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If you are a start-up entrepreneur, you’ve probably had the idea that you can do everything by yourself. The concept of maximizing all your time, energy, and money to ensure that every aspect of your business is running well has probably got you feeling like there aren’t enough hours in a day.
All of a sudden, it gets overwhelming, and the question: “When should I hire my first employee?” crosses your mind.
“Would there be significant growth of my business if I hired someone to help me with some tasks?”
You start seeking options.
Well, Ken Blanchard once said, “Asking others for help helps you see what you might not be able to see. It’s always important to ask for help when you need it.”
Before you take on the responsibility of hiring someone, it would be best to consider that as of 2017, over 25 million businesses in the United States were non-employers. Even though the Census Bureau has postponed the release date of the latest non-employer statistics, while more entrepreneurs are opting to expand their multi-million businesses using remote workforce and automation, these numbers are predicted to rise.
Hiring your first remote employee calls for cost, effort, and determination. That is why we made “An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Hiring Their First Remote Employee”, and this article will explain in detail what you need to pay attention to as you consider making the next big step – hiring your first remote employee.
Hiring Your First Employee - The Priorities
The thought of hiring your first employee can be daunting. Paying attention to the littlest details is essential and, in many ways, productive in any remote hiring. Here are some of the things you need to prioritize at the beginning of your hiring process:
Identify where and what you need help with
You must plan your business to be sustainable and scalable. Factors to consider would include the amount of work you can handle. Is it too much? Are you missing any deadlines or fielding customer complaints? Do you want to start a new big project that you’d need assistance with? If all these boxes check yes, then you probably need an additional team member.
Also, it would help to keep your team in sync. For example, let’s assume that your team has team members with different roles, which should be the case. As a team leader, it is your responsibility to ensure that every team member understands what the other member is doing.
Your marketing assistant should know what your research person is doing. You can make this knowledge accessible by offering parallel training to your team members. This way, there is a correlation between roles if someone leaves and you need to replace the role.
To achieve perfect sync, paying attention to the interaction between team members is essential as the urge to learn what your colleague is doing could be mistaken for mistrust to handle certain tasks.
Having an A player in your team
An A player is the person in your team who is driven and excels in their role. They are hungry to learn and do more. They are out-of-the-box thinkers, and they love to take the initiative and get the work done without giving excuses.
Here are a few things an A player could do for your business:
- They help and support you to build your company or a new department.
- They set the bar for all future employees. Moving forward, you will have new team members look up to your A player, yourself, and your business.
- If you value your business and want it to be about excellence, efficiency, and growth, it would be best to hire A players. ‘A’ players have an entrepreneurial mindset, which is critical in steering your business in the right direction.
Having an entrepreneurial mindset in a small business will help you and your team get along better. The employee will understand the ups and downs and the ins and outs of a start-up as they will be willing to learn and grow with you. In most cases, they will stick around until you achieve your goals
Know your numbers
While you prepare to hire your first employee, first, you need to ask yourself: Do I want to hire a full-time or part-time remote employee? This tip will give you a forecast of whether the cash flow should be steady. To calculate your cash flow, you take your business income and deduct your business expenditure.
In this case, you have to predict how much money you’ll make over a certain period and how much money you’ll spend during the same period. For example, if your income forecast is $30,000 and your expenditure forecast is $15,000. In that case:
$30,000 – $15,000 = $15,000 cash flow
You must remember that cash flow is unpredictable and dynamic, so slight mismanagement could cause problems such as the inability to pay your staff. Always leave a buffer for any additional, unexpected expenses.
Seek professional support
Prioritizing the help of hiring experts can help you with the hiring process significantly. You want to make sure that the whole hiring process is swift from the beginning. When your business is growing rapidly, and you can’t seem to catch a break from all the to-dos, the last thing you need is the burden of sourcing and interviewing candidates.
BalkanHire is fully staffed with experts who can help you find the right talent – individuals who are well trained in the role you want to fill. The best part is that the dedicated team at BalkanHire will ensure that your new employees have the best onboarding experience.
Hire for potential, not for track record
“As you grow, it is critical to seek out people who have unique perspectives, backgrounds and work styles so you can continue to innovate.” – United States Chamber of Commerce.
Continuous innovation is an essential aspect of your business. As business trends change, it would be best to invest in people ready to change with it while supporting your business. Having people on your team from different cultures can bring a fresh perspective to your business.
Have your prospect candidates demonstrate their skills
Taking from our expert’s experiences, many applicants will research and know precisely how to answer interview questions. They will respond with words that the hiring manager wants to hear. The real challenge comes when you put their skills to the test.
