How to Hire: 5 Essentials Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know
Hiring any employee is a big step. You’re investing time, money, and trust into someone to help grow your business. With all of that on the line, jumping into hiring without preparation can be a costly mistake. At Chesney Consulting, I’ve seen how skipping key steps creates headaches and more problems—and how being prepared makes all the difference.
Let’s break down what happens when you skip these five essentials versus what happens when you put them in place. This guide will show you how to hire effectively, especially how to hire as a small business owner so that your next hire is a success.
1. A Clear Job Description and Professional Job Posting 📝
When You Skip It: Clear job descriptions result in 30% more qualified applicants. You’ll attract candidates who aren’t a good fit or miss out on strong applicants altogether. A vague or unprofessional job posting makes it hard for candidates to see if they’re the right match and can give the impression that your business isn’t as serious as others.
When You Implement It: You’ll clearly define the role—outlining responsibilities, qualifications, and key tasks—to attract candidates with the right skills and experience. A professional job posting shows your business is organized and serious, helping you make a great first impression and pull in top talent. An added bonus here is that it also helps your company better understand the position, which ensures you’re hiring for the exact needs of your business and not just offloading tasks randomly. This clarity makes onboarding smoother and the new hire more productive from day one.
2. A Structured Interview Process 🎤
When You Skip It: Research shows that structured interviews are significantly more accurate at predicting job performance than unstructured ones. Without a structured interview process, you’re left relying on gut feelings or unorganized conversations. This often leads to inconsistent evaluations and poor hiring decisions.
When You Implement It: You’ll use an interview sheet with questions for each round, a scoring system to evaluate responses, and guidance on what to look for in answers. This ensures fair, consistent evaluations and makes it easier to spot the candidate who’s the best fit for your team. When working with clients, I often hear something like, “I know what a bad answer looks like, but I don’t know how to tell if an answer was good.” Having guides for what you are looking for from each question can solve this problem, giving you confidence in your decisions.
3. Clear Job Expectations 📋
When You Skip It: Your new hire will feel lost and unsure of what’s expected of them. This often leads to confusion and frustration that can hurt their productivity. For small business owners, this can create costly delays and missed opportunities. Clear, well-defined expectations are one of the top three indicators of employee success. Without them, your new hire will struggle to meet your standards, leaving you or your team to pick up the slack—something counterproductive to the reason you hire them.
When You Implement It: You’ll set clear expectations about their role, including daily responsibilities, communication standards, and performance benchmarks. This alignment helps your new hire feel confident and purposeful from day one.
4. First 90-Day Expectations 🚀
When You Skip It: A lack of clear goals during the first 90 days can make it harder for your new hire to integrate, leading to low employee morale and underperformance. It’s hard to do your job if you don’t know what is expected of you. As a result, one in three new hires will leave a job within the first 90 days due to poor onboarding experiences.
When You Implement It: You’ll create a clear roadmap with specific, achievable goals for the first 90 days for the job expectations you put together. This plan will detail when trainings will take place and when new responsibilities will be assigned. By doing this, you set your new hire up for success, boost their confidence, and ensure they understand how their work contributes to the business. It also reinforces their confidence in your leadership and vision for their role.
5. Position-Specific SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) 📂
When You Skip It: Without clear processes, training takes longer and leaves room for errors. Your new hire will frequently need guidance, which slows down productivity and increases frustration for both of you.
When You Implement It: You’ll create detailed SOPs that provide step-by-step instructions for key tasks. This ensures your new hire can work independently and confidently, reducing the learning curve and allowing them to contribute more quickly. SOPs not only streamline training but also establish consistency across the team, making your operations more efficient and scalable.
Why This Matters 💡
Skipping these steps often leads to costly mistakes, high turnover, and wasted resources. But when you prepare, you’re not just hiring—you’re building a team that helps your business thrive. These essentials set your business and your new hire up for long-term success.
Want More Tips for Building a Stronger Business?
At Chesney Consulting, I help business owners simplify their hiring processes and create systems that work. Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular insights and actionable advice on hiring, managing your team, and running a more efficient business.
