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Among the many challenges associated with managing a small business, one of the most significant is hiring a high-quality team of employees. Done accurately, you shall be rewarded with peace of mind, confidence in your team and fewer barriers to profits.
I’m sure you’ve got heard it before: people can make or break a workplace. Many of us have horror stories about working in a company or on a team that was, at best, simply not a good fit, and at worst, led to a dysfunctional fracture. But now you are on the other side of the equation – as a latest small business owner, You are responsible for hiring the winning team… but how?
In May 2011, I discovered myself in just such a situation. We have established a significant entertainment attractions company in South Carolina. The location was improbable, the construction was accomplished and all we had to do was hire a few staff to work. Pretty easy, right? Evil. There was drama, stress and high staff turnover, leading to worker compensation claims and bad customer reviews. Ultimately, we were able to determine that almost all of the problems were due to the company’s CEO engaging in poor business practices that impacted the staff. We had to start from scratch.
During this process, I learned a lot about hiring, not only employees the best employees, but Normal employees. Below, I’ve put together a list of suggestions and best practices for hiring a team that is built to last.
1. Setting standards
Consider your hiring standards. If you are using ambiguous terms like “strong employee” or “some retail experience” to describe the form of people you would like to hire, it is time to be more specific.
In the above example, as a substitute of reinventing the wheel, we turned to corporations known for their customer support standards. Using Disney as a model, we created an avatar of the ideal worker. We didn’t focus on technical skills or relevant experience, but on personality traits. Based on this, we developed a rating scale and conducted assessments.
Based on these results, we managed to establish an employment standard. The better part? We managed to achieve this by paying the same amount we paid for the previous dysfunctional team. Online reviews of the company have increased significantly, internal confusion and headaches have been alleviated, and managing the company has change into much easier.
**Note: Small business owners often harbor concerns about high staff costs – assuming that they have to pay top dollar to get the best employees. But as a substitute of working from a fear-based scarcity mindset, shift to an abundance mindset, which embraces the concept that great employees are on the market in the world and that you simply are able to find them.
2. Multi-functional staff
If you are approaching business ownership as a former corporate America worker and have an extensive resume, you might be the most experienced person at your latest company. As a small business owner, you are what I like to call the OEO: the sole executive officer. This role is the epitome of “cross-functionality.” But this dynamic adaptability shouldn’t end with you. This is exactly the quality it is best to look for in latest employees.
From the example above, in addition to the personality assessment, we found that the most significant thing was a fundamental change in training. Instead of hiring employees who can only work inside a predefined role, we focused on hiring individuals who are adaptable and can work in multi-functional roles.
This is effective for many reasons. The obvious profit is that employees can work/shift in roles that are associated with their very own without requiring much additional training. Moreover, we found that by encouraging cross-functional training, we strengthened employees’ ability to adapt and be confident in their roles.
3. Technology tools to win
It wasn’t that way back that time-consuming each day tasks were an essential a part of running a business. Modern technological advancements have modified the game for small business owners, especially when it comes to ongoing maintenance tasks reminiscent of shift scheduling, hours management, and payroll. Now all these functions might be easily managed with the right technical tools. This advantages you as a business owner in addition to your employees who can easily access this information in real time. Win-win.
At my fitness franchise, we used a mobile scheduling app that was great and essentially eliminated almost the entire person’s work: scheduling. The app notified everyone of their schedule, allowed them to offer and swap shifts without manager approval so long as it was for the same level job, and overall made the company more flexible for employees and easier to manage for our managers.
Ultimately, there is no surefire way to guarantee that you’re going to never have to deal with difficult employees or a team that just is not a good fit. While some business models may offer guidelines or frameworks to make hiring a streamlined process – reminiscent of franchising – effective hiring is critical to the success of your corporation. By setting hiring standards, looking for cross-functional employees, and using effective management technology tools, you may be in a much higher position to support your latest company with a talented team of employees.