Business growth is a fantastic thing. It means you have more opportunities to earn more money, to expand your business practices, and to find new clients and customers. Growth begets more growth, which means your business is doing well.
However, growth can be a double edged sword. While your business is growing, it’s also getting more complicated and difficult to manage. With more clients comes more demand, and unchecked growth that you don’t plan for can lead to collapse as your business is unable to support it.
In this case, you might consider hiring more employees to lessen the workload and allow your business to continue growing. But before you make your first hire, you should plan ahead.
Other Options
Hiring an employee is a commitment. Employees cost money, both in salary and in insurance and other extra costs. You also might need to train an employee, as even if they’re qualified, there are often teething errors as they get settled in. This means that productivity might not jump up as much as you’d like.
In many situations, this investment of time and money is a necessary one and it can be incredibly beneficial when it pays off. But sometimes there are options other than hiring new people.
If you don’t want to hire new employees, your company might still be able to manage a measure of growth if you make your current workforce more productive.
AI technology can cut down on certain workloads, especially if you need someone to do repetitive, simple tasks. AI might be able to do these tasks more efficiently and more cheaply, allowing your employees to handle other jobs.
If your company is experiencing a temporary boost in demand, it might be helpful to hire a freelancer or someone on a temporary contract to improve productivity for a short time, without the commitment of hiring a full employee.
You can also improve your communication skills and change how the work environment is managed to allow your employees to work more efficiently.
If you have employees, it can be helpful to ask them how they would streamline their workflow. You don’t have to take on board all of their suggestions, but it can be helpful to learn what they have to deal with and how they would solve these issues.
Defining Your Role
While it’s not always necessary, sometimes hiring an employee is the best option for your business. In this case, focus on talent acquisition rather than simply trying to find a warm body to fill a gap.
Look at hiring as an investment, not an emergency measure to manage some extra work. This means that you have to be considerate about who you hire and why you need to hire them.
So, define the role you need to be filled. This helps you determine exactly what skills and qualifications you need from the applicants, and it also makes it easier to work out a fair wage for the task.
Sorting Through Applications
If you have a well-defined role, the next step is to write a job description and post it where people can see it. The job description should be clear and concise, so people know exactly what you expect from them and what they can expect from your company and the job role.
You may receive a lot of applications. As mentioned before, hiring is an expensive process, and it’s time-intensive as well. One way to streamline this process is to use an AI screening tool to work through the resumes and find the options that are most suitable for the role.
Think about requirements and preferences. If the role requires certain qualifications, the AI screening tool can get rid of any applications that don’t show those qualifications. This massively cuts down on the amount of CVs and resumes that you will have to read yourself.
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
One common piece of advice is to hire slow and fire fast. Because hiring is so expensive, it pays to really make sure you have the right people for the job. Once you’ve whittled down the applications, you can move onto interviewing different candidates.
During the interview process, try to learn about their experiences and how the applicants work and solve problems. Once you’ve found someone you like, consider a probationary period to let them settle in with the work and the team.
If someone isn’t a good fit for the company, be honest and fair. Give them time, but don’t be afraid to let them go at the end of the probationary period.
