Mark Adams
Establishing a business involves many different strands. Finding your perfect team is just one element that you need to perfect. Whether your business succeeds will often depend heavily on an effective and dedicated workforce.
If you are in the process of growing your business and want to pick up some useful tips as you build out your team, here are some of the key things to remember.
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
Being patient and waiting for your ideal staff members to get in touch can be frustrating and exhausting. If you need workers in place within a certain time frame, you might not have the time available to wait around before you appoint people.
For senior roles, such as managers or directors, it is sensible to wait a bit longer to allow more skilled and experienced candidates to apply.
Put Measurable Goals in Place
Let people know straight away what you expect from your team. This will help in filtering through applications from those not prepared to work hard in your business. It will also help you to monitor individual and team progress from the start.
Performance management software can help to keep track of the progress and outcomes of your workforce. Visit StaffCircle to find out more about the performance management systems available to new companies. Using these systems can improve productivity and save time when managing a team.
Good employee performance management also goes hand in hand with effective employee relationship management. Regular appraisals of your team members, along with good communication, will help to get through many of the issues your staff could face.
Start As You Mean to Go On
It’s good to change and adapt as you become more familiar with your company and how things work for you. But setting some core principles in place from the start will give you the best chance of hiring people whose values align with yours.
When interviewing for your team, be clear with potential staff members about the type of business you plan to run. Let them know it’s new and tell them about your goals and aspirations for the company.
Be clear about what you expect from them. This gives candidates the opportunity to turn down a position if it doesn’t work for them. On the flip side, it might also encourage people to work for you, and help you to find people who are a great fit.
Don’t Skip Any Steps
Before beginning the hiring process, consider what you want from your new employees and how you can most effectively draw on the right information. For some jobs, it might work best to have a written exercise or trial shift. This gives you a chance to monitor their work and see how they behave in a work environment that is as close as possible to the actual job.
When it comes to background checks and security checks on your potential candidates, ensure you complete all necessary processes. This is particularly important if your staff will come into contact with young people, elderly people, and other vulnerable groups.
Get Expert Opinions
A human resources consultant or specialist in people and organisational development can help to shape your interview and recruitment plans. Investing money in this step of the process could result in a better quality of candidates applying for the roles.
If your budget allows, spend at least half a day speaking to an expert in the field of recruitment. If you can find somebody who specializes in the industry in which you are starting up your business, they are likely to be able to provide more tailored and specific advice.
A consultant can input into your interview questions and structure, help to develop job descriptions and specifications and provide opinions and guidance on the best candidates to hire.
Try Different Strategies and Tactics
To get the best chances of hiring an amazing team, you should cast your net as wide as possible. This includes using the standard methods of hiring, such as posting on job sites and enlisting the help of recruitment agencies.
But you should also think about utilizing social media to get free advertising on your job listings. Ask family and friends to share your adverts as widely as possible, especially if you’re hiring remote positions for your new company.
You could even try out some of the more traditional ways of advertising, such as printing out the advert and asking local shops, supermarkets, and community centres to put them up for you.
Hire People You Don’t Know
While you should enlist help with reaching as wide a network as possible, be clear about whether you want to hire friends and family members. Many business owners choose to avoid working with people they know since it can blur the lines between personal and professional life too much. It can also strain personal relationships in the future if things don’t go well within the team.
Consider this before you start the hiring process and think about a standard response that you could offer to those who ask. Many people will understand the rationale for making this decision, which may also extend to the relatives of friends and extended family members.
Ask the Right Questions
When looking for new team members, it’s important to ask the right questions. This draws out the targeted information that you need from potential staff. Some of the key things you may want to know about their experience will include:
- whether they have worked for a similar business before
- what they can offer to the development of the business
- what they found the most challenging about working for a growing company in the past
Be Prepared to Be Flexible
To attract the best candidates for the job, you will need to be flexible and agile. People may interview for the positions and have childcare requirements, health conditions, or other needs.
Helping your team to balance their day job with home and personal life can encourage healthy relationships between you and your employees. It can increase productivity and job satisfaction and retain talent in the longer term.
Prospective candidates who have core responsibilities within their home and family life will often raise these points at the interview stage to discern how flexible their potential future employer is.
Know Your Teams’ Worth
If you want a brilliant team, you should be prepared to pay better wages than average. Not only will this attract more people to apply for the jobs in your evolving company, but you’re more likely to keep them on board for longer too.
Paying your staff a decent wage also sends a signal that you value them as employees and their work is important in the operations and development of the business.
A comprehensive approach to finding the right staff for your company can really pay off in the long run. It enables you to hire better quality candidates, retain talent for longer, and manage a team that works effectively together.
