How to hire your first employees?

Written by Razi Uddin, and Faizan Abdul Khaliq

Whenever a new business starts the entrepreneur is the only person who is working on all aspects of the business or maybe the founding members if the business is started by more than one individual. Once the business is in place, hiring employees to perform certain tasks is done to ensure smooth business operation, and every business, whatever its nature may be, requires employees to keep performing in the growth phase otherwise there is a significant chance that the business growth may stagnate, and eventually decline without the venture ever reaching its potential.

Things may vary depending on the nature of the business but generally, a business that operates on the storefront or brick, and mortar model will require a market presence with a physical shop location, and store requires sales staff, cashiers, etc. generally a basic store has a single owner who operates the whole business expansion leads to the hiring of an employee to look after the store in the absence of the owner, and the model may change in case of larger stores with multiple salespeople, and cash handling, and billing people.

Businesses that operate on the online model may not require employees upfront, and they may be able to operate for a longer period under sole operation by the owner since the physical presence at a location is not required.

• Hiring the first employee
• When hiring an employee, the entrepreneur must
• Know the budget available, and number of job positions required
• Assess whether they need a single person to perform multiple job roles or whether to hire multiple people for specialized roles

Generally, when the first employee is hired the business has not taken off, and budget constraints are present it is advisable to hire an employee who may be paid well but can perform expertly in multiple roles. For example, instead of managing only material purchasing the person should be able to oversee the end to end operations including HR or instead of just acting as head of sales he must be able to perform as head of marketing, and business development as well.

In the case of shop fronts, the person must be capable enough to perform multiple tasks required in the store. In the case of online businesses, the employee must be able to perform all technology-related tasks in addition to the basic operations of the business.

Qualities to seek in an employee

The first rule of startup hiring is to never hire an employee with no experience in your line of work or in the task you want to be performed by them. You are hiring an employee to make your work easier, this means you already have little time to spare so you won’t be able to train them extensively, and would want them to start delivering almost instantly. In case of a fresh hire this would not be the case they would require to be trained, and while they are learning the tasks the workload of the entrepreneur increases as he has to perform all the tasks in addition to training the employee. A fresh employee can also underperform therefore may incur a hidden cost to the business.

It is important to do cost-benefit hiring, hire someone who can perform multiple roles, and be able to multitask. This will provide an edge as a startup cannot afford to hire multiple persons, and getting the most out of a single person will benefit the business greatly. Sometimes paying a person slightly higher pay will get you the tasks done for two people at the price of 1.25 persons.

Whenever hiring a full-time employee ensure that this job is their bread and butter, and they are not working elsewhere after hours or have a supplementary job or venture. This may sound obnoxious but working at a startup is hectic, and employees may be required to put in extra hours, work late, come early, and any person who is not invested fully in the venture will find it hard to give time to all parallel ventures, and your business will suffer due to their underperformance.

Part-time employees

When hiring part-time workers which would certainly be the case when the business is in its early stages, and full-time employees cannot be afforded the part-time employee must have a pre-decided work schedule where they are available to you for a pre-decided number of full days. Half days might work for some roles while not for others. You can afford a part-time accountant but a part-time salesperson is not usually feasible. Business support related tasks like HR, purchasing, accounting can be managed initially by the part-time staffers. The roles and responsibilities must be predefined, and the amount of time, and performance management indicators must also be decided for part-time employees at the start of their employment to ensure that business does not suffer due to their status as a part-time employee.

Part-time or full-time employee versus the task outsourced

It is also necessary to see if it is necessary to hire a person part-time for a job or could the job be outsourced for a lesser cost. For example, hiring an accountant may be expensive as compared to an accounting firm handling your accounting for example hiring an accountant may be expensive as compared to an accounting firm handling your accounting for you.

How to hire candidates

There are multiple options for hiring the required talent. Head hunters can be used, LinkedIn, social media networking, websites like OLX also provide platforms for job seekers, and employers to find each other free of cost, referrals from within social circles can also be used these are the most common ways for looking up talent as a startup. If you cannot find your required talent through these ways, poaching talent from the competition can be done. This will provide you with an experienced individual who is aware of the job role, and the sector as well. This requires identifying, and having a personal interaction with the intended talent that has to be poached, and persuade them to join you.

In the case of small businesses for example a cosmetics shop owner who requires a salesman can hire a salesman working for another shop in the same or different market by personally approaching them. These personal calls may provide you with the required person or get a referral of a person who is equally experienced, and willing to switch.

Whenever hiring, assess the employee on the skills, and credentials required as well as their suitability to your way of operating business, and your work culture. Market reputation is generally available for most people, and it is not difficult to know their professional standing in the market, and it is suggested to research the candidate before finalizing the hiring.

Retaining employees

Startups cannot afford high employee turnovers yet most startups have employees leaving rapidly. To retain employees, it is difficult being a startup to be able to offer the best compensation in the market but employees can be retained by motivation and engagement. Providing frequent motivation, and engagement as well as development opportunities to engage, and provide them with a sense of belonging with the organization will foster loyalty. Their pay can be designed to offer target based bonuses or commissions to motivate them to perform and meet the targets required.

Salaries can also be designed to account for certain allowances that will motivate the employee to perform the required tasks. For example, giving a fuel allowance to a sales employee will be a good investment since now you can require him to travel over long distances within his assigned area without him complaining of fuel expenses.

Turning employees into assets

It is important to have your employees invested in the success of the venture. Employees who won’t be impacted by the loss in business will never be a true asset since they will not have a stake in the good or bad of the company. Employees who share the same level of ownership to the business as the owner will result in them investing all efforts for the betterment of the venture.

At the end of the day, the owner of the business cannot run the operation successfully without the support of the employees. The employees with the right credential who are the proper fit within the unit will provide the impetus required for growth and business development.