Entrepreneurship can be extremely fulfilling and rewarding. You are your own boss and have the satisfaction of seeing your business grow as your reputation spreads and you gain new customers. But most successful enterprises reach a stage where it is not possible for the business owner to manage every aspect of operations.
At this point, it may make sense to add your first employee to your team. If you are not sure whether you should recruit someone to help you, a good test is to consider whether the additional hand will result in greater revenues and profits.
If your answer is in the affirmative, you should consider looking for a suitable candidate. But it is important that you go about the exercise in a manner that results in getting the right employee and ensuring that your business benefits as a result.
Here are a few points that will help in the process:
Prepare a job description
Do not neglect this seemingly simple step. It will help candidates understand whether they are suitable for the opening you have. Equally importantly, it will force you to gather your thoughts about the qualities that you are looking for in the person that you plan to hire.
In fact, the utility of a job description does not end once the employee joins. You can use it to monitor your new staff member’s progress over the months and see whether the new recruit has fulfilled your expectations in each specific area of work.
Check the applicant’s references
Once you find the right candidate, the natural tendency is to get that person on board as soon as possible. But remember that you are making a big investment in your new recruit. Apart from the salary that you will be paying, you will be spending a great deal of time on training and familiarizing the employee with your business.
Imagine the hassle that you will go through if you find that the candidate used a fabricated resume to fool you.
If you are seriously considering someone for your job opening, take the trouble of calling the previous employers listed on the resume. Apart from confirming that the person actually worked there, you would probably also get some valuable feedback that could help you in your recruitment decision.
Does the employee have the talent you are looking for?
It is very difficult to judge a person’s ability during the interview process. The interviewee may come prepared for your questions and give you standard replies that do not reveal much.
One approach that you could adopt is to give the candidate a task to be completed during the interview. Having the interviewee work on an actual real-life task that you are familiar with could tell you a lot.
If the vacancy that you are filling involves selling, it may be a good idea to do a bit of role-playing to see how the interviewee comes across.
Finding the right candidate can be tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, there are several tools available to small businesses that can make the process easier. Consider using Workable (www.workable.com), a SaaS-based software system that can simplify the recruitment process.
And finally, it is advisable to devise a structured training program for the new employee. This will speed up the learning process and help the latest addition to your team become productive quickly.
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