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How To Hire Your First Employee
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Article 2: Getting Ready To Hire
Once you’ve decided to hire your first employee, the real work begins.
Start by creating a specific job description that defines:
Why the job exists How the job will be done The qualifications required for the job (training, knowledge, education, experience, skills) The mental and physical tasks that will be performed
Broadly define the job’s goals, responsibilities and duties. Create a job title. Determine and write down the salary and benefits that you’ll offer.
One of the biggest challenges faced by many self-employed individuals hiring their first employee is narrowing down the job description.
“Self-employed individuals often have many tasks they’d like an employee to perform, but these tasks may present conflicts,” says Pierce Howard, director of research for the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies.
Hiring an office manager to do bookkeeping and greet customers is a good example. These are contradictory skills that it’s unlikely one person will possess. “So you have to decide what is the most important job that needs doing right now,” says Howard, “and hire an employee with those strengths, and then maybe look to fill other roles down the road.”
The job title, job description and employee benefits should be put in writing and should form the foundation of an employee handbook or policy manual.
“This manual should spell out all of your employment practices and benefits: hiring procedures, attendance requirements, salary or wage, overtime policies, dress requirements and safety issues, to name a few,” says Bill Hubbartt (www.hubbartt.com), a human resources management consultant and the author of eight books on personnel policies.
If you’re a one-person shop hiring your first employee, these steps may seem unnecessary. But, taking these steps helps lay a solid foundation for your personnel policies right from the start, which will be essential as your company grows.
“Many firms get to five or 10 employees before they think about these things, but they’re just as important with your first employee,” Hubbartt says.
After you fleshed out the actual job the new hire will do, consider whether you should hire a full- or part-time employee? By hiring part-time employees, leased employees and independent contractors, employers may be able to avoid many of the legal requirements of employment.
“Many self-employed individuals are better off starting with a part-timer and then expanding the position to full time later as the business grows,” says Hubbartt.
It’s a bit of a Catch-22: “Having an employee may help the business grow, but the business has to support the employee,” says Hubbartt. “Be sure to analyze how adding an employee will affect how you define and quote work for your customers due to the payroll obligation you will have to meet.”
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How To Hire Your First Employee
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