Tag Archives: hiring employees

The Rewards and Challenges of Hiring People

When you first start your small business you might not have the funds available to hire people. But as time goes on and you start to turn a profit or you get financial assistance and things start to get a little busy, you might want to consider hiring some help. Let me help you explore some of the rewards and challenges of hiring people to your new small business so that you can reason your way through this important decision.

Rewards

There are a number of rewards to hiring people to consider:

  1. Help! The most obvious reward of hiring someone is that you get the help you have probably are desperately in need of to really launch your small business. You can assign someone to the dull details of running the company while you work on your vision for growth and new products or services. Oh, and you actually get to take an actual lunch once in a while.
  2. It’s a tax deductible business expense. Employee wages are tax deductible. You might also be able to deduct reimbursed employee expenses that you’ve paid out of pocket, like uniforms, tools and training.
  3. More brain power. Two heads are better than one. You may find that hiring someone else to help you will add value to your business in ways you never imagined. Hiring the right person can add a new level of insight and innovation to your business.

Challenges

  1. Recruiting can be costly and takes time. It may seem like this is the easiest part of hiring someone, but the recruitment process can be time consuming and expensive. When you hire someone you want to make sure that you find someone who’s really qualified, so you’ll want to post ads on hiring websites, take your time sorting through applications and of course interview people.
  2. When it doesn’t work out. Another challenge that you may face when hiring someone is coming to a point where you realize that the new hire isn’t working out for your business needs. It can be difficult to let someone go and they might qualify for unemployment benefits, which could cause your state employment tax rates to increase.
  3. There’s a lot you need to learn and know. Your state likely has an entire handbook of information related to employment laws. You are required to follow them to the letter to avoid problems. For instance, there are rules about break times, full-time versus part-time hours and overtime pay that you must follow. And of course you’ll need to hire a payroll processing company to figure out the proper employee withholdings and issue checks.

So Is It Time to Hire Someone?

Take all these considerations into account when deciding if it’s the right time to start hiring people. If you’re still unsure, try hiring a qualified W-9 worker (independent contractor) to see how things work out, then make the step of getting a full-time or part-time W-4 employee.



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How to Motivate Employees to Love Their Jobs

Anyone who runs or manages a small business knows how difficult it can be to keep employee morale high. According to a recent Gallop poll, 70 percent of Americans don’t enjoy showing up to work each day. This just won’t do if you want your business to thrive—your employees play a vital role in the success of your company. If you can somehow motivate them to start to love (or at least strongly like) doing what they do, it will be beneficial for everyone involved.

Don’t Neglect Praise

It’s essential to give praise to your employees when it’s deserved. Many managers feel as if doing so will show a weakness of some sort, but it can actually serve to improve the employee’s job performance by leaps and bounds. Relate this to your own life—if your spouse or a loved one gives you genuine thanks and praise for completing a task, doesn’t it make you want to do it more and even better the next time? One caveat: be sure that you’re being genuine in your praise; you don’t want your employees to think that you’re reaching or being patronizing with them.

Limit the Rules

It’s important for every workplace to have rules, but restricting your employees too much will most likely cause them to develop a strong distaste for their jobs. Don’t lose an otherwise very strong employee because he took a seven-minute bathroom break instead of five—that type of nitpicking is counterproductive and doesn’t look at the bigger picture for your business. Give employees room to breathe if you want them to love their jobs.

At the same time, if an employee is completely disrespectful of all of your business rules even after several warnings, it may be best to let him go and give another qualified person a shot at the job. Too much contention with an employee who refuses to get with the program will create a tense relationship, and tension is a strong barrier to motivation.

Reward Employees with Meaningful Gifts

One of the best ways to get your employees to truly love what they do is to show your appreciation with gifts from time to time. A pat on the back is nice, but giving your employee a pair of tickets to the next home game of his favorite basketball team is even better. The gift has to be meaningful, which is why you should know a thing or two about each of your workers’ interests besides their work performance. The occasional meaningful gift shows that you have good will towards your employees, and they’ll respond to this in ways that you might not have ever expected.

To put it simply, employees who love their jobs are more productive. Since your job as a small business owner is to increase productivity, getting them to love their work more is highly beneficial to you and your company’s performance. If you can keep the level of motivation high, everyone involved will have something to gain.