Running a small business will always have its ups and downs and whilst the failure rate is high – for instance in the UK 40% of all small businesses fail within the first 5 years  the actual number of small businesses is high. With over 5 million SMEs in the UK the success rate means there are at least 3 million businesses running successfully.

Small business owners experience many challenges while building a business from scratch. Every action they take reflects on the business’s progress. This begins with selecting the right small business idea, setting up the right infrastructure, hiring talented staff members and making sure that the management of staff goes well. Anything can go wrong with any one of these tasks and it is unlikely the business owner will have experience in all these areas.

Increasingly too businesses are using freelancers and other self-employed personnel for critical business functions as well as vital SEO processes such as performing SEO health checks. That is nothing new and has worked well in many organisations over the years, whether on a temporary basis, for example agency staff in care homes to fill staffing gaps or on an introductory basis where a live-in care company introduces live-in carers to prospective clients but then the contract is between carer and client (see liveincarehub.co.uk)

So businesses can be successful, and one success factor is providing the right environment for the employees or those who work on a freelance/self-employed basis. This is why, we have produced a guide that will help you hire the best team members and manage them effectively for your business project.

Guide on hiring and managing staff for a small business:

Dubai business setup requires a lot of effort. The business owners along with their team members have to look into the market potential of the product, its demand, the competition around and the scope of the product in the market. Another job on their shoulders is to pick the right team members for their small business industry. They have to make sure the members are competent, hard working and punctual to ensure that they put in their full effort for the project’s success.

In this regard, the key questions, their answers and some tips to succeed are mentioned below courtesy of Riz & Mona:

Why should you hire staff members for a small business?

The business owner cannot do all the tasks by himself. There’s product manufacturing, sales section, marketing and branding, analytics and reporting. To carry out these tasks successfully, the owner needs to hire efficient staff members and manage them in a way that produces good results.

Refusal to hire a sufficient number of staff members will only result in lack of discipline, disrupted time management and non-completion of several tasks. Being a small business owner, you wouldn’t want to face such a situation, right?

This leads us to our next section of the article…

How to hire and manage staff for a small business setup?

Hiring and managing staff is easy if you know what are you looking for in a candidate and what job you expect them to do. The 5 simple steps to take to find the best staff members are as follows:

  1. Go for an operative hiring practice:

Do you have an established small business industry or are you just starting with the project? Either way, you need to make sure you hire accordingly. For business industries who are just taking a step ahead they need to funnel their resources to the most important places. Hiring professionals and talented experts at this level makes you responsible for paying them a fair salary, which for a startup is a bit difficult. Though once you have established your base, you are free to hire experts for the improvement and success of the company. Until then, you can carry out most of the work yourself in the beginning.

Thus, the first step in hiring is to hire according to your situation. This is followed by the process of deciding the worth of every candidate. Look into their qualifications, curriculum vitae, experience in the same field and the tasks they can perform with ease. Make sure you do their interview yourself to judge their confidence level and their attitude towards the profession. Referrals made by your friends and colleagues are beneficial but make sure you go through the employee scanning process before making the final appointment call.

hiring and managing staff

  1. Set targets and goals for each employee:

Your employee must know what you expect from him.

Once you have hired the member of staff, make sure you brief them about the work they have to complete thoroughly. It’s the job of the business owner to tell the employee what they are supposed to do. Set daily or weekly targets for them or mark the monthly goals they need to achieve. The workers need to complete the decided tasks to prove their worth.

While hiring an employee, many business owners appoint workers for a certain period of time, assess their performance during that time and then proceed further. You can also set a probation period in which you assess the employee’s performance. Once they meet the set benchmarks, you can confirm their job position.

  1. Bring a balance in your management style:

Step number three focuses on your management style as the small business owner.

While setting up a new business, many people are doing things for the first time. Taking the right step here matters a lot. Thus, think about the whole process before you initiate it. Make a plan and weigh its pros and cons.

Look over your employee’s work. Does the work quality match your required standards?  If it does then leave the employee to do it according to his methods or otherwise interfere in his working style and set things right for your company. Also see whether the work quality is good enough to give your competitors a tough challenge or not? Never ever take your competitors lightly. They are a strong barrier between your small business industry and its success.

Introducing an employee handbook of conduct:

This is another beneficial management step that you, as an owner, can take. Every business industry must have its own book of conduct for the employee. All the important things like how to behave in the work premises, what to do, leave and sick leave details, salary details, bonuses, occupational health measures, and other policies must be mentioned in it to avoid any kind of confusion later on.

  1. Make the staff work as a team:

The real goal behind every act is to increase the productivity and run an efficient system. By making the staff members work as a team, you can establish strong ties of support and trust with and among the employees. This helps the industry in the long run and compels the workers to give their maximum output.

Establishing a team environment has proved successful for many small business owners in the past. In such an environment, all the workers work together and have a positive influence over each other. Even as an owner, you should know about your workers and how they like to get things done.

Make attractive vacation offers, friendly policies and official parties to keep your worker’s interest intact. Moreover, if any worker isn’t capable of working as a team, feel free to dismiss him from his job. Recruiting personnel on regular basis is a necessary task of a small business professional.

  1. Review performance of the staff members:

Last but not the least are the performance records.

You can evaluate your workers on the basis of their performance, innovative approach, communicating skills and whether their work has brought boons to the business project or not. Fostering a two-way communication can bring more benefits. This means that while you assess your workers performance; ask them to assess your management style as well. A healthy environment is created by pointing out each others strengths and weaknesses and working on improving them.

Is there any alternative to hiring and managing staff?

The popular alternative to hiring and managing staff is to go for freelancers who offer their service for a short project and limited yet desirable time. You can avoid the fuss of providing suitable infrastructure and paying regular salaries and benefits by hiring freelancers for the same job. This method of making things work has also proved beneficial for the small business owners in both the short and the long term.

Common problems faced while hiring and managing staff:

  • Fake credentials and work experiences of the candidates:

The most common problem faced while hiring the staff members is how to find out whether the candidate is lying about his qualification/ experience or not. Many owners come across fake degree holders and find out, while interviewing, that the candidate has no experience in the work field he has mentioned in his curriculum vitae.

Make sure you scan through such candidates and keep them outside the doors of your company right where they deserve to be.

  • Lack of owner’s interest in defining and watching over the staff members:

When we talk about a small business industry, we know that it is run by a single owner or maybe a few partners. This means that they are responsible for defining the tasks for each employee and looking over their performance. Many owners fail to do so and this results in a huge failure of the business project.

This can be avoided by taking a keen interest in the business project’s working system. If you are busy in other important tasks and are unable to perform well in organizing the staff, it’s better to hand over or put some other person in charge of the management. By no means should the management of staff be ignored.

In a nut shell:

So far we have covered the necessity of hiring talented individuals and managing them competently to produce great results.

You can contribute to your company’s success by following the guidelines given for selecting the appropriate candidate for the job, making sure she/he is not faking their identity and by managing the whole team with great leadership and management qualities.