Ask Our Expert – A Common Hiring Question

“I need to hire some help, but I don’t have time to train them and bring them up to speed. How can I find someone who can be productive day one?”

Bringing on a new employee requires time: time to find, time to orient and train and time to supervise along the way. If enough time is not spent in the hiring phase finding the right person, more time will undoubtedly be spent in the training phase.

You cannot eliminate all ‘after hire’ training but you can significantly reduce it if you spend a little time preparing for it. For the purpose of this question, I’ll assume you have enough reoccurring revenue to keep the person once you bring them on board.

First, define very specifically what this individual will do. What experience will they need to come with and what skills will they need to be proficient in? Have a written job description that will convey your expectations of their attributes and on-the-job performance.

Next, create a brief manual of your operational practices; policies for dealing with clients, communicating and reporting expectations, quality and speed of work performed, etc. This manual does not have to be huge; it just needs to cover the main areas of operation as you would do them.

Finally, set up a system of daily communications. An on-line system would work best. After each job, your employee can report back to you about how the appointment went and any issues that arose. This gives you the ability to counsel your employee on a solution or get involved yourself.

With the right employee and getting prepared in the areas outlined above, you’ll have the best chance of putting them to work, unsupervised, at the earliest opportunity.

Your new employee will be going through some changes as they get use to you and how you expect them to work. You will also need to change from the person doing the work to the person ‘overseeing’ the work to be done. As requests come in, follow this approach and you’ll learn to migrate over to a supervisory mindset:

1. Who can I get to do this?
2. If no who can do it, who can I train to do this?

Keep your employee’s day full, even if yours are not. This way, you can get back to the marketing that brought you here and start looking for your next employee.

Steve Smith is a business coach who specializes in helping small businesses come up with a plan to succeed. To visit his site, click here.