Hiring employees

In most businesses, it is the people who determine your success. This is especially true for small businesses. But it is not always easy to find good employees. When you start a business and things are going well, you may find that you do not have enough time to do everything yourself. At this point, you start thinking about hiring an employee for the first time and expanding your team. But when you have such a small team, like in a small business, one hiring decision can have a big impact on the whole business. 

Hiring the right person can help you to avoid problems down the line. A bad hire will surely haunt you. By developing an effective recruiting process that allows you to find the best talent, make competitive offers, and streamline the hiring journey, you can avoid a bad hiring decision. 

In the following, we try to understand what makes a good employee and how you can design your recruitment process to attract the right talent to your company. 

What makes a good employee for a small business? 

HR departments and external recruiters are usually too costly for small businesses. In most cases, as a small business, you are the recruiter. This can be a great thing because it means you have the opportunity to discover great talent, connect with new employees and find someone who really adds value to your business. 

So what makes a good employee for a small business? 

Personality 

Personality is crucial to professional success. How well an employee's personality fits the company and the company culture plays a big role in employee turnover and attrition. Personality affects whether a person is seen as a leader and how well they fit into the company. The way someone thinks, feels and behaves is part of their personality. While everyone is different and can have a unique personality, it is important to understand how personality in the workplace can advance the company. 

Attitude

Small companies need employees who are ambitious and can grow with the company. In a small team, you are all working towards one goal in the same mission. Having the right attitude towards the company and work is crucial to being a great employee. A positive attitude can only help in the workplace to keep you motivated and driven at work. A good attitude also helps you cope with life's stressors and create a more productive work environment. 

Experience and skills
When you have a job to fill, you would naturally hope to find someone with certain experience and skills. You would list the required skills in the job description. Although an applicant's skills and experience are at the top of the list when sifting through applicants, the reality is that you can learn skills but you cannot change your personality. It is important to find a balance between experience, skills and personality when hiring. While some positions require a certain level of experience, others may allow you to offer on-the-job training. 

Now that we have got that out of the way, it's time to hire

Step 1:  Make a small business hiring plan 

1. Calculate how many employees your small business needs. Your team can be smaller if you discover talented applicants with multiple skill sets. 
2. Set your budget for both the skill you are trying to bring in. Often, small businesses are competing with larger companies that can offer bigger salaries and employee benefits. The reality is that if you wish to attract and retain good talent, you need to offer competitive compensation and benefits.  
3. Create a timeline. Half of small businesses take about one month (plus an additional month for the potential employee to serve notice with their current employer) to complete the end-to-end hiring experience. 

Step 2;  Post your job in a way that attracts candidates (on Linkedin, PNet, CareerJunction, etc.)

1. Use industry-standard or recognisable job titles, and avoid gimmicky ones like “social media guru.” List a maximum of six job responsibilities, without ones like “Must be able to meet deadlines.” 
2. Showcase your company, and make it attractive for prospective employees to want to work for it. Have a functioning website, create a Linkedin account for the business, etc.
3. Use screening questions. Save time by filtering out candidates who don’t meet basic requirements. Add a minimum of two to three questions and, if possible, make them required. 
4. Keep fine-tuning the role. It’s cool to edit and optimise your post repeatedly if you’re not getting the applicants you expected. 

Step 3:  Share that you’re hiring with your network. 

1.  Add the job post to your LinkedIn profile. If you use LinkedIn to post jobs, you can attach open roles to the top of your profile. LinkedIn will then automatically generate a post that you can share. 
2. Tell your friends and connections on other social media. Use word of mouth.

Step 4:  Compile your shortlist. 

1. Rank and rate your applicants. Your should rank applicants based on their answers to screening questions, so you receive the most qualified candidates first in your list. 
2. Conduct one-on-one interviews with applicants who show a clear passion for your mission. Remember, small business candidates care more about purpose and challenge than they do about compensation. 
3. Interview your top applicants as a team (that's if you have a team). This is an opportunity to focus on the candidate’s soft skills, which are especially crucial at a smaller company. 

Step 5: Choose the best candidate

1. Get feedback from your team quickly. The faster you collect their candidate feedback, the faster you can make a hiring decision together.  Craft an offer that is too good to turn down. Make the offer and close the deal.
2. Close the job post to let your networks know you filled your role.  

Step 6: Onboard your new team member

1. When bringing on a new employee, you will need to prepare contracts and make sure that you comply with any labour laws. If you’re not up to date with the most recent labour laws, it’s a good idea to consult with an expert who can guide you, draft up contracts, and make sure that your business is fully compliant. 
2. Before day one, make sure payroll is set up and all paperwork is in order. Send the new hire materials to prepare them for the first day, and make yourself available before the start date to answer the new employee's questions. 
3. On the new hire’s first day, send them a welcome card signed by the team. Assign someone to be the new hire’s onboarding teammate and show them the ropes. Finally, go over job responsibilities and schedule a weekly check-in meeting. 

When it comes to hiring, sometimes we do get it wrong. A bad hire can have a negative impact on the business and the team. There are actually a lot of hidden costs to a bad hiring decision. It is thus critical to understand your business goals and needs so that you can create a hiring process that attracts the right candidates. When you are understaffed and overworked, it can be tempting to hire someone quickly. But by taking the time to establish a recruitment process that underpins your business, you can avoid bad hiring mistakes. 

Now, go out there and WIN!!