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Hiring Your First Staff Member

Hiring-FIrst-Staff-Member

Hiring your first staff member is exciting, worrying and overwhelming all at the same time. The employee that you will hire will hopefully help you turn your business into the business of your dreams. You must think properly when hiring any staff, that you are collaborating with them rather than dictating their every move. Working together as oppose to dictating their environment and workflow will empower your staff members and, in turn, see them working at their maximum potential.

Firstly, you must prepare for the hiring process.

Preparation

The first decision you must make is your budget for your potential employee. Your responsibilities as an employer stretch both far and wide-ranging from state tax payments to health and safety in the workplace. When added together these responsibilities can amount to a large amount thus decreasing your overall profit.

To hire a full-time employee, you must ensure that you will have the funds necessary for continued employment. In conjunction to this, you must consider the different paths of employment and decide whether a full-time, part-time or contract employee is best for you with regards to your overall budget and the tasks they shall be completing.

The Legal Side

This is an often-overlooked side of hiring new employees, but it is not one to be overlooked. It is vital that you know your rights as an employer and that your workers know theirs too. Although this may seem daunting the legal side ultimately boils down to signing some forms and conforming to your governments’ regulations so you should not be overcome with fear.

Getting the Right Employees

When employing somebody you don’t just want to look at their qualifications and decide on hiring them you must look at any experience they may have previously had, any extra-circular activities they may have/had participated in and their characteristics. You do not want to hire someone only to find out they are unmotivated or bring down the rest of the group. This is why you want to study your potential employees’ CVs well and judge them based upon this snapshot of their career as of yet. If a person says they play sports it could potentially show they have a natural drive for improvement, a vital quality needed in the workplace.

You will only interest the best employees by forming a job description that grips and compels people to respond. To stand out in a sea of small businesses looking to hire you must start with a well-worded description of the job that is not misleading. Include the benefits of their role, their responsibilities that they will undertake and leave them with a question that they must bring to their job interview such as: Describe your three best attributes and why will they help you succeed in this job position?

Identification of the Best Potential Candidates

The first step to identifying the best potential employee is to conduct screenings for the people who responded to your job post. This sees you reviewing their CVs, holding a 15-30-minute phone call with the candidates and frequently talking with them through email. This will allow you to get a general scope of who you are potentially employing and their goals when working with you.

Once you have conducted these screenings it is now time for the interviewing process. You will have to decide who you wish to interview but it is always best to narrow your interviewees to ensure that you can gain a suitable amount of information from them without having to waste time with people who would rather be elsewhere. It is vitally important that you grasp a sense of their characteristics during ensuring that their work ethic, tenacity and personality will fit in your workplace. Ask how they would respond in hypothetical situations to find out whether, when faced with adversity, they can push through.

It is always a good idea to check the candidate’s references and speak to their previous employers or teachers to get a general scope of their work mindset.

Getting Them Used to the Environment

After you have found your ideal candidate you must send them an offer letter. You will want to do this as soon as you have decided to employ them as odds are, they will be asking other employers for work. The offer letter must include the terms and conditions of working at your company and include all the aspects of their job including what their job title will be when they will start, what kind of compensation they will receive and the benefits they shall get.

Finally, you must introduce your new employee to the current team if you already have. This will stop the feeling of isolation meaning that they can get working as soon as they start working.

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Hiring for a Start-up

Hiring-for-a-start-up

Hiring for s startup can be difficult, confusing and downright annoying at times, but with a few simple steps, the process of building your team will become easier than ever. A startup at the beginning is not the project or product you are selling but rather the people behind them. When looking for any employee it is imperative that you aim as high as possible. This will ensure that you get quality employees driving your startup forward.