Congratulations!  Your business is growing and you are now in need of a quality employee to help you with the increases in work load, sales and fulfillment of your product or service.  Should you just put an ad in the paper or post on-line somewhere to find your first employee?  Should you ask your network for referrals?  All of these methods are good options to help you, however, before you do, there are several suggestions we have for making sure you attract and retain the best employee possible.  With this in mind, we asked Beth Smith, Owner of A-list Interviews and a business associate of StaffScapes to add some of her thoughts as well and we thank her for her contributions. Here are the 8 key things you need to know about hiring your first employee: 

1. Determine what skills your new employee should have.  What job functions will they be performing and what soft skills will they need to be a good fit with your management style? “Dream BIG. This is your opportunity to think outside the box about your company’s needs.”
2. Write down all of the job tasks you plan this person to do.  Create a job description from this list. 
3. Take the key functions from the description and use these to draft your job placement ad.
4. Develop a list of interview questions.  Ask the same questions of every candidate that you interview.  Make sure the questions are centered around the job duties as well as questions regarding your mission, vision, values and ethics. “Make sure that you listen. Interview questions are important, but not nearly as important as the applicants’ responses.”
5. Prepare a manual for orientation that reviews all of your policies and procedures, including those that are required by State and Federal regulations.
6. Use a check-list for your orientation.  Make sure key areas are identified such as expectations, company culture, lunch rules, office hours etc.  Use this as well to keep track of action items you have such as key or uniform distribution.
7. Create a follow-up system for evaluating your new employee.  Review their performance more frequently in the first six months to provide input and guidance on small tweaks that can be made to improve if necessary their abilities.  This also helps to provide information for a formal yearly review and ensures that surprises won’t occur when you meet to review performance.
8. Plan incentive opportunities or team building by rewarding your employee with small tokens of appreciation.
 
By planning ahead, your search for a quality employee should be easier and the results will be better.  According to Ms. Smith, “a well executed interview process can be the key to finding the right person the first time.”