Flying solo for too long can mean the end of your business. No business grows by itself. Businesses are well-oiled machines that have people, infrastructure, and a set of systems working together to produce things or services of value, reports Small Business Trends. But hiring a staff to help your business grow can be one of the hardest things to do.
Here are four rules for hiring and building an effective team.
1. Think twice before hiring friends and family. Starting out, you may want to reach out to friends and family to minimize costs. These are also the people you trust. But the more important thing is to work with people who have the rights skills–and attitude–for the job. Not to mention that drama that could ensue should you have to fire a relative or lifelong buddy.
2. Write a good job description. A weak hiring process leads to mistakes that can be expensive. More the reason you need have thorough job descriptions in place to help pinpoint your needs. Not only does a candidate need a job description but other managers and coworkers within your company need them as well. They may have differing ideas on what is required for the position. Don’t assume everyone is on the same page.
3. Hire for the right attitude. Yes, skills are very important. But skills aren’t the only thing. Skills are what you use to weed out the candidate pool. Attitude is what you use to select the right person from among a pool of qualified candidates. And attitude is something that you can assess during the interview process. You want to make sure you are hiring problem solvers and not trouble makers.
4. Build your team with a vision, clarity of purpose, and training. Employees need to know what’s expected of them. They also need to see the big picture, the company’s vision. Most of all, they need positive reinforcement. Don’t always point out what’s wrong, instead of what employees did right. Recognition for a job well done goes a long way towards employee satisfaction and retention. You want your employees to feel needed and motivated.