FT Guide to Business Start Up 2012, 7th Edition

20

Getting the right staff

Deciding when to take on an employee is a delicate balancing act. On the

one hand, if you increase your stafng levels, you might not be able to

cover increased costs straight away. On the other hand, extra manpower

could free you to spend more time on other activities, such as marketing or

planning, which should, in the end, mean increased prots.

A useful rule of thumb for choosing the best time to increase your staff is

to ask yourself if you can generate enough extra sales to cover the cost of

taking on that extra employee. If you will not be able to increase your sales

straight away, you could still employ someone; but, in this case, you will

need to be able to keep your business going until you have been able to

build your sales up to the new level you need. It all sounds straightforward,

but in practice it is very tricky. It is like being on a seesaw. One step in the

wrong direction can tip the balance against you.

If you are clever enough, or lucky enough, to get your timing right, you

will not want to throw away your advantage by employing the wrong

person. The whole process can take several months, so nding you have

made a mistake and having to recruit again can throw your business off its

planned course. Nor should you underestimate the emotional problems of

getting rid of an unsuitable employee, which can unnerve the toughest of

businessmen or businesswomen and unsettle other employees.

What is in this chapter?

This chapter looks at how to recruit. It should help you to answer these

three questions:

20

n

Getting the right staff 223

1 Do I know what I’m looking for?

2 Will I recognize it when I see it?

3 Can I make sure that, if I offer the job, it will be accepted?

There are sections on the job that needs doing (p. 223), the employee you

want (p. 225), getting the right person to apply (p. 230) and interviewing

(p. 235). The cost of employing staff is covered on p. 239.

The job that needs doing

Before you plunge into adding that extra employee, look carefully at the

work to be done. It is very important to sort out in your own mind what the

job entails. Once you have done this you can dene the person you need.

If you fail to do this preparatory work, you might nd yourself employing

someone who is not capable of doing the work. This list of topics might

help you to organize your thoughts about the job:

■n

level of skill: when you decided you needed an extra pair of hands, was

it because you needed work done that you did not feel competent to

carry out yourself? Does the work require a special skill?

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training: if you have the skill to do the job, but not the time, would it

take a lot of training to employ someone without that particular skill

and teach them on the job? Would you have the time to carry out

that training?

■n

length of time: do you estimate that this extra work will need doing

for a long period of time? Or is it a temporary bulge? Watch out

for mistaking a backlog of work that can be cleared up quickly for a

permanent increase in activity.

■n

how much extra work: can you quantify how much time will need to be

spent by someone to carry out the work? Is it a full working week? Do

not assume that if you nd the work difcult and time-consuming,

because it is outside your range of skills, a skilled employee will take

as long.

■n

experience: do you think the job requires a lot of experience? Would the

employee need to be able to make independent judgements? Or is it

intended that the work will be closely directed by yourself or another?

■n

responsibility: how much responsibility will the employee have? Will

the employee be required to man the ofce alone? If the job is selling,

will the person be required to go out selling unsupervised? Will the