Hiring new employees is one of the most exciting parts of running your own business. Best case scenario, it means you’re growing your operation and need more hands on deck in order to handle such high demand. Worst case, you’ve lost one of your current employees and now you have the opportunity to recruit and bring some new talent to your team. But with the exciting prospect of hiring a new employee comes expense after expense after expense. In fact, hiring and training new staff is one of the most expensive tasks you’ll encounter as a small business owner.
While you always want to maximize your budget, you won’t want to cut corners if it means you end up hiring a less desirable employee, or if it means you can’t train them according to your high standards. With that said, there are some creative ways you can minimize hiring and training expenses while still maintaining high expectations. Let’s dive in.
#1 Use free and paid job boards
Thanks to the internet, finding and posting jobs is easier than ever before. In fact, there are dozens of options to choose from! When you have a job available, it’s a good idea to utilize a combination of free and paid job boards. Perhaps list on as many free sites as possible—Craigslist is one option—and then consider listing a sponsored ad on a job board to expand your audience.
#2 Do background checks
Bad employees can have several negative impacts on your business. Your business might experience a dip in efficiency if the employee is underperforming, or you might have to deal with graver consequences like stolen merchandise or funds if you end up hiring a particularly bad egg. One way to protect yourself from facing the financial repercussions and headaches of hiring a bad employee is to conduct background checks before making any hiring decisions. This way, you can evaluate an individual’s criminal history, past employment, and review any potential red flags that may impact the integrity of your business.
One reason employers choose not to do background checks is because they think it will add a lot to their hiring expenses, but that’s a myth. There are no subscription background check services that allow you to run background checks on a case by case basis, rather than having to pay a monthly or annual fee when you only intend to hire one new staff member. When you compare the financial implications of hiring an unfit employee to the cost of running periodic checks, the value is obvious.
#3 Rethink your interview process
Finding the right candidate should take time, but not so much so that it’s regularly affecting your business’s productivity. Instead of having applicants come in for multiple rounds of interviews with many staff members, consider establishing some screening procedures to help you weed out applicants before you end up wasting time with excessive interviews. Try a phone or video screening to get the ball rolling!
In addition, you may also want to spend more time reviewing resumes so that you don’t wind up bringing in inexperienced candidates.
#4 Create more efficient training procedures
It’s not only the hiring process that takes up precious resources! Training time can also be a time and money-sucker. While it’s important to get some face time with your new staff, you might think about how you can build a training program that’s more efficient and effective for you and your employees.
One idea is to use a video training software platform to record training videos for staff to learn with. This saves you time and is a great resource for them to refer back to when they need refreshers!
#5 Put a stop to employee turnover
Employee turnover is so expensive because hiring and training is expensive. So why not start from the root of the problem and focus on retaining employees in the first place? Employees want to work at a place where they feel supported, valued, and happy, so make it a point to do so. To gain insight into their perspective, start by conducting an anonymous employee survey where staff members can voice their comments and concerns, and ultimately, hear how you plan to address them. This will make them feel heard and validated, and hopefully, keep them there for as long as possible!
Final notes
Hiring employees is an important step in growing your business, use these tips to help you hire excellent employees without blowing your annual budget.
