When you start hiring employees, this is a big moment for any company because it means that you’re growing and are in need of more help. But when hiring, you don’t just want anyone, you want the best – the best of the best, because they’re the ones that are representing you and your company. So if they’re not performing well, then your business isn’t going to look like it’s performing well either (even if it wasn’t necessarily your fault). You hired them, so it still kind of is.
You want to invest in a team that has your back at all times and does all that they can to make your life easier and your business better. They should complete tasks on time, and if they don’t currently have anything to do for ten minutes – they should go and see what jobs people could have help with.
So how do you find employees like this without spending months trying to scout out people that end up being completely the wrong candidate for the job in the first place?
Hold your interviews
Interviews are daunting for everyone, the interviewee, and the interviewer. It’s a lot of responsibility taking the lead and asking total strangers rather personal questions about their previous jobs of employment. But it’s necessary in order to find out whether these individuals are the right people for you. A lot of people assume that you should only ask questions that reside in the professional category, but there’s nothing wrong with asking some personal questions within reason. It’s a good way to get a good (or bad) judge of character.
Always follow up on info and references
Whatever you do, always follow up on references and callbacks. Just because you’ve had an amazing interview with a candidate that seems even more than perfect – you can never truly know. It’s very easy to fool people, and this is why you need to double check – even triple check. Go over questions that you’ve previously asked your candidates and see whether you can get a similar answer. Ask them what their best and worst traits were, and most importantly, ask them why they left in the first place. Of course, it could have just been something simple as a sudden career change – or it could have been a whole other more sinister story.
Train them up
Once you have a handful of employees you’re satisfied, it’s down to you to ensure they’re trained up to the standard they need to be for your business. Sure, they may have the right credentials on paper, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that their work ethic is the same as yours. Take marketing, for example, you should want them to learn how to achieve healthy channel marketing community so that they see all the different varieties and forms of what marketing is, because there are certainly a lot out there. Remember that marketing is how you get your business out there for the world to see. It’s how they find out the information they need to know in order to decide whether or not they want to invest their money in whatever you’re selling.
Support one another
There is nothing more powerful than lending someone some support. When you feel low or down and you go into work (most likely the last place you want to be) it’s hard to focus and troop on getting all jobs and tasks completed on time. It can be a lot of pressure, especially at certain times during the year when business tends to get a lot busier. So having one another to lean on and be there for each other when they need it means an awful lot more than you may actually think. Even just asking if there’s anything you can do to make things easier will go a long way.
Listen to what they have to say
As a business owner, people will come to you when there’s a problem, like if the system isn’t working correctly, or another company wants to make a deal, for example. But that’s not the only thing you should be interested in. It’s important to take an interest in your employee’s lives too, just so you come off as someone approachable. There’s nothing like leaving your office door ajar as a sign that you’re free to talk or listen if there’s any kind of problem, work-wise or other.
