Hiring

Chances are that when you start your side hustle and/or business, you are going to be doing the vast majority of the heavy lifting. You are the salesperson, the accounting department, the marketing person, the project manager, the doer, the data entry person…and pretty much everyone else in the company. As your business grows and you come to realize that you cannot do all these tasks yourself, you often find yourself leaning on family and friends—at least, initially—to help you build your business. Sometimes, you pay them for their help; sometimes, they do it simply as a favor because they want to see you succeed. While many individuals avoid having family and friends work with them, my own success is due in no small part to this rich resource. I have many cousins who have worked with me, and some still do. My brother works with me, as do a few of my closest friends. Some have left and come back, and others have left and moved on, but in most instances, people gave me proper notice when they were leaving. They also weren’t afraid to bring to my attention problems that they’d spotted while working for me, problems that other people might have been afraid to report. Regardless, unless you’re from a huge family whose members have an abundance of time and don’t need money (in which case you probably wouldn’t be side hustling), you will eventually pass the point of just having a friend or family member helping out here and there. It is then that you will need to hire someone.

Where do you find candidates?

There are great job/recruiting sites that you can turn to—some specialized, some general.  For lower paying positions (entry level), I typically start with Hyrell, which posts to Indeed.com, and also Monster.com. They are two of the largest job sites. I have also had some success posting on LinkedIn. Two other very popular spaces are Craigslist and Facebook. I have used both when hiring for odd jobs, but I’ve never gotten quality applicants from either one of them for long-term positions.

You will always have people posting on job boards, even during times when there is both a shortage of jobs and an abundance of labor. In those circumstances, even some of the worst written job posts will get some responses. In the current climate of bonus unemployment benefits and severe labor shortage, however, it is typically much more challenging to get responses, and many of the people who do respond are looking for the kind of position that does not match the posted job’s profile. I believe it is prudent to provide as much information as possible in the job ad. Some key pieces:

What does your company do?

What is its mission?

What is the compensation?

Why would someone want to work here?

And most important…What role will the hire play, and what is his/her responsibilities?

If you post a job but don’t describe the scope of work, people will invariably create their own ideas of what the job will entail, and they might talk themselves into or out of applying for the opening without really having a sense of what they might need to do if they were hired. When individuals who are not qualified or who might otherwise know they wouldn’t be a good fit do apply for the job, ultimately, their time and your time (interviewing/reading résumés) is wasted. The goal is to limit the amount of time you spend on the front end—that is, reviewing candidates, weeding out those applicants who would not be a good fit for your company, and picking the best ones on paper. Those who make the cut then get called in for an interview, the back end of the process. This is where you should be spending most of your time. Once you’ve finished the interviewing stage—and then and only then—are you in a position to extend an offer or offers.

I’m not an HR expert, but here are some of the things I have learned about this process.

1. Do a quick phone interview prior to bringing in a candidate for an in-person interview. You can learn a lot about a person this way.
2. Prepare structured interview questions ahead of time, and ask this same set of initial questions when meeting every candidate. This method enables you to avoid potential legal problems as long as you also keep in mind the suggestions outlined in item 3, which follows.
3. Know which questions are permitted and which ones are prohibited. You can’t ask, for example, about age or religion. Also off-limits are many other questions related to protected classes.
4. Talk less, listen more.  When you introduce a topic during the interview, you want to find out as much as possible about the candidate’s thoughts on the subject. The responses can tell you a lot about the candidate.
5. If someone is clearly not a good fit, you don’t need to spend thirty minutes getting to know him or her. Be polite, thank the person for coming in, and move on to the next candidate.
6. Don’t be afraid to go through some hypothetical scenarios or ask for information about relevant past work and work-related experiences. You need to find out what the person knows and what he or she will need to learn. What the hire brings to the job can make a big difference in his or her performance beginning on Day 1.
7. Set expectations for a follow-up call after the interview, telling the candidate when you will reach out again to report on your decision. Don’t be surprised if some interviewees contact you in the interim to find out how close you are to hiring one of the interviewees. (Experienced candidates will often take the initiative.)
8. When you are ready to make an offer, extend it in writing, and provide a period of time for review (a few days to a week). If the person is hesitant about saying yes but hasn’t said no, you will need to make another offer and continue this process.

I recommend sending a follow-up note as a courtesy to anyone you physically bring in for an interview. People appreciate such gestures, and you never know if another position might open up that makes sense for one of the candidates whom you’d interviewed but rejected. Creating a web of potential workers willing to work for you could prove to be a future resource by saving you a lot of time interviewing a completely new slate of unknown candidates whenever you’re looking to hire again.