The old saying goes that there is never a right time, but to me that also means there is never a wrong time either. I have a rule of thumb to work to when timing the hiring of a new staff member.
You will only know this when you realise that you need more help. Things are getting busy or getting missed and an additional person would alleviate the situation. This doesn’t mean you are have enough work to keep them busy the whole time, but that there is more than you and your current team can handle right now.
It is usually not whether or not you have the work for a new staff member that worries business owners, it is more whether or not you can afford them. This is where my rule of thumb comes into play.
I think that if you can afford at least half of their salary, then they will either make or create the other half by saving you time or increasing productivity as a business or simply having another set of hands to get more done. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is that it frees YOU up so that you can find new ways of bringing or creating more business.
If you are nervous, there are a couple of things you can do.
- Hire someone casual or part time to begin with and then work your way up to full time.
- Make sure that you actually have work for them to do. Sometimes we hire a new staff member when really what we needed to do as the business owner was look at the business and discover inefficiencies to correct first.
- Save up and put aside money to cover their wage for the first month they are with you. That way they don’t have to be making you money from day 1 and you know you can cover their wage.
- Do your numbers and work out how many ‘extra’ sales you need to make to cover their wage. If you know what you need to do, then you will know if you can afford them or not.
The biggest thing is, if you do hire a new staff member, especially if you do so because you are frantically busy, then make sure you take the time to induct them right, otherwise they will never be as efficient or productive as you need and would like. It is too easy to hire someone in a rush and then not train them properly and then think it is their fault. The fault lies with you. It will mean taking extra time when you have little spare, but it will save you a lot in the future.
Take the time to hire, make sure you hire the best possible person and then train them up. If you do these things and you will have more success. Do your numbers and have allowances in your cashflow to cover wages.
