It doesn’t take most new entrepreneurs too long before they realize that hiring someone might be in their best interest. After maybe the tenth consecutive 70-hour workweek all alone, the thought might occur that it’s time to delegate some of their responsibilities. Hiring outside help for the first time is a key moment in any business that can determine if it succeeds or fails.
Surrounding yourself with the right folks is essential to creating a successful institution. Keep reading to learn how to establish the best group of people for your company.
Communication is Key
Your relationship with an employee begins with the first email you send them. If they find communicating with you to be a pain, they are less likely to want to work with you. Here are some things to keep in mind as you correspond with potential candidates:
- Be professional and respectful, but not overly formal
- Use clear and concise language to avoid confusion
- Be transparent, honesty is always the best policy
- Talk face-to-face as much as possible
You also want to make sure you’re too casual. This can make it seem like you’re not taking your company’s mission seriously or that the work environment might be unprofessional. You’re taking enough risks by starting your own business, don’t revolutionize how the work email is written.
Research Candidates
Before you even consider reaching out to someone about a potential job, look into them. Whether you take a gander at their social media is up to you (we all have embarrassing Facebook photos from 2011).
However, it’s probably a good idea to at least type their name into Google. Keep in mind that we’ve all done stupid stuff at one point or another, so don’t reject someone if they made a small mistake. However, a little knowledge goes a long way. Doing some research in advance just provides another piece of data to consider when hiring beyond the resume and interview.
Once you have your candidates narrowed down and know who you want to hire, consider investing in a thorough background report to make sure they don’t have anything fishy in their past that can come back to bite you. You’ll be thankful you took this extra step.
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
Don’t hire two people to do the same job. Make sure that you establish what each employee will be doing every day and that it doesn’t overlap with another worker’s tasks. Too many cooks will spoil the broth.
On the other hand, don’t stretch your personnel too thin. Your accountant should not be the one handling cleaning the bathroom, hire a cleaning company to do that.
Diversity Matters
A company consisting of only seven web developers is awesome if you want to start a web design firm. However, it might not be so great if you’re a landscaping company. You should probably still hire someone to design a website, but also make sure to employ a wide variety of people who are capable of handling all of the different aspects of a business. A staffing agency can be a great place to look if you don’t know where else to find someone.
Skillset is only one part of diversity that you have to consider. It is also important to consider peoples’ backgrounds when hiring so you can have a variety of perspectives. Surrounding yourself with others who will share ideas that you wouldn’t come up with yourself will help your business grow and innovate.
Get Hiring
Now it’s time to gather the people you want to work with. Don’t forget, you can always cast a large net and then narrow down the list from there using the tips we just went over. So, go forth and find some great employees that will help your business dreams come true! There are plenty of wonderful folks out there who are ready and able to get to work, you just have to give them the chance.