Starting a Business? Don’t Forget About Your Employees!

Your new business venture can feel awfully lonely and empty if you don’t staff it with the right team members. Unless you have a business idea that can be solely run by yourself and the help of freelancers, you are going to need some employees. In fact, if you haven’t already gathered some interest from internet and local job listings, then you’re going a bit too fast with your new startup and you need to slow down before you crash and burn.

How to advertise positions

Make sure that you make a list of the available positions in your workplace. Do you need a receptionist? Perhaps you are looking for office works and administrators? Do you need a tech expert? What about a social media promotions expert?

As a startup that (probably) doesn’t have a lot of money, you need to make good use of flexible employees. Someone that does regular office work can also manage your social media accounts if they are internet-savvy, and many young workers are also great with tech and computers now and they can usually fix most common issues and even recommend new computer parts and equipment for your business. It’s these types of employees that are the most valuable for a business because not only are they hard working, motivated and flexible, they also have great capacity to grow into senior members of staff over the course of a few years that will become the founding pillars of your business when you grow from being a startup to a full-sized business.

What to look for during an interview

You can’t expect to recruit people with years of experience. Although it makes sense to hire experienced staff members, if you aren’t experienced at running a small business then what qualifies you to be running a business where the team is skilled but the boss isn’t? You’ll get hundreds of potential employees if you loosen the requirements to work for you and take in graduates and undergraduates. Most of the time, these people with less experience are more motivated to succeed and impress you so that they can get a good start on the career ladder of their choice.

Look for people that are enthusiastic and smart about the questions you ask them. Try not to ask any obvious questions such as “Why do you want to work here?” because it’s rather obvious—they want a job to improve their skills and advance their career.

Managing your employees

A small business doesn’t have the resources, money or space to hire human resources staff. As a result, it’s crucial that you monitor your team with performance management services and software. It’s a self-sufficient method that doesn’t rely on too much money, and you can learn how to manage your employees which will help you decide how to manage human resources in the future.

It’s also important that you keep an eye on their progress and give them enough space to work, think and advance their careers. Don’t look over their shoulder all the time and peer at their work, believe that they’ll give you good results and trust your employees to do the job you hired them to do!