For most small to medium sized businesses, hiring staff is one of the most important – and costly – things you can do. It sounds daunting but it shouldn’t be: if you’re the founder of a growing SME, building a team to delegate tasks to is the natural next step, and to avoid overstretching yourself and neglecting key aspects of the business, you’ll need to take on individuals who are equipped with the skills and drive to take your company forward.
As an entrepreneur working alone on your small business, you might be wondering how to make the first step to taking on your first employee. Making your first hire is monumental and can mean that your company can achieve successes you couldn’t reach alone. We spoke to our partner, recruitment agency The Youth Hub, to get their tips on making your first hire.
Tip #1: Plan out your hiring process
Hiring is time-intensive, so plan every step of the recruitment procedure ahead of time and iterate as you go along if you need to. Being organised is key and sometimes overlooked.
Decide on what your hiring process will be like, for example:
- What CVs, cover letters or other forms will they need to submit at the first stage?
- Will the second hurdle be a phone interview, or further application questions?
- Will the third stage be a face-to-face interview, a practical task, a short presentation?
Also, work out who will be making the decisions at each stage. You may want to be fully involved but due to the time it takes, it might make more sense to outsource your hiring to a good quality recruiter or recruiting firm, like The Youth Hub, that can feed back to you.
You should allocate enough time for interviewing and reviewing CVs and applications, and bear in mind that you’re also that you’re working to the schedules of the candidates.
Tip #2: Think about your progression criteria
What information do you need to know at each stage in order to progress a candidate to the next stage? Decide what your ‘pass mark’ will look like, and become more discerning at each stage.
At the first stage of the interview process, you will be accepting CVs and cover letters from people with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences. At this point, it is worth focusing on discounting the people whose skills are least suitable for the role, as you will be able to gauge from their CV. You also might want to require a cover letter or application form to determine whether or not a candidate is right fit culturally.
Telephone interviews tend to be used at the second stage of the process to get a better sense of the person behind the application, and decide whether it’s worth your time (and theirs) to set up a face-to-face meeting. They only need to be about 20 minutes long; invite them to talk to you through their CV, clarify any questions you had from it and ask a few personality questions to get an initial sense of whether or not they’re right for your company.
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Tip #3: Personality quizzes can be useful
Straightforward personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), can be useful shorthand for understanding how the candidate thinks and whether you’re likely to build a productive relationship with them. This is acutely important when the team is small (or just you!) As the team grows, it’s also helpful to ensure a diversity of personality types, which itself is vital to success for a growing business.
Tip #4: Make the most of interviews
As well as the the usual competency-based questions that all employers and recruiters ask at the telephone interview stage, feel free to be more incisive to really get to know the candidate professionally. Ask questions such as:
Tell me about a time when you made a mistake at work. How did you deal with it?
This question helps show what the candidate views as ‘mistakes’, and how they’ve been resourceful and used their initiative in the past to deal with them.
If we called your mum, your best friend and your last boss, what character traits would they all say you had?
Asking this question can give you an impression of their general character and what’s consistent in it. As it’s more of a random question, candidates are less likely to be prepared for it, making answers a bit more honest.
What’s the best way to communicate with you?
Asking this question helps you to understand from the get-go whether there will be synergies in your working relationship.
By the end of the call, you should know whether or not they’re a real contender for the job – if they’re not, then don’t waste time by progressing them forward.
Tip #5: Have candidates complete a task
Face-to-face meetings should be reserved for candidates that you can really see as part of your company. Determine if they’re a cultural fit and whether or not they’re capable of doing the job you need them to do.
There are several ways you can do this. For instance, have them complete a task on the day or ask them to create a five minute presentation about something they’re passionate about or what they would work on in their first 90 days in the role.
Tip #6: Be transparent with applicants
Being open and honest with your prospective team members gives you the best chance of (a) finding the right ones and (b) starting the relationship off on the right foot.
Be transparent about all aspects of the role in a detailed job description and person specification and highlight the steps in the hiring process ahead of time.
Tip #7: Use social media
Share it across relevant social networks and recruitment networks, but don’t neglect to announce it on your company’s social media accounts as well: people who already follow your work are more likely to be familiar with your brand values and believe in your vision.
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Tip #8: Remember that you’re also applying to be their employer
Hiring is a two way street: it’s not just you as the employer trying to find the right team members, but also the candidate looking for the right company for themselves. Showing enthusiasm and passion when speaking on your goals, vision and culture face-to-face will go a long way – think about the reasons why candidates should pick you as well!
Tip #9: Sort out your onboarding well ahead of time
There’s only one thing worse than someone turning up at work at not having a clue what they’re doing: if no one else does, either.
Put as much effort into onboarding your new employee as you did into hiring them: create a plan for them to familiarise themselves with your company culture, their new role and anything else you think they should know about working with/for you. It will take time for them to get into the swing of things, but you should schedule regular check-ins for their first few months and – where it’s your first hire especially – ensure you have created a structure to enable 360 degree feedback.
Now you’ve got them, make sure you keep them!
Tip #10: Consider working with a recruiter
Working closely with a recruiter or recruiting firm that specialises with consulting has countless advantages, as you will not only have expert advice within recruiting, but you will be able to delegate this to them so you are now able to focus on the areas you are best at within the business. They may offer suggestions on how to have better retention and methods that they have that helps you keep your staff and have a strong team bond.
Speak to them about the following:
- Where you see the business progressing within the next 5-10 years
- Your company culture
- What you represent
You can get in touch with The Youth Hub. The team, Rehnell and Ruby, have put methods and procedures in place to help companies thrive in these areas.
Final tips
Hiring is extremely important but very time intensive. Make sure you dedicate enough effort and resources to getting it right, because it will take a lot of your attention away from the business. Recruitment agencies like The Youth Hub are valuable because they take the tasks off your hands, allowing you to continue doing your job and check in at the crucial stages. Also, don’t overlook retention: once you hire your first employee, you want them to stay the course.
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