Follow these steps to recruit, hire, and train the team you need to succeed.

 

Have Your Business’s Playbook Ready To Go

Think of your favorite sports team, their coaches have a collection of plays and strategy details. This playbook is critical to a team’s success and the best coaches have the most detailed books. You should have just as detailed of a book as these teams do. When your business has all of its procedures laid out clearly you are able to hold everyone, including yourself, to a strict standard. Your playbook contains all of your business’s policies, procedures, and any other important information, such as onboarding files.

It also allows you to keep an eye on your Key Performance Indicators – or KPIs – to make sure you’re on track to reach the goals you’ve set. Your playbook is a great place to keep a detailed record of your goals. Whether they be monthly, quarterly, or yearly they should be somewhere easy to find. By having your goals clearly displayed, you hold not only yourself accountable, but your entire team as well.

 

Write Detailed Job Descriptions

A vital and often overlooked practice is writing thorough job descriptions. For each position in your business, you should have a detailed explanation of the role’s responsibilities and expectations. As Erkan Ozbardakci, a DRIVE Business Coach, says “A job description tells a team member what the position is all about and how it fits in with the rest of the company.” Your descriptions can lay out the attitude, tasks, and expected results of your employees.

An enticing job description can also help you recruit top talent. When a prospective hire can identify their possible day-to-day responsibilities they can more easily envision themselves working for you. Your job description can also tell them about any benefits you offer, whether that be paid time off plans, sick days, healthcare programs, or any other aspect of your business that sets you apart from your competition. For example, if you have a team meeting every week where you cater lunch, add it to your job description so future team members understand your priorities and business culture right off the bat!

 

Setting Clear Expectations Early

While businesses might overlap in some areas, each business is unique. Let’s say your business opens at 7a.m., but you want your employees to show up 15 minutes before that. Unless you have your expectations written down and communicated to your team they will take direction from whomever. So, from the beginning, you should let all of your employees know the standard you are going to hold them to. To make sure everyone is on the same page, on an employee’s first day you can have them review and sign off on a sheet of role expectations. This allows them to ask you any questions about any policies you have and for you to have a written record that they knew what you required for the job.

Here are a few key concepts to cover when you lay out your business’s rules and regulations. First, what the work schedule is. Do you have a four-day workweek in place? Is overtime regularly occurring in this role? Second, who a team member reports to. If they have an issue or question, do they talk to you or a manager? Finally, any quotas they have. Are your employees expected to bill a certain amount of hours?

 

Feedback Is Everything – Even For You!

When you first hire someone it is imperative you continually check in with them. This way you can answer questions and monitor their progress leading to less bad habits forming from the get go. Seeing if an employee needs anything and providing them with extra training also starts your relationship off on the right foot. They now see you as someone that cares about their work, building trust between both of you from the start. During the beginning stages you can also let them know about any non-optimal behaviors or concerns you have about them.

Once their trial period is over, make sure to schedule a time for you to meet one on one with your new employee. Erkan says, “This is the time to be honest with them about how they’ve done in learning how your business works and the quality of their work.” If there are areas you want to see improvement in make sure to provide a clear path for your employee, with measurable goals. If they’ve done well, it is also important to give them positive feedback and praise. On top of that, if you’re able to, this is a great time to offer successful employees a raise or added benefits. These two actions can ensure they feel valued and appreciated as a member of your team!

 

 

 

 

 

During this year’s annual DRIVE EXPO, Erkan Ozbardakci will be delivering a workshop that will go over all of these factors AND MORE! He’ll detail the exact ways you can hire top talent and create a top-notch workplace in “Building A Winning Team”. Register today at drive-expo.com!

 

 

 

 

 

 

# # #

 

By Chase Clough of DRIVE

Link to AMERICAN TOW article/page 42