Starting a new company is exciting – you’re bringing your idea to life and finally going to be your own boss. If the company is a tiny one-person outfit starting up is relatively straightforward; however, you must consider several things if you plan on hiring employees. While employees may be passionate about the business, they’ll never match the enthusiasm ownership brings. As such, it’s essential to approach hiring and management from a realistic viewpoint.
Start Small
Many budding entrepreneurs have dreams of turning their business idea into a profitable empire but forget that empires take time to build. Looking at any significantly sized business, you’ll find they grew from humble beginnings. Therefore, it’s essential to keep a check on your dreams and invest the time to build a reputable brand at the grassroots level first. Taking on staff is a huge commitment that requires a significant percentage of the budget.
Starting small allows you time to build a loyal customer base and figure out which is the best direction for the company. Rather than jumping straight into hiring lots of staff in the hopes of driving rapid growth, it’s much easier to hire more staff later as expansion becomes sustainable. The process of letting staff go is demoralizing and damaging to a company’s reputation, so best avoided, especially early on.
Consult An Employment Law Expert
Employment laws and regulations change from state to state and talking to HKM Bellvue will ensure your new business in Washington doesn’t violate any of these. Consulting with an expert in employment law will ensure you, as a new employer, fully understand the rights of your staff and company. In this way, you’ll protect the interests of your fledgling company from the very start and do right by your workforce.
Get advice on drawing up employment contracts and ensuring they’re fair and legal for both parties. Both parties can negotiate terms and conditions such as expected hours of work, included benefits, and do-not-compete clauses to everyone’s satisfaction. If you choose to provide an Employee Assistance Program, your lawyer can also advise on this.
Get Interview Ready
Whether you’ve been involved in the hiring process previously or it’s a new experience, now’s the time to get ready to run interviews. To do this, you need to know what roles exactly must be filled and how they’ll function within the company. Will each person fulfill a specific function, or will some positions undertake several functions? If you want an office admin who will also act as a salesperson, that’s what you must advertise for to attract suitable applicants.
Once you understand the roles required, it’s time to prepare for the interview. Compile a list of questions that will give you insight into how the candidates match the desired skillset. It’s vital to remember if you’re offering entry-level positions asking for extensive qualifications and experience won’t attract serious applicants. Allowing interviewees to ask their own questions is also essential and will give you further insight into the best fit.
Set Realistic Expectations
Chances are, as a new business owner, you’re putting in some long hours to get things up and running. But what’s alright for you isn’t necessarily okay for your employees, so you need to ensure the expectations of your staff are realistic. It’s okay to keep working 60 hours a week, but you shouldn’t expect your employees to follow suit.
Intelligent hiring practices will protect your fledgling company better than expecting the staff to love it the same way you do. Consider how many people it’ll take to get through the expected workload in a standard workday and hire adequate staff numbers accordingly. If work levels are fluctuating, taking on temporary staff is an economical way to ease the burden in busy spells.
Workplace Culture
People attending job interviews are looking to see if they think the company is the right fit for them as much as the employer is looking at the candidate. Before the first potential employee steps through the door for an interview, it’s wise to figure out what the workplace culture will be. If you’re still determining the culture you wish to foster, it’ll take a lot of work to sell your business as a good workplace, making it harder to attract the best candidates.
Get Management Training
Good management is crucial to the healthy growth of small businesses. As soon as you hire that first staff member, you become a business owner and manager. Undertaking business management training before becoming a manager is an excellent way to ensure you appropriately look after your staff’s needs. From the outset, it’ll also allow you to foster a positive workplace, putting you in place for robust internal and external growth.
Training
When starting your business, you’re the only person who knows what direction exactly is planned for the company. As new staff members come on board, they will need appropriate training and induction to understand their roles and expectations of the company. Having this in place beforehand is vital for developing a cohesive team that will get your business up and running.
Also, consider how you’ll provide career development to staff as time goes on, as growing staff’s abilities is a proven retention method and boosts morale and productivity. It may be in the form of training courses, work experience with other areas of the company, or even supporting further education. Some staff may upskill and leave the company, but there will always be some staff turnover, and these people will fall under this natural attrition rate. If well looked after, most staff will stay loyal to you, and the business will directly benefit from the time and money spent on upskilling.
When you consider all these things, starting that multi-employee company will become a realistic endeavor that you can undertake with the minimal risk possible. With time you’ll have a growing company and a loyal staff who are as proud of the product as you were at the beginning.
