Posted by on Jul 7, 2017 in Business | 0 questions

As a small startup business; you’re highly aware of how important the people you employ are to the success of your company’s growth and expansion. Therefore, it’s crucial that you choose your team wisely and ensure that you correctly look after them. You might be small in size, but that shouldn’t affect how much effort you put into ensuring that your staff are happy and fulfilling (and exceeding) their role with you. If anything, now is the time to put more energy into creating your dream team, who will help you on the road to business success. The following are the key areas to consider when you’re hiring new staff members and ensuring that they’re well taken care of.

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Choosing The Right People

When you’re hiring for the various roles that your business requires; you need to take into consideration both qualifications and personality. As a small team, people that are unable to work closely with one another, and do not slide into the identity of the brand, may cause tension and their working relationship with your company could fail as a result. Interviews are the perfect time to get to know a candidate on a personal, and even informal, level, so you can gauge whether or not they are a good match for the rest of your team members and if you will appreciate their presence in the workplace.

Ask a variety of questions, which are related to your business, in order to decipher whether they should get the job. You can check out some ideas on what to ask to gauge a person’s character during an interview here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/14-interview-questions-th_n_2807438.html. Working out the importance of the job role to the interviewee is crucial; at this stage, your business needs people on board who are dedicated and are there for the long run. Therefore, you should avoid those who are applying simply for the salary or wages.

Qualifications are of course important when it comes to picking the right person for the job. However, if a person’s character and drive impress you, and they don’t quite match the qualification criteria; you might want to consider giving them further training once they are hired. Investing in training your employees to meet and exceed the standard needed in your company, will ensure that you don’t have to hire new people who may not work as well alongside your other staff. Bringing people into the company on an intern basis is another great way to work out if they’re a suitable candidate and whether the internship should end in a job offer.

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Maintaining Employee Happiness

Once your team is hired and onboard with their job roles; you’ll need to ensure that each member of staff is happy with what they’re doing and how they are treated. Employee satisfaction is vital, especially in a small startup, to the success and smooth running of the company, so it’s worth investing some time and effort into regular checks.

It’s always worth checking your staff’s salaries and wages against your competitors so that they won’t be tempted to jump ship; an hourly paycheck calculator is a simple and effective way to work out what your employees will be living on a month to month and if you’re comfortable with it. You will also need to make sure that your company pays at least the minimum wage, and if not, more; this will ensure that your team isn’t constantly looking elsewhere for work and you won’t get into any legal difficulties.

Rewards and bonus schemes are another way to keep staff motivated and momentum high. If somebody is going to receive a treat for reaching your targets, they’ll be more inclined to push for it in the first place. Reward your team with a regular social event outside of the workplace. For 101 ways to incentivize your staff, take a look here: https://smallbusiness.americanexpress.com/ca/en/big-ideas-for-small-business/employee-retention-and-engagement/101-ways-to-reward-employees-without-giving-them-cash. If your staff members are getting on well and enjoying each other’s company out of the office; they are more likely to successfully cooperate as a team when they’re in the workplace.

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Hiring In The Right Areas

It might sound obvious; but, you need to ensure that you’re covering each area of your business when you hire your team. Although your staff and their skills should complement each other’s; you don’t want any blurred lines and overlapping when it comes to who does what. Therefore you will need to create clear and defined areas within your company and decide on how many people should be in each, and what level of qualifications they need. In a team of any size, everyone should know what their role is, who’s in charge of them, and who they’re in charge of.

You’ll need to make decisions on when to hire an employee, and when to outsource and pay for temporary work. Your branding and marketing, for example, will be something that needs to be sorted out from the get-go; however, you may not have the funds to keep a marketing team onboard permanently, so hire a team to get you off to the right start. The same goes for each area of your business; you’ll need to think about what processes need completing every day and ensure that you’ve got the workforce to do so.

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Knowing When To Let Someone Go

It’s a challenging part of owning your own business; however, knowing when and how to let someone go, is an important part of a fledgling company’s future success. You cannot put your business at risk by keeping employees on who aren’t performing, no matter how much you like them on a personal level; they need to be the driving force behind your business. Therefore, you may have to release some weak links in your startup swiftly and professionally.

For some tips and information on how to let go of a member of staff, take a look here: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7969-employee-firing-tips.html. It will be difficult, but it could leave room for someone who will enhance your business and drive it’s success even further, so know when to cut ties and do it quickly.

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