If you want to have a small business where you can schedule jobs and work just when you want, that’s fine, but don’t expect to grow your business. By doing the work yourself, you are limited by the number of clients you can service each week. Be realistic about your business and the goals you have for it and yourself.
If you want to run your business and have others do the cleaning for you, then you will need to perfect the process if finding and hiring qualified workers. Hiring the wrong people could put your business in jeopardy by negatively impacting your clients by the quality of the work and customer service.
Finding and hiring the right employees for your business is a process. You will need to make sure your business is ready for workers. For instance, how will your current clients feel about having someone other than yourself do the cleaning? How will you ensure the quality of the work?
Once you hire the new employees, you’ll need a training and review program to ensure they are duplicating your procedures. This will also allow you to monitor their work and make adjustments along the way.
Your new workers will want to know how they are doing and they will expect a raise after they have worked for you for a while. How will you handle that?
Table of Contents
LOCATING CANDIDATES
The first step is to place an ad in your local classified ad in your local newspaper; use both the print and online versions. I found that using the Sunday or weekend edition worked best, which means you’ll start getting responses on Monday after the ad was placed.
Also consider:
- Let your personal network know you are recruiting. This can include friends, neighbors, relatives, colleagues in professional organizations, associates, vendors, and customers. You never know when someone will recommend a candidate!
- School placement offices at trade, vocational, colleges, and universities can be a good source of recruits. Check to see which of these have placement programs.
- Senior centers often have people looking for part-time or occasional work to bring in extra income.
- Check out employment agencies in your area for both temporary and permanent workers. Although they charge a fee, it could be worth it by saving you time.
- Use online sites that allow you to post your recruitment ad.
QUALIFIED CANDIDATES
It’s always easier to hire people who have experience doing the work you need done. Don’t make the mistake of hiring people on their experience alone. You still need to interview them to determine if they will be a good fit for your business.
Don’t waste your time interviewing people who will never be good workers for you. Good interviews can take up to an hour, so take a little time before that to ask the most important questions. Assess their responses and then make the decision to either let them know they are not a good fit or set a time for an in-depth interview.
Identify the type of person you are looking for, the type of experience you want, and the types of companies they have worked for in the past. For instance, you might want to create a document for each position in your company that details the job requirements:
- The physical and mental tasks that are needed for the position
- The reason the job exists and the goals for the position
- How the job will be done and the tools that are needed
- The qualifications that are needed to fill the position: knowledge, training, skills, and personality traits
This document can easily be used to do your pre-interview and provides you with all the information you need to determine if the candidate is worth taking the time to interview.
Hiring the wrong person just to fill a position could do your business more harm in the long run.
ONCE YOU FIND CANDIDATES
Finding the right employees for your business takes time and patience. Now that you have candidates, you need to interview them to determine if they are qualified to do the work and are a good fit for your business.
The best way to do this is to have a comprehensive list of questions that you use with everyone you interview. This makes your process consistent and ensures you don’t leave anything out. Print out the interview questions and write in the candidate answers during the interview. It’s really difficult to remember every interview you do, so having this list will assist you in making your decision. It’s also handy to save the list so you have it in the future when you are looking for workers again. You will have a built-in list of people looking for work that you can tap into before you start placing ads.
Don’t think that a candidate is the right one just because he/she has experience in the position you are filling. Once you know they are experienced, ask pin-pointed questions related to the job to ensure they know what they are doing and can work they way you need them to.
CONCLUSION
Finding and hiring the right employees for your business shouldn’t be taken lightly. It is a process that needs to be defined, documented, and made into a procedure that you use every time you go through the hiring process.
My Business-in-a-Box comes with an application form, interview questions and other employee-related forms that you will need to add workers to your business and manage them effectively. I have also created handy reports to help you get your business ready for workers, hiring and training, and managing workers.
For more information, be sure to read this post on advertising and interviewing.
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