Most entrepreneurs are entering the business world solo or with a partner. Take Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders. Those two were working alone at the beginning and it wasn’t until they realized the potential of their product that they started to hire other people. For most small business owners, the process goes the same. But sooner or later, as the business grows, you as a founder will inevitably need to hire employees to help you scale your small business.
As a small business founder, you probably don’t have an HR department, so you need to handle all the employment yourself. That’s why it’s crucial for you to learn how to set the right criteria that will bring only the best employees to your business.
Here are 5 ways that you can simplify the search for ideal candidates for you:
Hiring staff is all about solving problems. Before you start your search for an ideal employee, you need to clearly define the type of problem you’re facing.
Are you dealing with website security issues?
Or you can’t seem to create an effective content strategy?
Perhaps you don’t like your website design and you’re looking for someone to redesign it?
Whatever the reason may be, you need to define the exact problem you have, in order to be able to clearly define the type of person to fix it for you.
Once you know what problem you are trying to solve, you’ll be able to pick the right employee much easier.
Plus, defining the problem is crucial to choose the right employment type.
There are multiple ways you can hire someone these days. You can hire an employee to be your part-time, full-time employee, or freelancer. The employment type directly depends on the number of responsibilities you have planned for your worker.
If you need a full-time employee, you will need to go with the old-fashioned way of posting a job ad and going through the process of interviewing the candidates. But if you’re looking for freelancers, you can visit Brybe Freelancer Marketplace and find the freelancers yourself, divided into multiple categories and niches.
All the employment types have pros and cons, but you need to go with the one that suits your business the best.
A job ad well-written is half the job done. Don’t follow a template when it comes to the job posting - let your creativity go. Your job posting should be easy to read, fun, with a sense of humor, and not too serious - unless that goes against your company’s culture or rules.
Be sure to mention all the responsibilities, don’t forget to mention your requirements as well, but also the benefits you’re offering. When done right, job ads can attract many potential employers. You also need to mention the deadline for the application and set up the right process to do it.
Whether the candidates can apply by sending their resume via email or filling up an application, it’s your choice, but you need to clearly mention that.
Once you’re done with the ads, you don’t have to post them on all the job ads platforms.
You own a small business, your budget is limited.
It should be enough to post it on your personal LinkedIn profile, ask a few friends or satisfied clients to publish it as well. This is the cheapest way to do it.
And now, you wait for the applications.
Once you’ve received enough applicants, the hard part arrives. You need to pick the candidates that you will conduct interviews with.
To get started, there is a glossary of terms and definitions for recruiters to become familiar with, such as an aptitude test or a behavioral assessment. Recruiters can study and implement these techniques as part of the interviewing process.
Bonus tip: you can always ask the candidate some unexpected questions, like what they enjoy doing in their free time. Usually, people practice the answers to business-related questions and rarely practice answering any personal questions.
It's a good opportunity for the candidate to show their personality.
Finally, the last step. Once you decide on a candidate, you need to make a job offer.
Prepare all the responsibilities, the requirements, and the pay, and let them know that they’re the chosen ones.
Hopefully, they’ll like to work for you, so you’ll end up having a skillful individual on your team.
And that’s it!
For small business owners, the process of choosing the right employees can be super hard and exhausting. But, if you follow this simple guide, you should be able to choose the ideal employees for your small business.
