It is essential to hire the right employees and to keep them happy and productive. The first step is to list the qualities of an excellent employee. This list will help you in the hiring process. Every small business should be recruiting consistently looking for quality employees.

New employees should be hired for behaviors and attitudes and not for skills. It is much easier to teach the skills needed to do the job. Many times people in different industries will have fresh ideas and approaches to improve your small business operations. Behaviors and attitudes are difficult to change for most employees.

Make a list of the character traits needed for the position you are  hiring for. Write ads and signs that attract the applicants you are looking for. Be as specific as you can. Ask probing questions and learn how they handle situations in the past. A good question to ask when starting the interview is “Tell Me About You”. You might be surprised at the answer. Give the employees plenty of actual work examples and see how they would resolve the issue. You should do a reference check for all qualified applicants. You could visit their place of work to see the applicant in action.

Having specific key employees involved with the hiring process will reduce the odds of a bad hire. The key employees could be to listen, role-play or ask a few questions. The most important part of the key employee will be the feedback about the applicant.

                      Employee Education 

Do you believe in training employees? I do not. You train animals. Employees should be educated. Training leads to high competence in a particular skill. It prepares an employee for a specific job. Educating employees enable them to deal and solve a broad range of problems. This way you can empowered employees to do more. This leads to increase satisfaction and better customer service.

All employees need to understand the mission of the company. In the daily grind of working in a Small Business, employees may forget the goals of the business.

Educating employees is so much more than training. It will allow your employees to be more productive. They can handle more complex situations instead of quoting company policy. Most customers could not care about company policy. Once a customer hears the words “company policy”, you have made the situation worst. Customers want to hear what you can do, instead of what you cannot.

There are many methods to educate employees. I suggest using as many as possible. Role - Playing is a one way to give the employees invaluable experience with possible small business situations.

  Educating employees should be continuing. Many employers will train at the beginning, but let the longer term employees slide. Educated employees can make better decisions, thus lessening the workload for everyone. All employees should be cross trained. It keeps the job interesting for long-term employees. Additionally, it helps the small business during vacations and illness. For example, when someone is on vacation, sick or someone has quit. This way someone can fill in and do the job. By giving employees challenges regularly will keep them interested and excited in their work.

New employees should have a mentor at the beginning. More experienced employees can share their wisdom regularly. The mentor can help a new employee become productive more quickly.

Some longer term employees may need a mentor. This is true for employees looking to be promoted. A more experienced employee can share their wisdom and cut down the learning curve.

You should have a continuous training on Customer Service, Sales, and anything else you can think of.  The training needs to be interactive and changing. I went to many boring meetings over the years that were a waste of time. Get all employees at the meeting involved will help with the learning process. It will be better, if you can think of various ways to make it fun. Some of your employees may be able to help you with that.

Companies need to reward employees for creativity. Letting employees get involved with the problem solving aspects of the Small Business is just good business management. Most employees want to make a difference for the place they work. This gives the employees not just a chance to do a job but to have a positive impact on the small business. Actions mean much more than words.

Get more tips and strategies reading our articles on dealing with employees.