Hiring a new employee is a big commitment, consider the need and prepare.

1.  Hiring: a help or a hindrance?

Everyone is tired and morale is low. Customers are being minimally serviced but other important tasks are falling by the wayside.

When these circumstances arise, it is difficult to know if you should hire a new employee. Often, existing employees think that having an additional resource will solve all their workflow problems.

This is not the case and sometimes hiring a new employee can actually make things worse. The decision to hire a new employee is often the hardest decision an owner makes. Finding a new employee is not only expensive and a lot of work, it is also relatively permanent.

2.  So, you have decided to hire…now what?

Drafting a position description will allow you to evaluate whether your firm needs a new employee.

It may seem bureaucratic for a start-up, mission-driven, “can-do” organization to draft position descriptions. Writing out the tasks will ensure that you are establishing a bona-fide position that will add value to the organization. Ultimately, you will want to describe the position in concise, clear language. Initially, however, you should be as verbose and descriptive as possible.

This will enable you to think of the skills required to perform these duties. Once you have all the possibilities for tasks the new employees will perform you can begin to cull the list make it more manageable.

When carving out a position from existing employee functions pay attention to the connectedness between positions. Be sure to discuss the position with existing employees to verify that the new position will not overlap too much with your other employees.

Employees want to have ownership of an entire task or process. This will reduce stress levels and allow everyone to excel.

The ideal position description has five components:

1. Position title that describes the nature and level of the work performed
2. Two sentences that describe the primary function and general purpose of the job
3. [Up to] eight essential duties that will comprise the position, listed in order of importance
4. Position qualifications
5. Special considerations (physical environment, physical effort, commercial driver’s license, Ability to speak Spanish, etc)

The final product should be gender neutral and use objective language.

Next page- Hiring consideration #3 and Summary