Making your first or next hiring decision and hiring a new team member can be overwhelming, even for experienced business owners who have hired a lot in the past. If you aren’t hiring right now, make sure you save this blog post for later! There are some key steps you can take to make your hiring process a little bit easier next time.

As an online business manager, one of my roles is hiring and team management. With my experience as an OBM, I know the right and wrong ways to go through the hiring process. In this post, I’ll be sharing my 5 biggest hiring tips.

1) Know the Type of Hire

Are you wanting to hire someone as an independent contractor, part-time employee, or full-time employee? There are some very key differences between working with a contractor and hiring an employee for your business.

An independent contractor, like how I work with my clients, means that this person runs their own business and likely has multiple clients. Legally speaking, there are a lot of rules around who is an independent contractor and how you need to treat them, otherwise, they might still be considered an employee.

For example: an independent contractor works their own hours, uses their own equipment, and runs their own business.

If you are considering hiring an employee, you would need to set up payroll, and make sure you are set for any legal requirements and deductions from their pay.

2) Create a Stellar Job Description

The key to finding and hiring the right person is to have their role and responsibilities mapped out accordingly in a great job description. The basics of a great job description include:

• Information about your business – who you are, what you do, your brand values
• Role information – title, pay, role type, hours per week or month
• A list of programs and systems they’ll be using
• The tasks and responsibilities of the role
• Personality traits that are perfect for the role, such as great organizational skills and ability to communicate effectively with clients, etc.
• Details on the application process – how to apply, deadline, etc.

This will serve you and your potential new hire to set the groundwork for success and outline their KPIs so they (and you) know they are successful with their position.

3) Vet Your Applicants

An easy way to vet your applicants right off the bat is by including special instruction within the job description application process. Some people include something like, “send an email with the subject line ‘Content Manager Superstar for Tara’” to immediately be able to disqualify candidates who don’t follow the rules right off the bat.

Other times, you can include a ‘secret word’ that needs to be mentioned in the email or application form.

This is a great way to vet applicants right from the start, especially if you are overwhelmed with 100’s of applicants for one role.

4) The Zoom Interview

Once you have your applicant list down to 3-5 people, it’s time for Zoom interviews!

The main goal of these interviews is to make sure the personality is a fit for the role and your business. The key to a great interview is to have your questions prepared ahead of time, and make sure you have some questions that are specific to the role you are hiring for.

5) Paid Trial Projects or Trial Periods

A paid trial project or trial period is a great way to ensure you are making the right choice and finding the right fit for your business. An example of this would be if you are hiring a graphic designer, you could select the top 2 candidates to do a small paid trial to see how their communication and work truly is.

Need Help Hiring?

If you need help with the hiring process or creating streamlined systems, reach out that let’s chat about your needs. I’m an online business manager who has worked with a lot of clients who are just starting or re-learning the hiring process and working on finding their perfect new team member!