When growing a successful business, there will be times when you’ll need to take on additional help.

Employing vs subcontracting

If you’re unsure whether permanent employment is the best route for your small business, read my previous blog: Business advice: employment vs subcontracting.

If your business review is complete and the decision made that permanent employment is the most cost-efficient option for your business, what’s next?

Employing the right person

Recruitment agencies can be a lifeline for busy business owners. They can’t do all the work though, you’ll need to follow these five steps to ensure they’re employing the right person for you.

Step 1: develop your organisational structure

Having an organisational structure or chart not only visually maps the employees in the business, it also helps to identify the roles of those staff. With this in place, it’s much easier to spot gaps or shortages and will help direct your decision on creating new positions.

Step 2: understanding duties and responsibilities

Having completed your org structure, you’ll hopefully avoid the temptation to simply employ an assistant. Think about which tasks you need to be completed by the new member of staff and detail them all individually.

Step 3: establish a person specification

What type of person will be able to fulfil the tasks identified in step 2? Think about and decide on what skills you’re asking for, do they need certain experience or qualifications? What about personality? For more advice on this, my blog ‘Why recruiting the right personality mix is crucial in business‘ will help.

Step 4: creating the job description

Now, you are ready to create your job description. This should comprise the following information:
– Header: job title, remuneration, reporting line, hours and place of work
– Summary of job: from your roles and responsibilities, summarise here the main objective and key tasks involved with the position
– Duties and responsibilities: detail the list you’ve made, ideally in order of their importance
– Person spec: again you can add your pre-made list here, priority order is best

Step 5: the job advert

Job done? Not quite! The final piece of the puzzle is the job advert. A great ad will comprise the following components:
– Title: include the job title together with one or two elements of the post that will make it attractive to applicants
– Company info: who will the successful applicant work for? Great things to include here are how long you’ve been in business, examples of clients you work with, how happy your staff are etc.
– Position info: as well as the key objectives of the role, enhance the post’s charm with information on things such as pay, benefits and opportunities for development
– Application process: give applicants an idea on how long the recruitment process will take and what the steps are

Whether you’re using an agency or undertaking the recruitment yourself, you’re now ready to post your job. With all your groundwork done, you’re in the best place for employing the right person! Do ensure you take professional HR advice to help you through this process, and once on board, look after your staff to ensure their productivity!

If you need help managing workload or deciding whether to employ or subcontract, contact me for a Free Business Review. This is a genuinely free 2 hour session whereby I’ll come in and spend two hours giving you business advice for immediate implementation. Click here to arrange yours now.