Hire an employee

By Rafael Dos Santos

Entrepreneurs need to start thinking of hiring their first employee when their ‘back office’ work is taking too much of their time and they can’t be networking or selling their product or service. The first thing that you need to learn when hiring someone is: to delegate! As perfect as you are, you can’t do everything alone and sometime you need to delegate your work. How can you delegate it? The answer is easy: hire an employee and let this article guide you.

Why should I hire an employee?

Before hiring an employee you have to consider a few things: the company’s growth and the skillset you need in the business. Then you need to make the decision based on revenue: if I hire this person, how much money will they save me or make me?

Additionally we should analyze if any type of investment should be undertaken, however for all tense and purposes we’ll assume this exercise must be undertaken.

If the company is growing, then it may also be wise to consider hiring more members’ of staff. For productivity and efficiency purposes primarily, if a company doesn’t posses the necessary staffing levels -then it would be fair to conclude that said company would be unable to meet consumer expectations. If this happens the company would lose its competitive advantage. Once a company loses its competitive advantage it really is, only a matter of time before the other competitors take its place within the market.

II- How can I find my employee?

When it comes to filling vacancies, there are several possibilities available to employers seeking suitable candidates.

1 – Recruitment agencies: provide a straightforward and viable option in the recruitment process. The potential employer merely states their requirements and the specifications of the post. Recruiters need to verify the qualifications and relevant experience required for the post in question.

The downside? Cost!

However if there are many posts to fill this would still be a viable option. If we balance the amount of work required to do this in-house compared to outsourcing completely it’s fair to say, “an economies of scale,” would be achieved. 

2 – Social Media

I hired one of my staff once because she tweeted me and then invited me for a coffee. LinkedIN can also be a great way to find people. In this environment prospective employees’ are required to upload their cv’s -which can then be viewed by prospective employers. 

3 – Hire a part time or a HR consultant

You could hire a HR consultant or a part time HR manager to help you. Agencies like Women Like Us can help you to find part time women who have a lot of experience and they want to work part time. I have personally used them before and the service was great.

Once the HR manager is working with you in the office she will be able to help you with job description, hiring process, etc.

4 – Job sites

This is probably the cheapest option but you trade money for time. You need to do all the work yourself (unless you have a HR person helping you).

Job sites are the number one option if you are running the business all by yourself. It will take a bit of your time but it saves you a lot of money.

 

Some good sites: Reed, Monster and Indeed.

Watch this video where Rafael gives some tips about hiring an employee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDCLKRQwU_M

Rafael dos Santos is a business consultant approved by the UK government under the Growth Accelerator programme.

If you’d like Rafael to help you grow your business, visit: www.rafaeldossantos.com