What Do I Need To Prepare Before Hiring Staff?

Your employees will be one of two things for your business. Either, they will ensure that your company soars to new heights on the market. Or, they will bring your business model crashing down. The results of hiring the right or wrong way could be that dramatically different. It all depends on whether you prepare your business before making your first hires. Specifically, you should be thinking about the possible legal issues that come with hiring business staff. Everything from accidental injuries to wrongful termination lawsuits can be a problem for your company. So, what do you need to do before you begin putting the team together?

Well, you may want to reduce the chances of lawsuits in your company. To do this, you could think about hiring a legal advisor. A legal advisor will aid you by ensuring that you are kept up to date with the latest rules and regulations affecting your company. Essentially, they can make sure that you are not leaving your business open to a lawsuit. Lawsuits are almost inevitable when you run a company. But there are ways you can protect yourself early on.

What Is Required?

You must make sure that employees know their place in your business. There should be clear lines drawn in the sand to show exactly what employees need to accomplish to be considered an asset for your company. This includes long-term goals that will be constant every working day and weekly or daily targets that employees should be reaching. By doing this, you can make sure that if any employee doesn’t match these requirements, you can fire them without the fear of a lawsuit in the wake of your decision.

Approach Terminations Carefully

You shouldn’t rush terminating an employee’s contract if you do choose to let someone go. Instead, you should give them ample time to improve and perhaps adopt something similar to a three strike rule. If an employee has been hired by your business, you will have already invested time and resources into them. You should not be so quick to throw that investment away. Of course, if the situation doesn’t improve you still need to explain why they are being let go. Try to be as discreet as possible. Make sure you have a plan for terminations in place before you start hiring people. That way, you won’t be caught off guard when the time to take action arrives.

Remember, there are various ways an unhappy previous employee could cause havoc for your business. Negative online comments for instance will make new candidates think twice about joining your business.

Zero Tolerance And Plenty Of Training

Before you start making your first hires, you should consider the issues that could be devastating for your business. We’re talking about the possibilities of bullying, discrimination and prejudicial views. You may not realise this, but any issue like this in your workforce will be detrimental to the workings of your company. You need to make sure that you are offering training on how to deal with issues like this and ensure that you adopt a no tolerance policy. If anyone is guilty of this type of behaviour, you might want to consider firing them immediately. Don’t forget an issue like this won’t just open up the possibility of lawsuits. It will damage your businesses performance because employees won’t be as effective.

By The Book

Do everything right when it comes to your employees, and you might still find you’re hit by a lawsuit eventually. As we said, they are almost unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do everything in your power to ensure that you are following rules and regulations from day one. By providing evidence that you were working to keep your business up to code you can guarantee you have a solid defence in any legal matter.

Personal Files

You need to keep personal records of everything that happens in your business. Any issues or incidents should be noted down, and the logbooks must be kept up to date. Again, this will help you defend yourself and your business in the case of a lawsuit. By showing an accurate history, you can argue against any accusations that have been completely fabricated.

Of course, lawsuits aren’t the only issue employees can bring. You might find that they simply aren’t up to the tasks and this will be the case if you don’t take your time choosing employees.

Test Them

Before you think about hiring employees, you may want to test them. You need to make sure that they are the right fit for your business model with the personality and traits that you need in your company. With tests like psychometrics, you can get a good feel for a candidate long before the interview and weed out the weakest possibilities early on. You will also be able to compare the results of the test to the interview and catch out any liars.

With tests like this, you can look at everything from skillsets to personality traits to problem-solving abilities. You can find out how potential employees would respond when presented with a situation they could encounter working in your company on a daily basis.

Check Their Background

A background check on anyone you hire will bring up some red flags sooner rather than later and avoid you being held liable for hiring negligent workers. For instance, you should certainly looking for any criminal records and don’t take employees at their word on their resume. Many will lie and hope that employers don’t run that check. You shouldn’t make this mistake. You can also look at background checks like credit histories if the job in question is in any way related to finances.

Keep It Fair And Legal

Finally, you should look at each position in your business and decide how much you should pay employees. If you are running unpaid internships, you need to make sure they are legal. If you are hiring freelancers, you need to check the typical rate of pay for this type of labor. And if you are hiring full-time employees, look at the national averages. Aim to pay slightly more than your competition as this will attract skilled workers and give your business the upper hand. It will make your company far more attractive to the top candidates you need to take it to the next level.

Additional Resources

Hire Your First Employee
6 Steps You Must Take When Hiring Employees
How to Hire Your First Employees