Obviously, hiring office staff and hiring drivers is very different. Each job requires different types of people and different skill sets.

When hiring office staff, I will give anyone a try. I really love hiring people fresh out of college. They haven’t worked many other jobs and you can mold them any way you want. They can take some extra time when you first hire them, due to their lack of experience, but usually they are eager to work and will try any type of job.

A great way to test this theory out is by employing summer interns. I hire two to three interns every summer. I have been lucky enough to have a couple come back for multiple summers and winter breaks. I also had one that stayed with us for a couple of years. If you find a good one, offer them a job after graduation. This saves you so much time by avoiding training someone new.

Over time, I have also found that people from large companies don’t work well in our office environment. We expect people to be flexible and their job can change from day to day due to the fact that we are a small business. People who came from a large corporation are used to a lot of rules and structure. It is very hard for them to adapt to our office environment. 

My last rule for office staff is that they have to be a good fit with the rest of the employees. We have all hired that person who just rubbed other people the wrong way. It sounds ridiculous, but it is true and it actually happens a lot. Those people just mean wasted time for you when you’re forced to deal with petty disagreements. Save yourself the stress and be aware of the warning signs when you have a fox in the chicken coop.

The most important thing to remember when hiring is that everyone you hire may not work out. I generally have a two-week rule. You can tell within the first couple of days if the new hire is going to be able to do the job. But I try to give everyone at least two weeks to show me what he or she can do.

If they aren’t capable of doing the job or if they just aren’t a good fit, it is best to cut your losses early and find someone else. In any small business, you just don’t have the time or the resources to waste on bad employees.

TIPS FOR TRAINING THE NEW EMPLOYEE

So you found your new office employee and they start on Monday. Now what do you do with them?

General Overview   

The first thing we do is give them a good idea of what our company does. We go over territories that we service, products that we offer, dispatch offices, etc. I don’t expect them to remember everything that I tell them in this first meeting, but this basic information helps them understand what they see, hear and do over the next couple of weeks.

Paired with a Seasoned Employee

We then move them to a lead employee to listen in. Depending on whether they are hired for customer service or special events, I then put them with the busiest desk in that specialty. For example, if the person was hired for customer service, I pair them with our New York desk, as it is by far our busiest. I also make sure that they are sitting with a seasoned employee. You don’t want them to learn incorrectly. That is just a waste of everyone’s time. The newbie generally sits with that person for a day or two, just listening in on calls and watching him or her work. This also allows me to see how “into” the job they are. Some people really listen and ask good questions. Others just sit there and waste our time.

Learn the System

The next step is to have the new hire learn our computer system. The system isn’t hard to learn, but there are seven tabs of information screens per customer and it takes time to learn where everything is.

The best way to learn is to start putting in orders. We have them put in a couple of orders with someone sitting with them. They are given a step-by-step process to follow, but the other person is there for any questions or problems. But after a couple of orders, it is really important to cut the strings and let them try everything on their own.

On their Own

At that point, we have them start to work on their own and then someone periodically checks their orders for mistakes. Making a mistake isn’t a bad thing, but I want to catch it before one of my drivers goes miles out of his way. It is important to show this new hire their mistakes so they can learn from them and avoid them going forward.

This whole process takes about two weeks. I expect questions and mistakes after that time period, but you really want to hire someone who can do the job without you holding their hand. After all, you have a job to do, too.

About the Author: Alexandra Townsend is co-owner of A Royal Flush, based in Philadelphia.

Do you have rules you follow when hiring? What qualities do you look for when hiring office staff? How do you weed out applicants that won’t be a good fit for you company?