How to hire staff for your business

There comes a point for many business owners when they can’t manage to do everything themselves and they need to employ staff. 

Taking on someone to deal with day-to-day tasks is a common reason for making your first hire. It’s the initial step in building a workforce and a key element in growing a business.

As your business grows, hiring the right staff with specialist skills can help you generate more customers and operate in new markets.

Recruiting people into your business has many positives, but growing a team isn’t without its challenges.

Finding the right individuals, complying with employment law and working out how much you can pay are among the issues you need to tackle.

Who do you need to hire?

Before hiring someone, you must work out why your business needs them. 

If you're employing someone to handle basic admin such as email, answering phone calls and managing meetings, does it, for example, need to be a full-time or part-time role?

If you've identified a need for more specialist skills such as sales, marketing and IT, think about the exact requirements you're looking for in your ideal employee.

You must then make sure you have enough money to pay them. 

Consider different scenarios, such as full-time, part-time and fixed contract staff, and calculate how much you need to pay, factoring in National Insurance and pension contributions as well as National Minimum Wage/National Living Wage requirements and any training costs. 

Work out how much additional revenue your company will generate with the extra resource the new employee provides.

As a start-up, you may not be able to match the salaries of bigger competitors. 

But consider what other benefits you can offer to attract employees. 

That might include days off on their birthday, social events, access to technology or equity in your business.

How to find potential recruits

You have several options for finding employees, including using professional agencies or handling the process yourself.

• Recruitment agencies - Using a recruitment agency can be effective as it saves time and effort. However, it will be more expensive than doing it yourself, which can be an issue for start-ups with limited budgets.
• In-house recruitment - If you decide to handle recruitment yourself, a cost-effective method uses the professional online network LinkedIn. You can connect with potential recruits using a free profile and post vacancies in the website's jobs section. You can also advertise roles on other online jobs boards and post on Twitter and Facebook using relevant hashtags. Many people are keen to work with innovative start-ups so use social media content to communicate your company culture. Link to an eye-catching, search engine optimised page on your website that communicates why your business is one worth joining.

Encourage existing staff, family, friends and other contacts to share your social media posts with their connections. 

You could offer a referral fee if someone introduces you to a candidate who you end up employing.

Other ways to find staff include placing adverts in local newspapers, attending business networking events and exhibiting at university and college jobs fairs.

How to interview candidates

Once you've drawn up a shortlist of potential employees from the candidates who've applied, you'll then need to interview them.

An initial phone or video call could help to narrow down your shortlist. 

Face-to-face interviews should take place somewhere quiet. 

If you don't have your own office, meeting in a co-working space or a cafe are among your options. 

But make sure it's a place where you or the candidate won't be distracted by the surroundings.

Prepare for the interview by thoroughly reading the candidate's CV or application. 

Draw up a list of standard questions that you'll ask everyone, and score each answer - such as rating previous experience or aptitude for the role - so you can fairly and consistently compare interviews across candidates.

Ask open-ended questions that give you an insight into the candidate's skills and experience and how suitable they are for the position in your business. 

Try not to lead the candidate - be sure to listen carefully to their answers and don't interrupt.

It's a good idea to have someone else with you during the interview so they can take notes and you can focus on listening to the candidate. 

If that's not possible, take notes yourself.

After an interview, you may want to conduct second interviews for shortlisted candidates or ask them to complete a test.

Be clear how soon you'll get back to the candidate with a decision. 

Remember that they're likely to be applying for other jobs, and your business may miss out on a good employee if you seem disorganised and uncommunicative.