Employee Hiring | Networking for Professionals
One of the most common complaints among small businesspersons is the difficulties they have in hiring good people. Networking for professionals can be tough, so when it comes to good employees, they can't find them, they can't attract them, they can't pay them or they can't keep them. And often their lament is also accompanied with a story about the person they hired who turns out to be the employee from Hell.
The key to successful hiring is planning.
Too often, hiring problems are a result of not having a clear understanding of what is wanted in the new employee or what that employee is actually to do. Hiring a good person requires good planning.
Checklist
Before you hire your next employee go through the checklist below and make sure you have all the bases covered:
- Have you created a job description for the position you're filling? If not, do so. Include within it who the person will report to, when they will be reviewed, and what criteria will be used to measure their performance. Most important: write down the qualifications the person must have to adequately fill that job; pin down the experience, education and skills required. And don't low-ball it.
- Have you researched the compensation for the position? It's not based on what you can pay. If you want a good person it has to be based on what the market is paying. Research the pay on the web or by studying want ads. If you're offering substantially less, you're not going to want the people you attract.
- Have you defined the compensation plan and policy clearly? Most hiring and employee problems happen when you haven't. Pin down - exactly - the base compensation, any performance incentives, benefits, holidays, sick time, and vacation accruals. It doesn't matter whether you offer the very best compensation; it matters that you make it clear.
- Have other people interviewed your candidates? It's always a good idea to have other people interview your candidate so that you can compare notes with them. This way, you get a sanity check on your own perspective. Frankly, the more, the merrier and it's better to have the interviews one at a time rather than "gang-bang" style. A good process is this: You interview. They interview. You consult with the others. You interview again. Yes, it seems lengthy but it pays off.
- Have you found a good selection of prospective candidates? You should have at least 3 good candidates to consider. If you haven't had much experience at hiring, get 5-10 possible candidates. You need to see the contrast and comparisons between candidates in order to make a good selection. Hiring the first "good" candidate you find is almost always a mistake.
- Have you gathered references and checked them? It's a pain but it has to be done and doing it will save you more pain later. Make sure you understand exactly who the references are and what their relationship with the candidate was before you let them weigh in.
Hiring is hard.
And hiring good people is harder. It takes work.But if you plan it carefully, utilize all your entrepreneurial resources and follow through carefully, the results will pay off ten-fold.
