Hiring right and retaining employees

If you have recently started a business, you may be able to get away with not having to hire right away. But as your business expands and starts to grow, you will most likely need to hire new employees at some point.

However, hiring right can be difficult. You want your employees to be the right fit for your company. And because it can be costly and time-consuming to train employees, you want to be able to retain them as well.

The following are some tips on hiring right and retaining employees:

Decide how you will fill the positions.
There are a number of ways you can go about hiring right and making sure you can retain your employees. You can offer the job to people you already know, such as family members or friends (common with small businesses), or you can advertise for the position, conduct an interview, and hire someone that way.

If you are hiring someone through advertising in an Employment section or through online job databases, make sure you write a detailed description of not only the position, but the potential employee's responsibilities as well.

Check references
It's crucial that you check references of your potential employees, no matter how impressed you were with them in the interview. You will also want to match their dates of employment with that on their resume, as well as check to make sure they have completed the levels of education they say they have. This is important for preventing further problems down the road. You will also want to check and see the amount of time they have spent on the job. Job-hopping can indicate an employee who is generally unsatisfied, which is not what you want if you're looking to retain someone.

Know legalities
There are a number of things you will need to do when you hire new employees, including tax information and permits, if necessary, such as food handler's permits or liquor licensing. You will also need:

 Proof of eligibility for employment. Each new employee must be legally eligible to work in the United States.
 New hire reporting. You will be required to report any new employee to a designated state new hire registry.
 Income tax withholding. Each of your new employees will have to fill out the latest IRS Form W-4.
 Name and social security number. Record each new employee's name and number from his or her social security card for identification purposes. Some employers will take a birth certificate in place of a social security card.

Get feedback
Once you have hired your employees, it's important to continually evaluate them as well as make sure they are happy in their jobs. Make sure they know exactly what is required of them, and make sure they have adequate training; otherwise, they could become frustrated and quit. Give employee reviews annually to make sure they know how they are doing and so you can give advice if needed. It is also important to reward them (not necessarily monetarily) for a job well done. This can also help to retain employees once you have them on staff.

Hiring the right employees is crucial to the overall success of your business. The above tips will help you to hire right as well as retain your employees.

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