The Business Coach with Laura Murphy: Recruiting my first employee

Question: “I’m thinking of recruiting my first employee to do the admin and worried I’ll get the wrong person. What should I do?” Ellie
By The Newsroom
Published 8th Nov 2012, 11:49 BST

Answer: “The first thing is to get advice from an HR specialist about recruitment and employment legislation. It means investing time and money in getting it right but it’s not as expensive as you think and could save you a lot of money in the long term.

So what constitutes “wrong” for you? If it’s skill set you’ll solve that problem by analysing exactly what you want the person to do and writing a job description. For this role you’ll get a lot of applications from people with the skills you’re looking for so is the next “wrong” culture fit?

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It’s instinctive to recruit someone who matches your personality but this won’t necessarily add value. Better to think about what you need to complement you and bring added potential to the business. With a first employee it’s tempting to recruit someone with experience: it gives you a sense of security. Remember though you should be looking to the future so assess the potential to learn as well and give those who perhaps don’t have experience consideration as well.

Know yourself, know where you want to take the business (a coach can help you with that) and then pick the person who can best aid you in doing that. Take your time and finally, remember a recruitment drive is also a PR exercise so treat all applicants with respect and reply to them.”

Laura is an organisation development specialist and executive coach with mtc2 ltd.  To solve your problem email [email protected] Tweet @WayfinderWoman Names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality.