As your business develops and expands, it’s only natural that you will need to hire employees. Hiring employees is the next step for company growth, as an extra person or people allows you to take on more customers and work more efficiently. Employees can also introduce new skills to your company so that you can expand in another direction.

However, an employee is an investment. The wrong employee can have minimal impact on your productivity and profits, but a substantial negative impact on your company funds. As well as paying their wages, you must also manage your employee and deal with employment laws in your area.

This means that hiring the right employee is vital. Here’s how you can make sure that you find the ideal candidate for your needs.

Define Your Needs

Unless you know exactly what you expect from an employee, they will always fall short. If you don’t know what you need your employee to deliver, then you can’t communicate that to them. This isn’t fair to your employees and it isn’t good for your organization.

You need to define the roles and responsibilities that you need your employee to fill before you even consider hiring anyone. If you know what you need, then you know what kind of employee you want. If that role requires certain qualifications or levels of experience, then you know what you’re looking for from the get-go. 

Defining your needs also means that you can determine whether you need to hire an employee or outsource a task instead. Outsourcing a specific task can be cheaper and easier than taking on an employee, and you can get professional service as and when needed. For example, outsourced payroll services can help you to manage existing and future employees. 

Hire Slow, Fire Fast

One principle that can help you to build a good team is to “hire slow and fire fast.” This might sound harsh, but it can be better for the company and the candidate alike. Once you know who you need to hire, then you can determine an appropriate pay and advertise the job opening for potential candidates.

Be selective with your candidates. Rather than hiring the first applicant who comes along, sort through CVs and remove any that don’t have the skills or qualifications that you need for your role. After you know which applicants to consider, you can move on to the interviewing stage.

Interviewing isn’t easy, but it’s primarily about getting a good grasp on what kind of person the applicant is and what they bring to the table. As well as necessary skills, focus on “soft skills” that can make them more flexible in the workplace. The interview stage is also a good time to determine how well the employee suits your company and vice versa.

The second part of that adage, to “fire fast” doesn’t mean that you don’t give employees a learning curve or time to settle in. But if it’s clear that a role isn’t working out, then its best for everyone involved to move in new directions.