Small Business Checklist Item # 9 – Employees
If your company is at the stage where it needs to hire employees, you better take this stage very seriously. You are going to be trusting people with the company that you build from the ground up, so you need to make sure that you take the proper steps in hiring the right individuals.
First, you should probably think to see if you actually will need full time employees or just part time. If you only need part time, then think about a staffing agency as they already do the background checks on individuals and they have a pretty extensive talent pool to look at. You can also skip the hiring of employees and just outsource the work that needs to be done to freelancers. There are sites like Elance.com and GetaFreelancer.com that can help you choose someone or another company to do work for you when you need it. This is a very popular method to use because you can choose where you want to your freelancer to be from and what skills they possess along with what you pay them. If gives you all the options and the power to choose the right freelancer to meet your needs.
If you are going to hire a full time employee, then you need to make sure that you have all the proper forms and documentation that enables you to hire individuals. You want to make sure that if you have a technology or service that you make sure your employee signs something that doesn’t allow them to copy or compete with you once they leave your company for x amount of time. This is a standard practice because the employee will know the inner workings of your company when they leave. There have been many companies burned out there that did not provide this documentation to the new employee. You have to think about benefits, pay, insurance, time off, sick leave, and all the things that go into hiring a full time employee.
We suggest that if you do not need a full time employee, but just need someone to pick up that slack, that you just hire a free lancer, or maybe even get an intern from a local college. A lot of times, they get college credit and you don’t have to pay them, so it is good all around for you and the intern. Please make your choices wisely because this can affect your company in many ways.