Few decisions in the life of an entrepreneur carry more weight than when to begin hiring staff and how to make the right hires.
Success starts with a thorough, honest analysis of your business’s circumstances, and diligent preparation.
Get real. “You have to have a clear idea of what your capacity is, your bandwidth to manage people,” said Jennifer Jeansonne, owner of JAJ Consults, a small business recruiting firm. “You should also consider how much money are they going to bring in versus how much you are going to pay them.”
Explore the options. Rather than dive right in with full-time hires, Jeansonne suggested looking at a phased-in approach, beginning with part-time employees and/or 1099 contract employees.
“Today’s work environment gives employers more flexibility,” she noted. “With contract or part-time workers, you can check them out. Do they fit with your team, do you like their work?”
Not committing right away to a full-time employee also reduces risk if the business fails to grow as expected. However, if going the contract worker route, owners must make sure they have a clear understanding of the strict regulations governing these relationships.
Go slow. Growing staff slowly worked well for Josh Owen, co-founder of Comfystone Films, a video marketing agency.
“We always had the idea of hiring, it was just a question of when we were capable of hiring,” he recalled. “Hiring someone part-time helped us learn a lot of what we needed to know going forward.”
Owen also experimented with hiring.
“We had friends come on board in different roles,” he explained. “These were people who we knew bought into our vision, and it helped us figure out what we should be looking for.”
Be honest with them, and yourself. “Look at what job tasks you need that person to do, how you want them to contribute and what skill sets you need,” advised Jeansonne, who emphasized that looking for skills and attributes is more important than simply reviewing a candidate’s experience. Creating an effective job description should begin with a realistic description of the job, and your expectations for the person who fills it. List some key attributes, such as being outgoing, being a self-starter, etc. Also vital are including where you expect the person to work and setting a realistic pay range.
“Do some research about the market rate for the position,” Jeansonne recommended. “Being honest about this up front gets you off on the right foot with new hires.”
Be flexible. After creating the job description, Jeansonne encouraged employers to “identify the need, the nice and the deal-breakers” when looking at a job description. Could someone be a great fit if they don’t meet every item on your wish list?
Spread the word. Circulating the description widely enough to attract a good candidate pool is vital. There are multiple free job boards available in Southeast Louisiana. Networking among friends and colleagues for candidates is also a good approach. Use any marketing and/or social media resources to help. Depending on the position, paid job search sites can also be an option.
Interview like a pro. “Create an interview structure, with questions you will ask each candidate,” Jeansonne advised. “Example questions are really useful, especially when you connect them to the job tasks.”
A good interview should be a dialogue, since a smart candidate will also be interviewing you. And a good telltale is how much the candidate knows about your firm, indicating that s/he prepared ahead of time.
Prepare to onboard. “Make sure your business is ready; you can never be too prepared for this person coming in,” observed Owen. “You need processes and procedures they can understand. You want to make sure that person can operate without you around all the time.”
Indeed, hiring and onboarding are simply the beginning of continuous employee management.
“You should never stop trying to engage your employees,” advised Jeansonne, “making sure they feel supported and wanted in your organization.”
Keith Twitchell spent 16 years running his own business before becoming president of the Committee for a Better New Orleans. He has observed, supported and participated in entrepreneurial ventures at the street, neighborhood, nonprofit, micro- and macro-business levels.
