(FS8) Hiring, Training, and Other Staff Decisions in Your Business

Whether you’ve been a manager before or not, it’s time to get to know all the staff-related responsibilities that come with the title of business owner. It’s especially important to be aware of the list of responsibilities if you’ve never been a manager before. Everything comes down to your decisions making abilities and what you say to do. When problems arise your employees, customers, and suppliers will come to you for answers and guidance so it’s important that you are prepared. It will also be your job to train or to find someone to train your staff. Basically you are the oil that keeps all the gears running. So where do we start?

Hiring for Your Business

Talk to any HR representative or manager and they can assure you how not fun hiring is. As desperate as you may be for staff, you never want to just accept people to fill a space because what might seem like an easy answer now can turn into loads of problems later through lack of skill, poor reception of training, poor personality, or a number of other issues that cannot be predicted. Hiring should always be done thoughtfully and that includes reading over resumes and taking notes during the interview. This will all pay off in better customer service, better, increased profit, and a better reputation for your franchise. Having a better staff also presents you with less stress as a business owner.

Finding the Right Candidates

There are many steps you can take to find the right candidate. The most important quality at this point is resourcefulness and that’s something you can teach yourself to be by using your surroundings. If you’ve never been super resourceful before, it’s time to start. The labor market is tight. You’ll have to think of hiring through creative terms. You’ll have to put effort into finding the right person or people. You’ll have to try everything at least once and then probably a few more times just to find what works for you and your franchise.

As you prepare for the hiring process, here are some things to help plan:

• Have a general idea of how many employees you’ll need to work. You should do this during the build or the much earlier stages of planning. Talk to your franchisor if you’re unsure since they’ve opened many franchises before, they should be able to help you figure out what your needs are and how many people it takes to run your store.
• Write clear job descriptions for each position. Before you even think about employee hunting, you need to be sure you have a list of all the jobs you’re looking to fulfill and what their duties are. This isn’t just to inform them, but this helps you know what to look for in an employee. It will be increasingly hard to find someone to fill a role if you don’t know what that role does.

Once you’ve done these two things, it’s time to start spreading the word, but how?

• Word of mouth. Talk to people that you know even if they aren’t looking for a job. Tell them to talk to people they know who might be looking for a job and let them know what you have available. More often than not, people are either in the market for a new job or know someone who is.
• Begin a Referral Network. By giving employees a fun workplace, you start a referral network within your own business. Happy employees will refer other people who they trust and like to apply at your business. Often times, they will also refer strangers for business as well as employment.
• Recruit with Your Website. In today’s age, it’s incredibly important for most businesses to have a web page. This provides information to the consumers around the clock. Your website is also great for advertising jobs and accepting applications around the clock!
• Reach Out to the Community. Churches, local job centers, organizations, schools, and colleges often offer job resources of some kind. In fact, many colleges, schools, and organizations offer job fairs of some kind.
• Check the Classifieds. There are classified in the newspaper as well as various job-seeker and community websites where individuals post their resumes to be found by employers. There are also career websites like Linkdn, Career Builder, Craigslist, and Monster which are specific
• Take Advantage of Employment Agencies. There are many businesses out there that specialize in helping people find work. Some of them are more prestigious than others. You can seek the help of employment agencies where they will do initial screening for employees for you then either send them your way for a follow-up interview or they can direct hire for you.
• Host an Open House. You can contact local job seeker businesses, post fliers on career websites, and local community post-boards, and tell other people that you’re hosting an open house for jobs. This gives you the chance to blast through interviews by walk-in job seekers.

When you’re advertising jobs, make sure to make your advertising look enticing. If they look scary or stiff, you will receive fewer responses. Remember it will also be important to convey what the franchise holds as valuable in the way of philosophy. Your franchisor still has their rules over the logo and advertising and before you start the hiring process, you’ll want to ask about restrictions or requirements for hiring in their book. In addition, you want your advertisements for jobs to boast about how you stand out against the crowd, why people should want to work for you, and what you have to offer. Never underestimate a ‘fun’ workplace as a perk.

Continue Reading from The Franchise Series 8

• Different Legal Issues to Consider For Hiring in Your Franchise
• Successfully Interviewing For Your Franchise Business
• Things to Remember During Interviews at Your Franchise
• What Comes After the Interview in Your Franchise
• Being an Effective Leader for Your Franchise
• Training Your Team to Work in Your Franchise Efficiently
• Keeping the Employees You Want in Your Franchise
• Making Sure Your Franchise Follows OSHA Rules