Choosing the right people to hire in your business is of critical importance if your business is to survive and grow.
Needless to say, you must look for workers with the skills, attitudes and personality traits necessary to do the job well. You must choose employees who are willing to work hard and work well, who are willing to be trained and to go on working for you after being trained.
But first things first. Before you start recruiting the “perfect” employees, you have to know your personnel requirements.
You begin by listing down the different tasks that have to be done in the business.
Some preliminary questions to ask are:
- Marketing – Who will make the products? Who will deliver the products to the buyers? to the distributors? Who will handle promotion and advertising? Who will take care of the customers after the products have been sold?
- Production – Who will make the products or deliver the service? Who will operate the equipment? Who will maintain them? Who will take charge of inspection and quality control? Who will keep track of raw material stocks and finished product inventory?
- Finance – Who will keep the records? Who will do the accounts? Who will prepare the weekly payroll?Who will collect the receivables and settle the payables? Who will hold the petty cash?
- Administration – Who will take care of ordering supplies, preparing sales contracts and renewing business permits? Who will prepare quotations and bids? Who will handle personnel records? Who will handle business communications, inquiries and other administrative matters?
- Management – Who will be the general manager? Marketing manager? Production manager? Finance manager? Personnel officer?
For example, in a restaurant business, the jobs to be done include purchasing, cooking and baking, serving, dish washing, cleaning, supervising, promoting/marketing, and bookkeeping and administrative record keeping. In garment making the jobs will include designing, pattern making, cutting, sewing, inspecting, finishing, supervising, packaging, delivery, selling and promoting, accounting/bookkeeping, and administrative work, .
From this list of tasks, cross out the ones that you are taking for yourself.
Would you take care of managing marketing or production? Or would it be selling and promoting? Or would you also handle designing, with your experience in this line of work from a previous employment? Remember, your choices of task assignments for yourself depends on your skills, interest, training, experience, and the amount of time you can devote to the business.
The tasks that remain in the list are those for which you will hire other people. Translate the tasks into job designations or titles. Then determine how many employees you will need for each job title.
Remember that some of the tasks may be combined together and assigned to only one position. For example, your bookkeeper may also be your secretary/administrative assistant; your driver may also be your messenger; and so on.
Below is a sample list of positions with number of people required:
- Sales manager (1)
- Sales assistants (2)
- Cutter/designer (1)
- Sewers (5)
- Inspector/stock clerk (1)
- Bookkeeper/secretary (1)
- Driver/messenger (1)
In the above example, it is assumed that the entrepreneur will be the general manager, production manager, finance manager and personnel manager. You will note that the only management function delegated to an employee is sales.
(to be concluded)
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