Hiring Employees – Small Business Management…Part 1

Hiring employees is one of the most important things you do for your small business! This post marks the beginning of a four part series on small business management and employee resource allocation. We will cover hiring in general, interviewing, new employee paperwork and training. It can be difficult to go in depth since there are so many types of small businesses and everyone’s needs are different. However, we will do the best we can to cover some hot tips for each post/topic that can relate to most small businesses.

Using A Job Advertisement – Hiring Employees

Procuring great applicants is no small feat. Once you have a great ad, there are several ways to get the word out. We would recommend the following ways and in most cases, you should use more than one:

• Placing ads using media platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Craigslist (depending on the job)
• Notify your allies…this means the Chamber of Commerce, current employees and job boards at local Universities
• Post the advertisement on your own website and link these other platforms back to it

The details you should include vary from industry to industry, but more details are better than less details. Think of this as the first “screening” of potential candidates. Let them know what your company is all about and share about the day to day responsibilities. Include the hours if possible and the rate of pay.

Offering An Incentive – Hiring Employees

One of the very best ways to hire new employees is to ask the ones you already have if they have anyone to refer. No one knows what you are looking for MORE than the people who are already successful in your company. I have had owners express worry to me about this, but I have found that my current team only refers the best. After all, their reputation is on the line and they don’t want to work with an under-achiever.

The incentive doesn’t need to be anything huge. It could be a gift card, a small bonus or some extra vacation time. It is always a good idea to reward the bonus after the new employee has been with you for at least 90 days.

Fielding The Applicants – Hiring Employees

Gone are the days of someone physically coming in to drop off a resume. It may happen sometimes, but it isn’t the standard any more. I like to exchange a few emails with the candidate including some easy questions before moving forward. It helps me to see their written communication skills and see if they are likable through this type of communication (as it is likely a way they will communicate with our clients or vendors if hired).

Moving forward from emailing, we have a phone interview. Sometimes I do this alone, or sometimes on speaker with another member of our team. If there is a large group of candidates you can even split them up among trusted team members to call and then reconvene. The email and phone interviewing helps us to streamline the process and not squander productivity interviewing a large round of candidates in person that can be easily disqualified as a good match.

Hope these tips help! The next topic we cover will be on interviewing employees for your small business.