When And How To Hire Employees

  Hiring an employee is a three step process. However, most small business owners execute the steps backwards. They meet someone they like, determine what the person's skills are and then try to find a job for that person at their business. For success in hiring read on.

Step 1 – Define What You Need

The first step to growing your business through employees is to decide exactly what tasks have to be done each week and the number of hours it will take to do each task. Make up a list and, based upon this, you can decide how many people you are going to hire and exactly what they must do.

Let's say that the total employee hours required is 140 hours per week. This tells you that you will need 3 full-time (40 hours each) and 1 part-time (20 hours) individuals to handle the jobs required. Now you can use the list to "assign" the work to each of four individuals trying to keep related tasks together.

Step 2 -

Develop The Job Description

The next step is to prepare a job description for each employee. Simply list the tasks or duties of the specific job and then list the skills required to perform the tasks. Let's list some example duties and take a sales person as an example.

Responsible for making sales, and maintaining the stock and inventory.

Should these applicants know how to use a cash register? Should they be presentable to customers? Should they have an introverted or extroverted personality?

Now how about a repair person:

Responsible for making all repairs, estimating the cost of repairs to customers, evaluating trade-ins, ordering parts and taking inventory.

Is the appearance of the repair applicants as important as the salesman? Will they need to know how to use a cash register?

Step 3 – Find The Employee

There are various ways to find good employees. Here they are in the order of importance:

Ask your peers if they know of someone looking for a "job with a future." You may find someone who isn't actively looking, but is interest in getting a job with a new business and a chance to grow with it.

Look for people that are ~ doing a good job for someone else. Ask them if they would be interested in a new job with a new business where they would have a chance to advance.

Check with suppliers. You would be surprised at the things your suppliers know about you and your competitors.

Schools and colleges. You get eager, brighter and more enthusiastic employees, but most of the time they are inexperienced. You must be patient and willing to forgive their mistakes.

Employment agencies. This option can be expensive, however most employment agencies will do a good job screening the potential applicants. This will cut down on the time you must give up to hire people. Remember, they get most of their people from running an ad in the newspaper. You can do the same thing.

Government agencies. Watch out! They send out warm bodies with no concern about qualifications.

The Application Process

You should require that applicants fill out a job application and, if appropriate, provide you with a resume. As you receive applications and/or resumes, make three piles: one for the applicants that show great promise, another for the "maybes", and a third for the "nevers."

Once you have received enough applications, conduct a telephone interview with the applicants in the first group and second group (if necessary). Use this telephone interview to further glean the first two piles to a smaller list and then invite the surviving applicant to an interview.

The Interview

Never hire anyone on the first interview! When the applicant arrives for the

interview, make them feel comfortable and have chairs available and provide a quiet place to talk. Tell the applicant about the company and the job they are applying for, and remember that you, too, are being interviewed.

Ask the applicant how their qualifications relate to the job description. Are they curious about the job? Are they curious about the business? Are they curious about future opportunities? These questions are good news.

If the only questions they ask are: What is the pay? When do I get a vacation? What are the medical benefits? Beware!

Points To Look For

• Do they have established work habits to ensure that they can take on responsibility and work independently?

• Are they neat and well groomed? This is important if they will meet your customers.

• Do they have the type of personality that will get along with customers and others in the office?

• Do they exhibit loyalty? Will the person stay after you train them? Look for evidence of high turnover on their application.

After the interview, write down your impressions and some physical characteristic (so you can remember the person). If you need to decide between two people, have someone you trust sit in on the second (or third) interview.
 

Here is a suggested 3 step interview process:

Interview 1- Outline what you are looking for in an applicant. Give details of the abilities required to satisfactorily perform the job. Ask basic questions about qualifications, experience and ability.

Interview 2 - Have the applicant return after 24 hours with a written note outlining what they understood you were looking for, stating exactly what qualifications and experience they have in order to be able to do the job.

Interview 3 - Get to know each other and have an informal

meeting, discussing matters such as company and personal goals for both yourself and the applicant.

Check References

It is very important that you check references, as recent government study concluded that almost 2/3 of the applications that they received were materially misstated or contained significant omissions.

Written recommendations are not always valid. Reference providers are often cautious about what they write since applicants have the right to see what is written about them.

Most people are usually more frank and more accurate if you call them on the telephone. Here is a sample questionnaire you could use for your telephone reference checks:

John Smith is being considered for a position as a [job title] and has given us permission to contact you for a confidential reference. We would appreciate your evaluation on the basis of the following questions:

What was his or her assignment (company, relationship, time supervised, etc.) ?

How was his or her performance?

Does he or she get along well with people?

Do you have any reservations about recommending him or her for hire in our proposed work assignment?

Would you rehire him or her if the opportunity arose?

Any additional comments on potential, goals and interests?

Be aware that some people give a bad referral for personal reasons that have nothing to do with ability or reliability.

For people with a limited work record, contact present and former teachers. They can tell you about their attendance, promptness, reputation for honesty, and verify the classes and grades received.

Training

Take the time to train your employees. Develop an `induction process'. The cost of taking say 3 days (your salary and theirs) might seem hard to bear for most small businesses, but the benefits are huge. For example:

• Less mistakes (these can cost a fortune).

• Reduced staff turnover. Hiring in itself is a costly process. Advertising, time and resultant inefficiency can cost a small fortune. Get it right the first time and save yourself the pain (and the money).

• Staff are far more likely to be happy because they were trained properly and not thrown in at the deep end!

It is important to tell applicants what you are trying to accomplish. Make it clear that this is a small business and you are always open to suggestions on how to improve operations. You want them to feel free to look for ways to improve the system and procedures. But, they are to make no changes unless you approve them. You are the boss, you make the decisions, and the business is not going to be run by committee.

Most of all, be patient!

 

 

Seeds For Thought

· Enjoy all things in moderation.

· Entrepreneurship and healthy living are a partnership.

· A healthy lifestyle is not that hard to maintain.

· The new business isn't always the one that fails.

· Choose your friends carefully.

 email us now  This is all good but let us show how to make it work for you.

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