Thursday, March 04, 2010

On hiring employees for your indie biz

I've been thinking about starting a new series with my Craft Venture column on papernstitch about how to hire staff.  I spent a lot (LOT) of time learning how to make better hiring decisions in my previous life as a manager.  I moved from 100% bad decision to 99% great decisions during my time at Stanford.  Lately, my fellow biz owners have been talking about needing/wanting to hire a helper, but not sure how to go about it, particularly hiring someone who will do great work and care about their business.

I'd love your input!  What do you think about such a series?  Major yawn or does it fill you with hope?  What would you love to learn more about?  I've included a list below to maybe help you think through possibilities:
  1. Legal questions to ask during interviews (and illegal to avoid).
  2. What kind of paperwork is needed.
  3. How do you check references.
  4. Why check references.
  5. Making sure you hire someone who's motivated and a skilled learner.
  6. Learning how to take control over the entire process.
  7. How to let people off the hook gracefully.
  8. How to weed out applicants that you don't want.
  9. How to train yourself to quickly review resumes/applications and even more quickly rule people out.
  10. What to watch out for (the bad).
  11. What to watch for (the good).
What would be your top three choices of the above (or just let me know what you'd love to learn more about)?

Thanks everyone!

3 comments:

Catherine Ivins said...

Hi Brenda- great idea- I would love info on the legal issues and also advantages/disadvantages to hiring someone to work from their own home vs my studio and also getting clear on their job description

xo- Cat :)

Brenda said...

Those are all great, Cat! Thank you! :)

Ngan {eNVe Designs} said...

I think it's a fantastic idea! I'm nowhere near looking at hiring options, but definitely something to keep in mind for the future. And I'm sure this is a subject that most people don't have a background in and could use your expertise!