Your organization is growing. Maybe, you have more work than you can handle. Maybe you are passing up projects because you don’t have enough manpower to take them on. If you find yourself in either of these precarious positions, it may be time to consider bringing in a new employee.
Let’s take a look at how you can decide if you should hire and how to select the right employee.
What Are Their Responsibilities
The first thing you need to examine is what roles you want this new employee to handle. Most importantly, take a long and honest look at what needs to be done. You need to know what duties you will be comfortable handing off to a new team member. For example, if you have spent years developing a thriving social media community and it has become your baby, are you really going to be comfortable letting someone else oversee this project? Or, will it be too hard for you to let go of those responsibilities?
What Will It Cost
The cost of a new employee comes down to more than their salary. Most employees will need some sort of training. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it cost over $1400 a year to train a single employee. You also have to account for additional, inevitable expenses like the loss of available space and new equipment for the new team member. When all is said and done, it can cost 1.5 – 3.5 × the employee’s salary to completely bring in someone new to the organization.
Productivity is also a cost worth considering. It can take about five months for an employee to hit their stride in reach the point where they have maximized their productivity.
What Skills Do They Need
Now comes the point where you really need to have the job description clearly laid out. You need to take a look at each of the tasks you want the employee to perform and decide what skills they need to have right off the bat and what skills you are willing to help them to develop. It is often a better practice to take the employee that has the soft skills you are looking for and then invest the time and effort into helping them develop the hard skills. Consider hiring an advertising writer. Obviously they are going to need to know how to write and proofread. Knowing the fundamentals of advertising is also important for this position. Excellent communication and problem solving skills are a must, as they will be working with clients.
You can train a new employee to develop proper writing mechanics and advertising fundamentals. However, communication and problem solving skills are much harder to train. They are critical, and either you have them or you don’t.
Will They Fit with the Team
Here is another example the importance of intangibles and soft skills. Having a team that is cohesive and clicks together is very important. The new person has to be a good fit with the personality of the group. Is the group typically buttoned up with a hard-nosed, down to business approach? Or, do you work in a more relaxed, laid-back atmosphere where a sense of humor is important for rolling with the punches and gelling with the team?
These are just some of the aspects you need to consider when thinking about a new employee. Also remember, although it’s a lot to think about in the beginning, having an extra hand on deck can really be the key to taking your business to the next level.