As your business expands and grows, you’ll be bringing on new team members to help you with different tasks whether they are behind the scenes or client facing roles. Regardless of the position you might be hiring for, making your first or next hiring decision and bringing someone new onboard can be overwhelming, even for experienced business owners who have hired a lot in the past. If you aren’t hiring right now, make sure you save this blog post for later! There are some essential steps you can take to make your hiring process a bit easier next time.
As an Online Business Manager, one of my roles is hiring and team management. With my experience as an OBM, I know the right and wrong ways to go through the hiring process. In this post, I’ll be sharing my 5 biggest hiring tips for growing your team.
5 Biggest Hiring Tips for Growing Your Team
Know the Type of Hire
This is different from understanding the role you want to fill on your team, although that’s important too! Knowing the type of hire refers to the terms under which you want to bring someone into your business.
Are you wanting to hire someone as an independent contractor or as a part-time or full-time employee? There are some very key differences between working with a contractor and hiring an employee for your business.
An independent contractor, like how I work with my clients, means that this person runs their own business and likely has multiple clients. Legally speaking, there are a lot of rules around who is an independent contractor and how you need to treat them, otherwise, they might still be considered an employee.
For example, an independent contractor works their own hours, uses their own equipment, and runs their own business.
If you are considering hiring an employee, you would need to set up payroll and make sure you are set for any legal requirements and deductions from their pay. It’s possible you may also need to provide things like insurance, paid time off, and so on, so be sure you research any implications.
Create a Great Job Description
The key to finding and hiring the right person is to have their role and responsibilities mapped out accordingly in a great job description. The basics of a great job description include:
- Information about your business – who you are, what you do, your brand values
- Role information – title, pay, role type, hours per week or month
- A list of programs and systems they’ll be using
- The tasks and responsibilities of the role
- Personality traits that are perfect for the role, such as, great organizational skills and ability to communicate effectively with clients, etc. Knowing how they’ll fit within your company one of the most important hiring tips for growing your team.
- Details on the application process – how to apply, deadline, etc.
When creating your job description, a lot of business owners tend to craft positions for “unicorns” or essentially unmeetable standards. Just in scrolling through social media, I have seen some posts for jobs that might be overly specific or a little over the top. Sure, we all want “dream” candidates, but it’s important to be realistic as well. You may need to hire 2 people to get all those tasks complete on your job description.
Vet Your Applicants
An easy way to vet your applicants right off the bat is by including a special instruction within the job description application process. Some people include something like, “send an email with the subject line “Tech Support Integration Superstar’” to immediately be able to disqualify candidates who don’t follow the rules right off the bat.
Other times, you can include a ‘secret word’ that needs to be mentioned in the email or application form. This is a great way to vet applicants right from the start, especially if you are overwhelmed with hundreds of applicants for one role.
Again, be careful to know what’s most important in what you’re looking for. If you are clear on the mission and values of the organization, this will be easier for you to decide. You may be able to sort through those applicants who may have spelling or grammatical errors if you are looking for a candidate who should be taking their time and being careful about the applications they are sending over. Did they send an incomplete application? Were the answers thoughtful and logically organized? Only you know what’s most important to you.
Conduct a Zoom Interview
Once you have your applicant list down to 3-5 people, it’s time for Zoom interviews!
The main goal of these interviews is to make sure the personality is a fit for the role and your business. The key to a great interview is to have your questions prepared ahead of time, and make sure you have some questions that are specific to the role you are hiring for.
I think these are especially important for those individuals who might have client-facing roles within your company. How well do they communicate your vision? Are they comfortable interacting and able to think on their feet? Do they represent your brand in a way you want to be viewed by your clients?
Offer Paid Trial Projects or Trial Periods
A paid trial project or trial period is a great way to ensure you are making the right choice and finding the right fit for your business. For example, if you are hiring a graphic designer, ask the top two candidates to do a small paid trial to see how their communication and work truly is. This may help you to decide between the two, or you may find that both would be a great asset to your business for different reasons.
Be clear about what their rate is and an anticipated length of completion for the project or the established rate for the project ahead of time to avoid any surprises.
Need Help Hiring?
Sometimes it can be challenging for us to be objective in hiring. We tend to want to go with people we like instead of the best fit for the role. If you need help with the hiring process or creating streamlined systems, reach out and let’s chat about your needs. I’m an Online Business Manager who has worked with a lot of clients who are just starting or re-learning the hiring process and working on finding their perfect new team member!
One of the best hiring tips for growing your team to keep in mind is that after you’ve hired your new team member, set them up for success by creating a new hire onboarding process for them. Have them sign any necessary documents, turn over any tax forms, provide them with any login and password access, and direct them to any SOPs and training materials. You’ll want to check in with your new team members periodically, especially during those initially weeks to see if they need any support and if they are meeting the milestones you have in place for their success.
