Staff are critical to business

One of the most important issues faced by all small business is staff recruitment.

Good staff are a tremendous asset to a business and will generate customers, good profit and provide a good flow of goods and services from your business. They often pick up things quickly, are friendly and often do not need as much training as other staff.

One of the key things I've found in recruiting staff is to look more at person's personal values rather than just qualifications. I believe if you have got the right person you can train them. However, someone with better qualifications who may not have a great attitude can be impossible to train. It can be a challenge to get them to follow simple instructions.

Good values often come over in small things. Is the person courteous? Did they bring a resume with them? Or are they expecting you to provide the one they emailed in?

How they dress and present themselves well shows if they make the effort to look good. Consider this but do they do work in the community that doesn't directly benefit them? Do they have a good work record? In other words, are they in and out of jobs all the time or moving around the countryside all the time?

As well, do they have that X factor? I feel you should be able to detect this in a person. Do they have a willingness to learn and can you see this in their hobbies? Be careful of someone telling you what you wanted to hear or answers from someone who appears a little bit flippant.

Of course, always put them on probation and if they don't work out in the first few months, consider giving them a clear warning and reasons why you feel the person may not be performing. This gives them an opportunity to adjust and sometimes we all know this.

However, if after two weeks there has been no significant improvement in their actions and procedures then I'm afraid you must consider whether they are right for your business, as they will not only damage you and your clients, but they may also cause problems with your existing employees who are doing a good job. A negative person can not only destroy their area of work but can badly affect others as well.

Sometimes a long-standing employee can come off the rails who has traditionally being good. In this case, they may require warnings and you need to discuss their performance and corrections.

However, if there was no improvement here you have to come to the conclusion that no matter how good they were in the past something has changed them, and sometimes this is outside of your control. In these cases, you're facing a situation of time off without pay which in effect can often be classed as termination or possibly warnings to end their employment.

More often than not, those staff that continue to be good and perform very well over a long period of time are worth gold.

Contact TaxAssist Accountants today and we can put you in touch with HR specialists who can help you in this area.

Date published 4 May 2018

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