By admin on May. 21, 2008.
So you have yourself a nice growing company. You’re starting to make money, customers are even telling their friends about your company. The business is finally growing and you just realized that you can’t do everything yourself! How are you going to keep the company growing? You figure all you really need is a warm body to help out. You aren’t very picky so you hire the first person you can find.
Its the big day and your new employee starts. Its a typically busy Monday and even though you are swamped with orders and calls you spend the morning proudly showing your employee the operation. You didn’t really give any thought to what you wanted the new employee to do so you throw them into the work and expect them to just kind of figure it out, after all thats how you learned. At the end of the first week you feel that you are making a bit of progress you don’t even mind that you have been working late every night fixing the new employees mistakes. After all you get paid the same no matter how many hours you work.
You feel that you are lucky, the new employee comes in everyday almost on time and works on whatever you give them to do that day. Sure things could be going better for the company and you really don’t understand why you have even less time to work on the business than before.
After a few weeks of this you begin to think that the new employee may not be working out and so one day you fire them. This time, you think to yourself, maybe what you need is TWO new employees so that you can finally get something done…
One of the toughest jobs any small business owner faces is when to hire staff. This changes the dynamic of the business overnight. When the company is small you or your partners do everything. You know all the customers, all the products and how everything works. This is your dream and you are determined to offer your customers the best products and customer service possible. Once you add the first outsider everything changes. You no longer know EVERYTHING. To your shock you find out that the new person is handling some of the business.
Most owners look to family and friends as their first employees. If your brother or sister is smart and hard working then this might be the best move you could make. I’ve seen many small businesses that have a trusted friend on staff. This key staff member can be as knowledgeable and dedicated as the owner. This combination can make a good company even better. Keep in mind that the rules we are about to discuss should be applied to all new employees, even your old college buddy.
Rule #1: Make up a job description. Before you hire your first employee make sure you know what you want them to do for you. This is the biggest mistake that most business owners make. All they really know is that they need help. Now I know that the whole topic of job descriptions is a running joke with most big company employees but believe me its essential for a small company to survive. In a small company, each employee will do lots of things but the main job of each employee should be spelled out. This way the employee knows what is expected of them. More importantly, you know what they are going to do to help you and your company. If you need help on the phones, then the job description should read that the employee must answer all calls, this doesn’t mean that you can’t help out when things are busy it just means that the main duty of this employee is to answer the phone and help out the caller.
Rule #2: Interview the employee. You should have a good idea of the type of person you are looking to hire. Take the time to make up a list of questions and go through the list during the interview. If you are looking for a salesperson make sure the person you are interviewing is not too shy to answer your questions. If you can’t get them to speak during the interview I guarantee they won’t get any better at it later.
Rule #3: Don’t hire the first person you see. It is often tempting to jump at the first decent person you interview. Your fear is that someone else will snap them up. This may happen but taking your time to interview a few people will help you quickly zero in on the kind of person that will be a really good fit for your company.
Rule #4: Don’t keep people hanging. Once you have finished the interview process and have picked a new employee (and they have started) make sure you send a note or an email to everyone that interviewed thanking them for their interest and informing them that you have filled the job. This is basic common courtesy but it is also good business. Each of these people will remember that you were polite and will tell their friends. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have a bunch of people saying good things about my business than bad.
Rule #5: Train the new employee. Take the time to really train your new employee. The best way to ruin a potentially good employee is to ignore the training aspect. Yes, you are busy but you should never be too busy to invest some of your time to bring on new people the correct way. Any time you spend up front will be repaid in freeing up your time later.
Remember it is a lot easier to hire a bad employee all you have to do is nothing. If you take the time to work through this list you will improve your chances of actually getting someone who can help you grow your business.
Category: Service Providers
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