When you constantly find yourself working until late every week, or you start doing a few hours during the weekend to catch up on work from the previous week and you are still behind – it is time to hire some help.
Finding new talent to fit the bill can be quite difficult, especially with the current number of vacancies in the UK topping the million mark. Nevertheless, once your new recruit starts, more responsibilities come into place to fill up even more of your already busy daily schedule. Planning ahead is essential.

I haven’t had a new member of my team for many years so this process of hiring someone can be somehow exciting and promising, but also quite intimidating, especially if you are going to be directly managing the new employee.
Remember “Perfect planning prevents poor performance”. Part of the hard work is done by the time the recruit starts; writing the job description, getting the right candidates and navigating the world of interviews is just the beginning; but you still must think further in order to effectively integrate the new person to the team.
A few points not to be missed are:

  1. Have a clear and detailed plan for the first month of the new recruit.
  2. Plan all inductions making sure you leave breathing space in between them to avoid saturation. Think about how the recruit has lots to learn about the new job whilst also trying to fit in with the new company environment – this can be very overwhelming.
  3. Allow yourself some free time in the first two weeks so you can dedicate time to train your new employee.
  4. Make sure all IT aspects are ready, if the laptop and email are not ready, the new person won’t be able to work.
  5. Lastly, schedule some time the second week to feedback both ways.

Plan ahead and fingers crossed the process will run smoothly! Finally, good luck to you and your new employee as it could be a bumpy ride!

Luis Berti
Finance Manager