Hiring the Perfect First Employee
Hiring employees is never an easy task. Get it wrong and it can be an expensive mistake, but get it right and they can help your business to grow and be a real asset. To give you more chance of finding the perfect employee there are a few steps you need to follow.
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Define The Duties You Want To Be Completed
The first thing you should do is carefully go through all the tasks you will be expecting your new employee to carry out and define all of the duties. This is an important first step as you cannot be certain what type of person you are looking for if you do not know the full extent of the job you want them to do.
You need to be aware of what skills they will need and what their working environment will be like. This will all have to be part of the job description, as well as helping you to choose the perfect person.
Follow A Checklist
Plan your recruiting strategy and make yourself a checklist to follow so that you do not miss any of the processes you need to go through. You will need to check that they are who they say they are, for instance, and that any qualification they say they have are genuine. Netverify lets you comply with AML regs so you can be certain you are not being used as a money-laundering front and at the same time their identity will be confirmed. It’s a stepworth taking.
Your list should also include things like following up on any references they have given. Although generally, potential employees are only going to give you names of people they know will speak highly of them, references from previous employers can sometimes be very enlightening.
You should also check to see if they have any social media pages as these can be very revealing and show the true personality of a candidate. How they interact with friends and family will be how they are in the work environment once they have settled in. If you do not like the attitude they have on Facebook or Twitter, you are not likely to get on with them as an employee.
You will probably have many resumes’ to go through. If you disregard anyone that does not fit in with anything from your checklist then you will not waste time interviewing him or her.
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Talk To Them
Your time is precious and you do not want to waste it by interviewing many people that will not be suitable. Try giving them a quick call first. A brief telephone interview could give you some idea about whether they will be any good at the job, what salary and other benefits they are expecting and how they are hoping to be able to help your business.
A few well-chosen questions can determine this all very quickly and will let you whittle down the list of potential employees even further.
Have The Interview Prepared
Now you are down to the last few applicants it is time to start the interviews. You will already know quite a bit about each one that you are going to see and it would be good if they knew something about you. If they have bothered to do some research into your business before they arrive, that does at least show some initiative and that they are still interested in the job.
Phrase your questions in such a way that a simple yes or no is not enough. You want them to open up about past employment and any other work experience they have had. For instance, how did they learn the skill you are asking for, and do they enjoy this type of work? Honest answers from them will be the way you will know which one is the best option, but of course, you are relying on them telling you the truth.
Knowing their interests is also useful in case any of them conflict with the ethics of your business. Although this is something they should have included in their resume, now you have the chance to expand on them.
You will not really know if you have found the perfect person for your business until they have been working for you a while. Some employers use a trial period as a way of determining this, while others are against this idea as they say the employee will be on their best behavior until the trial is over.
At some point though, you will have to make a decision about which candidate you employ and only time will tell if you have made the right one.
