Reaching a point in your business where you want to hire employees is always going to be exciting, as your business is now growing and prospering.
However, there are many things you need to do to make the hiring process as simple and as easy as possible.
It can take a lot of preparation and hard work to find the perfect team to drive your company to the success it deserves.
With so much to think about, it’s easy to overlook something important, which could cause you extra work and hassle later down the line.
To make things a little easier, we’ve put together a list of some of the things you need to think about while hiring your first round of employees.
Responsibilities
Try to establish the responsibilities your employees will have early on, preferably before they even start working for your company. This proactive approach is going to make your own transition much smoother when you decide to give up some of the tasks that you have been working on thus far. It is incredibly important that you try to work out these tasks before starting the hiring process.
This means that you will be able to clearly define job roles and what is expected of employees before they start with you. If you are not willing to properly delegate certain roles, there is a chance that you could spend too much time invested in what your employees are doing. This could drag your attention from the tasks that actually need your attention, which won’t help your business in any way.
Internal Culture
If you’ve been running your business with a skeleton staff who all know one another, or you’ve been operating as a sole trader, then you might not have considered your internal culture before.
As you grow your organisation and add more team members, it’s more important than ever before that you work to develop the supportive and inclusive internal culture that you want.
One of the first places to start is an employee handbook; write out what is expected of your new staff, and rough ideas about how they should behave in certain situations.
This handbook can guide your staff and help them you to cultivate the internal culture you want for your business.
Business culture is an ever-evolving, fluid concept, so be prepared for changes in the future; just try to ensure that they’re positive changes, rather than negative ones.
Remember To Change Your Insurance
When you’re growing your business and expanding your team, you need to make sure that you are properly covered as soon as you hire an employee no matter what.
There are special insurance policies that will protect you in the event a disgruntled employee files a suit against you, or if a customer starts their own suit due to the actions of an employee.
Obviously, you don’t want either of these scenarios to happen. However, you need to make sure that you are protected in the unlikely event that they do. Take the time to find the right policy for you.
Put Together Some Incentives
Nowadays, it pays to give some incentives to your employees beyond their paycheque. For example, you may want to choose from the Zest employee benefits available to create a package that your employees are going to love.
Incentives are great as employees can tailor them to what they want if you offer enough. For example, you may decide to invest in season tickets for a local train service, so employees on this route can travel at a discounted rate.
There is no end to little benefits like this that can be given to help make employee life a little bit easier.
Dress Code
You need to decide fairly early on if you want a uniform or dress code in your store. You may not want a full uniform unless you have a business that offers some sort of service. In this case, it will be on you to provide the right uniform for employees when they first start.
On top of this, you may also want to consider a form of dress code. Whether you have a uniform or not in your office, you need to make sure that you have some guidance in place that discusses what is appropriate. For example, the right footwear may be very important if you own a café.
Though you may let employees wear what they want with a staff apron over the top, they need to wear non-slip closed shoes for their own protection. Think about what is appropriate and come up with a few guidelines they should follow.
Office Size
One of the seemingly obvious issues, but one that often gets overlooked is where your new team members are going to work and the equipment they’ll need. If your company has a small office, then you might need to expand in order to accommodate your new team members.
Alternatively, you could consider offering remote working to your new or existing team members. This approach will help you to attract talented staff who might need more flexibility due to their personal circumstances.
It will also act as an additional incentive to applicants, as many employees are eager to work from home and reduce their commute.
You might also need to purchase additional equipment and furniture, particularly if you’re adding team members with specialist skills that you didn’t have in your organisation previously.
Review the requirements of each new staff member before their start date, so that you can make sure that they have everything they need before they start, to make the onboarding process smoother and easier.
Keep these points in mind when trying to hire your first set of employees. Before you know it, you could have brought exactly the right group of people on board to help you out.
This is one of the most exciting times in a business, so make sure you enjoy it by using these tips!
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