Thursday, January 3, 2008

Hiring People

Whew! You are now ready to hire people for your business - and, admit it, it IS exciting especially for new business owners. Hiring people means that your business is on the right track, and business owners can no longer handle the load of the business by themselves. Sales are skyrocketing and time is not a luxury anymore because business owners are always on the go. Hiring people for your business is inevitable, and doing it the right way is very important.

Whether you are hiring a personal assistant, secretary, service crew, manager and others, you have to think beyond the position that needs to be filled. You also have to think of the person’s ability to deal with other people - meaning, their Attitude. Some business owners fail to recognize that, yes, it is important that employees should be best in what they do, but the problems begin when employees cannot work well with other people because of bad attitudes. Basically, you are hiring people to do work for you, and not for you to solve their issues.

Hiring people, therefore, should be done with extreme deliberation. Here are some possible qualities that you may want your employees to have:

  1. Flexible Schedule
    Business hours can be very unpredictable, depending on the type of business. Basically, your employee should be able to cope with changing schedules that may arise in some cases.

  2. Flexible Personality
    An employee, no matter what position they have, should have a sociable personality. The business can be quite demanding at times, and employees should be able to cope with that.

  3. Multi-tasking
    When you hire people for the first time, you do not normally hire ten people at a time, especially if your business is still relatively new. That is why it is important that employees should be able to have the ability to multi-task when necessary.

  4. Quick Learner
    An employee should be able to learn every duty and responsibility that comes with the position effectively and quickly. Of course, there might be a big learning curve, depending on the business and business owner.

  5. Work History
    Do not take their word for it. If possible (actually, it is necessary), do a background check. An employee who is late frequently, has a habit of absenteeism, does not work well with other employees, and so on and so forth, will not be very good for your business. It may be a minor inconvenience to do a little research on possible employees, but what would you rather have?

  6. Ability to work with little or no supervision and to use own judgment
    Since business owners will not always be present to deal with all sorts of day-to-day business dealings and transactions, an employee should be able manage their responsibilities without them and make judgment calls when necessary.

  7. Management Traits
    You might think that only managers should have this trait but think again - some aspects of a business requires being in-charge of certain duties and responsibilities to accomplish goals, whether the employee is a manager or a janitor.

  8. Organizational Traits
    With the variety of work to be done, a good employee should also have organizational traits. This will ensure that they can effectively prioritize and make decisions proficiently and swiftly.

  9. Confidence
    A good employee should be attentive of their own and other people’s needs, and should stand firm on the decisions they made. Consequently, it is important that they posses confidence in the decision and the work that they do.

  10. Customer Service Proficiency
    Employees, regardless of the position they hold, will be assisting a diverse set of customers,. Therefore, they should have the ability to interact in such a way that they can provide the best possible service in a timely manner - and in a way that the customer will feel that they are the only customer in the world.
Business owners should understand that hiring people is like having a business partner. They should share the same passion for the business that you operate since both parties will be spending a lot of time together running it.

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