If your business has experienced incredible growth recently, congratulations! This growth may signal the need to expand your business, but before you move too hastily to employ new team members, there is a lot you should consider.
Expanding your team can have a huge impact on your business model and the current employees who work within it. Therefore, you need to approach the process carefully and with great sensitivity, considering your current employee’s needs and re-assessing your business model.
If you’re looking to hire new team members, here is what you should think about beforehand to ensure you’re going about things the right way.
Evaluate your current team dynamic
Before you think about expanding your team, you should take stock of your business process and the people who are already working for you. Expanding your business will have a knock-on effect on your current employees, and you should ensure that you don’t neglect them or turn a blind eye to their needs.
For example, you may have certain employees who feel undervalued and are not enjoying their role. If you don’t address their concerns before you bring new people on board, you may tarnish your relationship with them and their loyalty to you may flounder.
What’s more, by assessing the current roles within your business and the people that own them, you may find that you don’t need to create a whole new role after all. By communicating with your current employees you may discover that you can effectively delegate tasks and split a new role across existing roles. By giving your current team members more responsibility you will make them feel valued. And, with the money, you will save on paying an additional salary you can reward your current employees with pay raises and bonuses. This is key for team morale, employee retention and business productivity.
Define your area of need
It’s crucial that you take the time to carefully consider the areas of your business where you require additional expertise and assistance before you start advertising for new recruits. Getting it wrong can hinder your business’ process, waste your precious resources, time and money, and leave you in a sticky situation.
Do you need an extra person to assist with administrative tasks? Do you need more salespeople to nurture leads and drive conversions? Do you need a digital marketing expert in-house instead of outsourcing your marketing needs to an external agency? Do you simply need someone to manage your growing office?
Having a clear vision of what exactly you need will is vital. If you’re unsure, take a step back and reassess in a few months’ time.
Leverage cloud-based recruitment technology
The modern-day business space is being reshaped by the digital revolution, and in turn, the recruitment process has become more advanced and yields better results.
If you are certain that you need to hire a new employee in your business, you must use cloud-based recruitment software. These advanced AI-enabled technologies incorporate applicant tracking, which helps to simplify the onboarding process. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) allow employers and recruitment managers to find, monitor and document employee records, and used within cloud-based software employers can connect with highly skilled individuals and nurture relationships with them, even before the mention of a job.
Cloud-based recruitment technology is Artificial Intelligence-powered, meaning that it can aggregate and analyse big data at high speed. This means that you can quickly sort through a great number of resumes to find candidates that are a match to your role. This process significantly alleviates your workload and boosts productivity.
The benefits of cloud-based recruitment software are aplenty. They improve interaction between you and potential job seekers; they save you time and increase your business’ productivity; they also help you to hire the right person, meaning your business performance improves.
If you want to hire the best experts in your industry, you need to give a background check for their overall experience, expertise and success ratio, Take an example of Workconex- a cloud-based recruitment software providers who work for both small and large scale of business.
Interview candidates more than once
The success of a business lies in its employees; the people that operate at the heart of a business have the power to determine its overall success. If you hurry through the hiring process you may offer a role to someone who is not 100% passionate about your business and is not committed to staying long-term.
To combat this, you should interview candidates more than once to really gauge their personality and their commitment to the role. They should share your business’ core values and should have a personality that will fit in well with your team. Sometimes, this can mean hiring the candidate who is perhaps less qualified or has less experience than another candidate. But, if they are eager to learn and grow, and are a better “fit”, they will add more value to your business.
It is recommended to conduct phone interviews before you invite a number of potential candidates in for a face-to-face interview. Then, before you offer a candidate the role, you should introduce them to other senior members of your team. Getting a second opinion is crucial.
Consider hiring interns
If you are not completely certain about how to best expand your business, consider hiring interns to help with the additional workload. This solution requires less commitment, as you can determine the length of the internships (2 – 4 weeks is the typical length). It also means that you don’t have to pay a full salary – you may only be required to cover expenses. What’s more, offering internships is a great way to give back to the community and offer young professionals valuable industry experience.
Conclusion
However exciting your business growth is, don’t rush into expanding it without careful consideration. It is greatly recommended that, as an employer, you take stock of your current team members – their needs and concerns – before you invite new team members in.
If you don’t approach the situation with objectivity and a clear vision, your business performance could seriously suffer.
