Ready to your hire your first employee? What an exciting time for you and your business…
But it’s likely a scary time too? Hiring your first employee is a big responsibility and you might be nervous about getting it wrong.
Cost of hiring vs not hiring at all
It’s a big decision and you’ve probably been thinking about the benefits, disadvantages and costs for a while now.
Can the business afford to pay someone else? Will their value pay for their costs? Can I do all of the work myself? Will I be stuck if I don’t hire someone? Only you can make this decision.
Here’s a bit of expert advice… Before you hire your first employee, be really clear with what goals your business is trying to achieve and exactly how this new hire is going to help you get there. And you should even go as far as writing down exactly what your new hire will be doing for you and how that specific action is going to help.
For instance, do you want to free up more of your time so you can do XYZ, or keep clients happy so that they stay with you for longer? Be clear, so you can hire with confidence, knowing exactly how and when you’ll see a return from your investment.
Find the right person for the job
Creating an awesome job advert will help you find the perfect person for the job. You want the recruitment process to be nice and smooth, so doing your research and getting everything right from the start will help you.
Although you may have a good idea of what type of person you want for the job, it’s really important that your job advert doesn’t discriminate against any protected characteristics. Otherwise, you could land yourself in hot water.
Shortlisting and interviewing
Hopefully by now you’ve got a whole bunch of people that have applied and you just need to go through them and make a decision. Here’s our advice…Wading through hundreds of CVs isn’t fun and it can be easy to start being inconsistent and disregarding people who may actually be a good fit.
So, before you start going through the CVs be clear on the skills and experience, you’re looking for and create a criteria you can cross reference against to make things easier.
How to record candidate progress
You may think you have a great memory. But after speaking to lots of different people, it will be difficult for you to be clear on who stands out. That’s why it’s important to decide how you’re going to keep notes on each candidate, if they match your criteria and what stage of the interview process they are at.
Offer to the best person
You’ve found the right person for the job and you’re really excited to get them started…
Here’s what to do next: Firstly, jump on the phone with the successful candidate to offer them the
position and to make sure they’re still interested.
If they are, then awesome! You can talk through the package, notice period and verbally agree on a starting date. All of which should be confirmed, along with anything else you need, in writing and sent to them ASAP.
Once you have sent this letter, it’s safe to then let the other candidates know that they haven’t been successful.
Does this all sound like a lot of work? We can help. Just give us a call.