If you want a business that creates more value than a single person can produce, you need to hire the next employee and make a decisive step towards business growth. How do you recruit a new employee and ensure that this decision will create value for your business?
A Decisive Step Towards Business Growth
Simply put – there are not enough hours in day for you to do everything yourself. Your first employee brings your business one step closer to realizing its full potential and one step closer to allowing the business to operate one day without being dependent on solely you.
Define Your First Employee
To find your next employee, you need to evaluate what needs to be done to cover the investment in the new employee. For a startup, the first employee is usually one of three types:
Bookkeeper or Office Assistant: This type of employee can save you time by focusing on deliveries and sales. For a bookkeeper to be a good investment, you need to increase turnover by at least the amount of the employee’s salary.
Production or Service Employee: This type of employee can support the production or delivery of the project. For a service employee to be a good investment, you need to make sure that the new employee can earn his or her salary after a training period.
Salesperson: This type of employee can take over sales and cultivate new markets or products. For the salesperson to be a good investment, you need to make sure the salesperson can contribute enough to cover their costs and salary.
When you take on your first employee, you take on a risk. To balance the risk of a new employee, many entrepreneurs wait to hire until they have obtained long term contracts to ensure demand for products and/or services. If you have obtained such contracts, you will likely feel that expenses are covered in the short term and feel more open to the investment.
The Recruitment Process
A professional recruitment process increases the likelihood that the new employee will stay with the business. Consider the following recruitment phases and tasks before getting started.
Before recruitment, you should outline your employee budget, job description, employee profile, and job advertising channels.
During recruitment, you will host job interviews, test applicants, evaluate candidates, and negotiate the employee contract.
After recruitment, you will need to plan the employee’s work, provide training and support, and structure employee evaluation and assessment.
Good preparation and due diligence are crucial for selecting the right next employee. The recruitment process can be plagued by beginner mistakes. Before you hire your next employee, make sure you plan ahead and detail the job description, do your homework and check references, and make time for the administrative burden of an employee.
The New Routine
Your next employee is a step towards business growth. Every time you bring on a new employee, the daily routine of the business will change and increase the odds of business growth.
If you would like guidance on recruiting your first employee, contact us to coordinate your GrowthWheel one-on-one consultation.