As your business expands it is likely that you will need to employ people to work within your business. Quite apart from the statutory responsibilities that you will have as an employer, you will also have to manage your staff to ensure that they are efficient and effective. The first obstacle you will need to overcome is to make sure that you employ the right person for the job.For the first-time employer, the process of recruitment and selection can be fraught with danger. Employing the wrong person for the job can do significant damage to a small business. You may have already built up a good reputation for your work, all of which can be lost overnight by engaging a new employee without your own high standards.
Recruitment And Selection
As soon as you have identified the need for a new employee you must consider carefully the recruitment and selection process. To gain the right employee for the job you first need to establish a number of factors concerning the job itself. For example:
- What exactly will the job entail?
- Are any special skills involved?
- What type of knowledge will be required?
- What sort of personal characteristics will the employee need?
- How much supervision will the employee require?
- What will be the working conditions, place of work, hours, etc.?
- How much will the employee be paid?
Once you have considered all of the factors relating to the job you can then write a formal job description, together with the terms and conditions of employment.
Writing A Job Description
This is an area where most business owners employing for the first time fall down. The job description that they write is bland and meaningless. Often, all it does is outline what is to be done in the job rather than what the employee is expected to achieve. Consider the following example:
Ask yourself the question – does this really tell the potential employee what I expect of them? Of course it does not! Each of the stated duties is ambiguous, for instance, what does ‘deal with incoming faxes’ mean? Does it mean take them from the machine and pass them to the owner? Or perhaps it means the employee should formulate and send a response?
You must think through the job description carefully because it will form the basis of the contractual relationship between you and the employee. If you establish from the outset
what you want the employee to achieve in working for you there can be no doubts later.
Methods Of Recruitment
There are a number of methods of recruitment that you can use such as:
- newspaper advertisements
- careers services
- recruitment agencies
- The Employment Service and Job Centre.
If you are a first-time employer I would suggest that you use the final option, your local Employment Service. They are likely to have a pool of people that will fit your requirements. In addition, the Employment Service can help you in many other ways. They can assist with:
- establishing a suitable job description
- defining the terms and conditions of employment
- setting the right wage or salary for the job
- making a suitable selection
- financial incentives to you as the employer.
In the latter case, if you employ someone who is currently unemployed and who meets various criteria, it is likely that some form of financial incentive to employ that person will be available. In general, this will involve a payment to cover part or all of the new employee’s wages for a period of six months. In return you will have to provide an agreed training programme to the new member of staff.