A business cannot grow without hiring and training employees. Additionally, particular hires don’t always work out, necessitating well-defined firing policies that benefit the company and contribute to its expansion.
Gauging when it’s time to hire, fire, or train employees can be extremely difficult. That’s why we advocate for the establishment of clear policies at the outset, which will help any business owner or HR manager in making these determinations.
When to Hire More Employees
Several indicators reveal it is time to take on employees. Here are seven of them:
1. Your existing staff cannot handle their existing workload.
If your company is selling more than it can service, it’s time to hire more staff rapidly. This may be a seasonal need or you may need to start new, permanent employees as soon as possible.
2. You are ready to expand the company into areas in which you are not expert.
Many companies begin by offering one or two products/services, then expand into areas with which the business owner is less familiar. When this happens, you need to hire some experts either as consultants or as full-time employees to ensure the new operation runs smoothly.
3. You are ready to delegate.
Many small business owners start out as a sole proprietorship, but as they expand they need to manage more and more. If you have been doing everything from managing Quickbooks to selling your product and you just don’t have time to get to everything - it’s time to do two things. First, automate any everyday tasks you can and second, hire someone to help.
4. You have hired more than one freelancer to do the same job.
If you have built your business on subcontracted work, it may be time to hire a full-time employee if you have to manage multiple freelancers whom all do similar work on various projects.
For example, if a website design company has three freelancers building out web pages, it’s time to hire someone who can do the work full time. This will free up the business owner’s time and may ultimately cost less than managing three freelancers.
5. The quality of your product or service is suffering.
Doing a rush job may work once in a while, but if your company is rushing through projects to service all of your customers, quality control is going to go out the window. As soon as you see team leads having to manage multiple rush jobs, it’s time to give them the support they need by hiring more employees.
6. Vital staff have moved on.
No matter how much we wish our most vital employees would stay with us, some will inevitably leave eventually. Once this happens, you will need to decide whether you need to hire a replacement or promote someone from inside your company to the newly open position. Either way, you will likely need to take on a new member of staff.
7. There is too much work and not enough staff.
Most new hiring comes down to there being too much work to do and not enough staff to do it. If this is the case with your business, it’s time to bring on new employees.
If any of the above circumstances occur, it’s crucial to have hiring policies in place, as well as a defined role which the new employee can fill.
Do Your Employees Need Training?
Most businesses make the mistake of not providing employee training. Often, the day-to-day business takes up the full workday and no time is provided for studying seminars, classes, or new training manuals.
This is a mistake, as employee training increases job satisfaction, reduces turnover, and improves staff ability to innovate and adapt to new technologies. Additionally, when a vital employee leaves the company, it may be possible to fill that person’s role from within the firm.
Determining which employees need job training most is vital to this process. Here are five signs that your team leads should look out for:
1. Low productivity
Areas of your business that seem always to be busy, but aren’t performing well should be reviewed. Training will almost always be needed, though there may be other issues that need to be resolved such as poor leadership or incorrect processes.
2. Nonstandardized ways of doing the same process
If your business has specific procedures that need to be applied, it can be jarring to see twelve people doing the same thing, twelve different ways. If this is occurring, it’s essential to discover the most efficient way of achieving the goal and imparting this knowledge to the whole team. Additionally, if one person seems to have improved on the standardized method, it may be time to improve the process overall and get the entire team updated.
3. New developments have been made in their area of expertise
Technology is constantly changing, which is why employee training is so important. Ensure your staff specialists are keeping up-to-date with the latest in their area of expertise.
4. Employees hired for a job seem unable to apply their knowledge
Some employees are trained for a job through college programs, boot camps, or independent study, yet seem unable to utilize all of the information they have. In this case, establishing an apprenticeship can be extremely useful both to the employee and to your business.
5. There are noticeable gaps in shared skillsets
Every office has shared skillsets in the use of specialty equipment or of email applications. However, if some action is continuously not getting done, it’s possible that no one is trained on how to do it.
Getting and keeping your employees up to speed on company procedures, updated technology, and more will serve your business and customers. So, be sure to consider setting aside quarterly training time to keep your company working competitively.
When Should You Fire an Employee?
Firing a member of your team comes with risks, but may ultimately be beneficial to your company. This is why it’s imperative to have clearly defined termination policies for your organization.
Before deciding someone needs to be discharged, ensure you have established correctional and warning policies. These allow the employee to improve and may make them more valuable in the long run. Most company termination policies are provided to individuals when they are hired, allowing them to understand the procedure and giving them knowledge of what they can and cannot do.
Here are five steps to take before making the final determination to part ways:
a. Before you start, ensure the negative behavior is documented and continue to record interactions and corrective measures as you move through the process.
1. Ensure your expectations are understood.
This covers everything from providing a thorough job description to sharing company policies with the staff member. These policies should cover disciplinary procedures and what actions can lead to termination.
2. Have a discussion.
Talk with the employee and try to discover what challenges they are facing. It may be possible to correct your team member or provide them with the necessary training so that they can improve their performance and stay on at your company.
3. Work out a performance plan.
If it appears possible to improve performance with job training or continued check-ins, write a performance plan. This should include real goals that the employee needs to reach within a defined period. If the goals are not accomplished, the consequence will be termination.
4. Ensure the employee understands and signs their plan.
The team member needs to understand this written performance plan and should sign an agreement to indicate that they will follow it. If the employee does not then improve performance, this shows that they should be terminated.
5. Review the plan on indicated dates or keep up check-ins.
It should be easy to see a performance-based termination coming. If the employee is not implementing your plan or performance is not improving, it is time to end their employment.
Business Success Consulting Group is here to work with you on building excellent hiring, training, and firing policies.
Are you are ready to improve your HR processes? Contact us today!
