What to Think Through Before Hiring Your Next Team Member
Hope you’re having a great week. If you’re thinking about hiring, wanted to send over a few tips on what to think about, outline, and prepare from a non-legal and legal perspective beforehand, and as always, the legal docs you need. Even if you’re not planning on hiring soon, I’d save/print this email for when you are.
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1. Outline Your SOPs Before Hiring
Before you make your next hire, you should think through (and outline) all of the standard operating procedures around this hire. This is more than just your hire’s scope of work: your SOP’s are how you run your business from the inside as well as how you deliver your services to clients, and the nuances of how your hire will perform their tasks.
If the hire is going to be handling some of the tasks you’re currently doing yourself, it can help to walk through your work day and take note of all the tasks you do, how you do them, even filming short Looms you can then have ready as part of your onboarding process to make hiring the next new person even easier.
In the case of social media managers, do you have a standard internal process for creating content/videos? For engagement? If not, you should establish one, outline it, and record it, so it’s ready for all of your new hires.
2. Define Your Onboarding Process
What’s your plan for training new hires? Is there a timeline for training before they start actual work? What does that look like, and how can you create the process and save any related onboarding resources/emails so that they’re ready (and even automated) for the next new hire?
3. Decide on Your Payment Structure
How will you pay the new hire? Will they invoice you? When and how often?
Are you an agency doing payroll? Are there requirements for time or task reporting for your contractors, and if so, when do those reports need to be submitted to you in order for hires to be paid on time?
4. Set Clear Communication Boundaries
How are you available to the new hire? When can they reach you and on what platforms? (i.e. you don’t want to be monitoring Slack, Whatsapp, Voxer, AND your DMs for messages from the new hire). Will you have regular check-ins?
5. Understand Employee vs. Independent Contractor Rules
This is a very important distinction and can have major tax implications. Most first hires are independent contractors, but it’s critical that if you’re hiring a contractor, you treat them like a contractor and not an employee. Employees generally can’t work for anyone else, and hiring employees requires thinking through things like federal and state taxes, workers compensation, unemployment, etc. Independent contractors generally work for themselves and can work for other clients, use their own equipment, can set their own schedule, etc. See #7 for the contracts you need!
6. Gut Check Before You Hire
Are your systems ready to support a new hire? Would hiring someone actually create more work for you right now or are you ready to outsource now? Is this the right time? Does this person have the skill set you need in your business right now?
7. Use the Right Legal Contracts
Contract-wise, employees need a custom, lawyer-drafted employment agreement, while you can use an independent contractor agreement for contractors. Remember: no dueling contracts. If your new hire has their own contract and is reluctant to sign your Independent Contractor Agreement (what I always recommend because it is drafted to protect you as the business owner), make sure you have a lawyer review it first. If they’re going to work directly with your clients, have access to any of your confidential information like financial info, business methods, trade secrets, etc., it’s always a good idea to have them sign a NDA (this is built into our Independent Contractor Agreement, you only need the NDA if you’re signing their contract instead of yours).
If you’re running an agency, I highly recommend working with me or another experienced lawyer you trust for a custom contract for your hires.
As always, let us know if you have any questions!