For example, if you’re going to hire a marketing manager, allow them to create an outreach strategy to reach your target audience. Ensure you give them some guidance or instructions. Testing their skills will provide you with an insight into their ability to handle specific tasks.
You have hired your first employee, now what?
The flexibility to work from home or anywhere in the world can be a great retention tool, but for your business to be successful, you must ensure they understand how to make a virtual team thrive. At the same time, you should be ready to offer solutions when problems arise.
Here are some common problems that remote work can pose and how you can solve them:
1. Trust issues
As a business owner, you might be wondering whether your employee is working or not. The thought of not being able to see them working eats you alive. You develop a feeling of having no control over your business.
Solution: It would be best not to focus on the number of hours they spend working but the results. If your employee is not meeting the goals, then you can discuss that with them after. Use productive means to communicate as some issues are genuine and don’t need confrontation. Set an action plan as well.
2. Struggling with productivity
Lacking a schedule can make this problem a big nightmare.
Solution: Share with your employee any resources and tips that might help you have a better workflow. That could include anything from organizing their computer or emails to materials that would help gunners better results.
3. Not feeling part of the team
Sometimes, new hires take time to adapt to the company’s remote culture, leading to boredom and feeling left out. It is entirely normal for this to happen, and it is your responsibility as a leader to ensure things are back on track.
Solution: Try to organize an in-person team meet-up at least once a year. You can visit your employees in the place they live or organize a trip for you to meet up and bond. You can treat this as an investment in the business. If travelling is not an option, you can organize virtual lunch meetings and talk about non-work stuff. These talks will not only help you know your employee better, but they will strengthen your work relationship.
To promote integrity, make sure you define the idea about the virtual meetings in an agreement that both you and your employee can sign. You can start with more frequent calls and end with a weekly one-on-one where you discuss the progress, plans, and main challenges.
Also, you must ensure that the remote onboarding process is intense. BalkanHire can help you.
4. Time zone differences
Working from different countries can be challenging. For example, daytime in the United States is nighttime in the Balkans. This challenge could hinder real-time communication. This can include losing touch and focus and can result in many misunderstandings or just slower results.
Solution: Create a schedule and stick to it. It can be daily, weekly, or monthly. This will help your new hire adapt and know when to expect your call, email, or zoom call. You could make this a mutual agreement with your employee. At first, you can stick to regular calls, but as your bond grows, you can limit the calls to once a week or twice a month.
5. Lack of a career path for your remote employee
Not having a clear path for your new hire can lead to a lack of motivation throughout the job. Employees like to know that there is room for learning and growth.
Solution: When thinking about this role, think about how this role can grow as the company does and what your employee can learn next. Set a three-month, six-month, and 1-year projection plan for the position and share it with your employee once you start working together. This will help you track your employee’s progress.
6. Inadequate clarity on the role you are hiring
Unclear information about the role is a big challenge. A broad explanation about the role doesn’t mean it is clear, and unrealistic expectations could only worsen it.
Solution: Have an in-depth discussion with your team or business partner. The discussion should include what responsibilities should be delegated to your new employee. As you delegate the tasks, ensure that you organize them into categories and subcategories. Setting an approximate amount of completion time for each job is as important. Finally, ensure that you discuss and state the type of soft skills the candidate needs to possess. Engage professionals from BalkanHire to help you with the evaluation process.
7. Being available non-stop
Working remotely doesn’t equal being online 24/7. The number of remote employees experiencing burnout is on the rise. Recent statistics by Forbes show that out of 1,500 U.S. workers, 52% of them are experiencing burnout in 2021.
Solution: Ensure that you set clear and healthy boundaries. It is essential to set rules and guidelines on responding to messages and emails within the company. When you set boundaries, ensure that both parties respect them to avoid anxious moments. For example, you could say that the response rate for emails is 48 hours, while that for slack messages is 24 hours. Unless the business is in the high season when the response is needed within 12 hours.
Final note for entrepreneurs hiring their first remote employee
Bad hires can be a pain. Allowing a new hire who isn’t the right fit into your business is the worst thing you could do for your business. You will end up spending more money trying to find a better fit. These issues could become a cycle – and it is derailing.
Unless you want your business to suffer, ensuring that you pay attention to finding the right hire is essential. Ensure that your retention is high by paying attention to the onboarding process. Don’t onboard your new hire for seven days and leave them on their own.
A high turnover of employees is costly and could damage your reputation and your business. According to Leadership IQ, 46% of new hires will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will be successful. Where do you want your employees to fall? A wrong hiring decision can kill your entrepreneurial dream.
If you’re having trouble finding a qualified remote worker, don’t despair. We’re here to help.
