards to their experiences and previous roles than those listed on their resumes as well as finding out about them personally. Hiring the right personality is every bit as important as hiring the right qualifications.
- Carry out a background check
Once you’ve settled on your preferred candidate, there is one last task to complete – the background check. You need to verify that what you’ve read and heard about your prospective new employee is true. References are important here and other business owners will be only too happy to give you an honest opinion of the person you are considering hiring. If they’ve worked well for somebody else, chances are they will work well for you too.
