Whether you’re a current franchisee looking to start growing your team, or still thinking about moving forward with a franchise of your own, hiring your first employee can be a daunting task for first-time employers.
Whether you’d like to start hiring immediately after launching the business or not, if you’re hiring, you’re on the right track for growth.
But especially for new business owners, the chaos of scaling your business up can make it easy to make a hiring mistake that can put a damper on your business’s future.
It’s incredibly important to hire the right person no matter how urgently you need to grow the team. The costs of employee turnover, including the time it takes to hire as well as potential damage to your business’s reputation can be huge.
So how do you ensure your first franchise employees are a great fit for your operation? Let’s go over a few important tips:
1. Make sure you’re clearly communicating the expectations
Want the perfect fit? The first step to attracting the right candidate is to be extremely clear about the skills and responsibilities that are required of them once on the team.
It’s good to make a mention of these expectations directly in your job listings to weed out unqualified candidates early on, but don’t stop there.
After putting together your list of potential candidates, make sure to bring up each of your expectations during the formal interview. This way, you can have a more in-depth discussion about each person’s abilities and experience in order to get a sense of how well they’ll be able to handle their new role.
2. Do some online research during the review process
The internet is an amazing resource for employers. Simply searching a candidate’s name on a search engine like Google or Bing can reveal tons of information they may or may not have mentioned during the application or interview process. Without prying too far into their personal information, quickly scanning for red flags online is a great way to vet potential employees during the hiring process.
In addition to using search engines to find information, social media is also a great way to do some extra research before making that important hiring decision. Specifically, social media is great for getting a feel for a person’s demeanor and attitude––important things to pay attention to when finding a great fit.
For instance, a candidate might look great on paper, but a quick check of their Twitter page could reveal evidence of drug use or another problem that disqualifies them as a viable candidate.
Running a quick search through publicly viewable social media profiles is a great way to gauge a potential hire’s worth to the company when it comes to dependability and fit.
3. Be sure to fully prepare for interviews
If you’ve ever sat down for a job interview before, you’re probably well-aware that those looking for a job usually take the time to come well-prepared for their interview.
As the interviewer, you need to be equally if not more so prepared than they are. Be sure to have a variety of questions ready to ask in order to capture a complete picture of who each person is.
Don’t just look up which questions you should be asking online––take the time to create a custom list of questions that aren’t just the usually mundane interview questions candidates rehearse time and time again.
The interview is a great opportunity to throw people off their guard and expose potential problems by getting them to admit them themselves. For instance, “Why would I not hire you?” is a question that barely anyone rehearses before walking into the interview.
You’d be surprised how many people admit to problematic habits and behavior when put on the spot. This is a great way to sort through hires quickly after talking to them.
4. Narrow your list to a handful of candidates and take them out to eat
This might seem like a strange tactic, but it’s one of the best ways to gauge how a person behaves socially. When managing a small team, social ability becomes extra important.
While interviews are essential, they only give you a sense of what the person is like all buttoned-up. To really get the full picture, take your top candidates out for a casual dinner.
Pay attention to how they interact with others and how comfortable they are when thrown into a social situation out in public including how they treat staff as the customer. This can give you a unique look into how they’ll behave when interacting with customers, clients, and colleagues on the job.
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