There’s nothing any entrepreneur would want more than to grow their business. One of the key factors to achieve this is having the right employees. While this may sound exciting, it involves numerous steps and a long process.
Hiring new employees can be tedious and taxing. From the employee onboarding process to verification, there is much to consider. Not to mention the paperwork and scheduling, the whole ordeal can take a couple of days to several weeks.
Depending on the industry, the average hiring process timeframe can take even longer. It’s no doubt that finding the right employee requires a lot of deliberation. However, with the right tools and knowledge, it doesn’t have to be.
Save yourself time, struggle, and headache. Here’s a guide that would help you streamline the process and manage things better. These are the 8 things you need to do before hiring new employees.
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Define Roles and Responsibilities Clearly
One of the first steps to hiring an employee is having clear and defined roles for the position. It’s important to make this unambiguous from the get-go. This will reduce the stress to both you, the employee, and the management.
It saves everyone the trouble of sending and going through mountains of applications. Don’t waste the company’s and potential employees’ time. This also means your hire prospects would know what to expect from the company.
It helps them understand their tasks and responsibilities. They’ll be able to set goals and targets to achieve when the opportunity comes. In turn, it helps you align compensation that’s suitable and competitive.
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Understand the Costs
The cost of hiring a new employee varies. It’s often dependent on specific fields, industries, and sectors. On average, the employee onboarding process can take a company over $4000.
It’s a hefty price, especially for a small business. Other miscellaneous trial tasks and shifts are sometimes included in this. Both of which are important in assessing whether a prospect is a good fit with the company.
This is why a company must understand the actual costs of hiring new employees. Apart from being able to set a budget, it also helps anticipate the ROI of the applicant.
Another thing to consider is the employment type. The costs will be different for a full-time, part-time, and freelance employee.
The same holds for employees with experience and tenure. They may expect more competitive rates and benefits.
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Consider Potential, Skills, and Experience
Another key consideration before hiring new employees is their skill, potential, and experience. These are only a few things you need to tick off your employee onboarding checklist. More often than not, start-up companies are more willing to hire inexperienced applicants.
However, this can come at a cost. If you deem that an applicant has potential, it may be worth it to train and supervise them. Having an employee that flourishes and thrives as the company grows is a strong asset.
Take into consideration the position available and what the company needs. It might be better to find someone with experience. The cost of turnovers is expensive – when an important position gets vacated, you’ll need to fill it ASAP.
Cases like this leave the company or HR in a time crunch. Finding someone with a solid skill set and experience is the way to go.
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Get the Paperwork Right
With globalization, hiring employees from anywhere and everywhere is now commonplace. One downside of this, however, is the sheer amount of paperwork. Whether it’s actual paper, e-mails, or files, it’s common to lose track of them.
Things like onboarding, payroll, and initial IT setup can be a nightmare to manage. If you aren’t careful, you’ll find yourself in bureaucratic red tape. Or worse, scrambling to fix filing issues when they come up.
Despite more people taking advantage of cloud service, sometimes it’s still not enough. It’s better to have dedicated online file management and storage and even verification. WorkBright remote I-9 verification is a great example.
You no longer have to worry about misplacing, mishandling, or losing files. It’s a surefire way to cut the manual work-time in half. What’s even better is that it can aid with another important step – employee profiling.
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Background Checks Are a Must
One crucial yet demanding part of the hiring process is employee verification. From their credentials, criminal records, references, the list goes on. It’s important not to leave any stone unturned.
There are cases where companies hired someone who seemed perfect. Some people go as far as stealing identities and faking accomplishments.
You don’t want this for your business. Apart from the stigma, you wouldn’t want another vacant position when things go South. Missing a red flag could be dangerous for yourself and your staff.
Background checks don’t only have to be for catching negative factors. Things like mental health history are valuable but often stigmatized and hidden. Finding out the details about this will let you accommodate a star candidate who may otherwise fall through the cracks.
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Recognize Personality and Character
It’s an understatement to say that your people are your best resource. Smooth team cohesion can make or break a project, and individual work ethic is also crucial. However, ensure the new hires you’re considering have the right attitude and character.
Most employers have a typical checklist of traits and answers when considering hiring. Everyone wants a hard worker and someone who is on time for work and deadlines. The problem is you can often find candidates that tick the right boxes but are actually nightmare employees.
Recognizing personality and character goes beyond background checks and interviews. You need to consider temperament, patience, attitude, and morality. A punctual, hard worker who argues with his colleagues all the time is as bad as an agreeable lazy one.
You need to select the people who will be assets to your team. This means considering personality and mental strength as well as skill and work ethic. Talent and a well-put-together resume only go so far.
This doesn’t mean you should write off every candidate that misses some of the boxes. If you spot multiple red flags, though, you need to look elsewhere. The cohesion and stability of your workplace are your number one priority.
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Draft Out a Well-Written Contract
Once you narrow in on the perfect candidate, you have to make sure everything is iron-clad. After clarifying roles, responsibilities, and expectations, you need to put everything in writing. In reality, you should have a draft already typed out ahead of time, flexible enough for changes.
The absolute last thing you want is legal uncertainty. To protect yourself and your employees from liability, you need a contract. It clarifies expectations, but it also offers legal protection for workers as well.
Set this up and complete it before their first day. You want your new hire to get right into the swing of things. Let them focus on getting adjusted and meeting their team.
You must have a clear contract when dealing with big or sensitive projects. There have been cases where disgruntled employees have sabotaged projects or withheld work. Often they hide behind legal loopholes in poorly worded contracts.
While treating your employees right will mitigate this, make sure you cover yourself. A well-written contract makes all the difference.
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Prepare the Company for the New Hire
A responsible employer and business owner will prepare the company for new hires. Before you’ve onboarded any new workers, you must give everyone a heads up. No one likes having to deal with new people on short notice.
You may have done the logistics and figured out the new employee’s role, but you need to catch everyone else up too. Tell everyone the whys, hows, whats, and whens of your decision. This gives them a chance to adapt and determine how the new hire will affect their own responsibilities.
It’s irresponsible to throw your new hire into the workplace without preparation. The new employee will require oversight, mentorship, or training. Talk to those who will fulfill this role.
Springing a new trainee on your employees without warning will alienate them. Make sure to prepare the company if the new hire will take over an existing position. Give your employees plenty of time to get used to the idea of switching roles or positions.
If possible, start training and readying the transition as soon as possible. Sometimes hiring a new employee shakes up the dynamics in the workplace. Personalities clash, toes get stepped on, and workplace stress, in general, can worsen.
Make things as smooth as possible for both the new hire and your employees by preparing everyone.
Hiring New Employees 101
With the end of the pandemic in sight, everyone is looking to get back on the horse ASAP. Handle that influx of applications proficiently and professionally. Have your checklist ready and streamline the arduous of hiring new employees.
Looking for more ways to build and expand your business? Find out more on how to do this with helpful and educational articles on our site. Soon you’ll be on your way to success.
