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As your company grows and becomes more successful, you may reach a crossroads. You can either continue as a sole trader and work for yourself, by yourself. For some businesses, this will still allow you to earn what you want, without growing your company beyond what you can manage.
But many business owners prefer to continue growing their businesses, picking up more clients, taking on new projects, and continually investing in the company. There will come a point where it’s too much for one person to manage by themselves.
This is when it’s time to hire employees.
The Problem With Employees
A business owner hires employees to pick up some of the work in the company and allow the company more room to grow. An employee can take on some of your responsibilities, giving you more freedom to focus on other projects.
However, employees come with their own workload as well. Managing even one employee takes time and effort.
Of course, you also have to think about the financial cost of hiring an employee. Everyone has bills to pay and mouths to feed, and you certainly can’t expect someone to work for free. You have to make sure that you’re able to pay their wage, as well as added costs like insurance, sick pay, and any other paperwork that you have to contend with.
Luckily, with services geared to recruit the right person, you can make certain that all of those necessary tasks pale in comparison to the value and talent you find, perhaps via the use of executive search services.
Hiring employees is a necessary step to growing your business beyond a certain point, and some businesses require more than one person from the get-go. But you have to make sure that you’re ready to hire before you can take the plunge.
The first thing to consider before you even consider hiring an employee is whether you need an employee at all. Another option is to outsource to a professional freelancer or another business that can provide a specific service.
Hiring an employee is the best option if you want someone to work with you on a long-term basis, with a role that requires a lot of work each day or week. It does come with extra costs and management needs, but it also provides a measure of stability that is good for both the employee and the employer.
Outsourcing a service or task is a better option when you need a very specific role filled that doesn’t justify hiring an employee. For example, it’s a good idea to hire an accountant who can make sure that your business’s finances are all above board. But unless you’re running a huge corporation, you likely don’t need someone to work more than a few hours a week, if that.
Rather than wasting your money and hiring an employee, or trying to get someone unqualified (whether it’s you or an employee) to manage your business’s finances, outsourcing to a professional accountant is a much better option.
You can also take on a freelancer if you just need a temporary worker for one project. A freelancer or consultant will likely have a higher hourly rate than an employee, but remember that you’re also not paying sick and holiday pay.
If you do decide to hire freelancers, remember that the relationship between you and the freelancer is very different from an employer-employee relationship. You are a client. If it comes to it, you are free to end the contract between you and the freelancer, but the same applies to the freelancer. Both parties have more independence and flexibility.
Before You Hire
So, you’ve decided to take the plunge and hire your first employee. How do you make sure that the investment of time, money, and stress is worth it?
As with near enough everything else in the business world, and the real world for that matter, it pays to be prepared. If your business has reached the point where it’s more beneficial than not to take on an employee, you need to work out exactly what you need out of your employee and how they can be most helpful to your business.
Essentially, you need to define a role. Do you need someone to handle the administrative side of your business while you focus on the projects? Or do you need a second pair of hands and eyes to help you take on larger and more complex projects? Do you need someone who can cover skills that you don’t have, so you can diversify your projects?
There are so many different questions to answer, and only you can determine what you need from your employees. From there, you need to work out what skills and qualifications the employee should have to fulfill their role, as well as the going rate for someone with that job.
It can be tempting to try to swing for a lower wage, but while you might get applicants, you may not get anyone who is adequately qualified. Basically, you get what you pay for.
It’s only at this point that you can advertise the job opening and wait for the applicants to stream in.
The Hiring Process
Some of the most commonly heard advice in this field is to “hire slow, fire fast”, but what does this mean? In short, you need to take your time in the hiring process and quickly move on from candidates and even new employees who don’t fit in your company.
It’s far more economical to hire the right people the first time around, so screen the candidates carefully and interview those that impress you the most. Interviewing isn’t easy, you need to get a good idea of the candidates’ experience and skills, as well as who they are as a person.
Qualifications can be taught, but some qualities are harder to find in a good candidate.
Managing Your Team
Managing one employee is one thing, but as your company grows, your team will grow alongside it. As you hire new people, think about where they will fit into the current team that you’re building.
Ideally, you want a good mix of skills and experience, so that people can work together. You also need to consider how people get on with each other on a personal level.
A toxic work environment is damaging to the employees and the business alike. Nobody wants to work in an environment where they feel as though they aren’t being heard and that they are constantly having to fight their colleagues.
A team isn’t just a group of people who happen to work in the same area. If you want your projects to be successful, your employees need to be able to work together and build on each other’s ideas.
As a manager, it’s your responsibility to make sure that morale is high and that your employees can work together, despite any interpersonal difficulties. This is something you need to consider as you hire and as you assign projects to different people.
Another aspect of managing your employees is to manage what they work on and when.
If your company is dealing with multiple clients and projects, it can be difficult to keep track of what projects are being completed. Some clients may get forgotten about or constantly delayed, which can be fatal to your company’s reputation.
Ideally, you should be providing excellent service to all of your clients. Using field service management software to manage your employees and clients alike will help you to keep track of all the moving parts of your company and make sure that everything is on board.
