Your business might be innovative, but this does not mean that you cannot simply leave the basics behind you. Starting a recruitment drive can be an exciting time for your business, and you might feel positive and energetic about what the future might bring. However, before you commit to employee staff to support your company’s innovation, here are some of the elements that you sort out before employing team members.
1. Employment Contracts
The first question that you should ask yourself before starting to interview potential additions to your team is ‘Do you have employment contracts?’. Employment contracts are not only there to protect employees. They are there to protect you as well. Even though you might believe that your company is modern and unique, this does not mean that you need to innovate how employment laws work within your business. Employment contracts can prevent you from finding your business head-first in a sticky legal situation that you cannot get out of without financial loss and damage to your reputation. This mean that you should first need to learn how to put together a comprehensive and detailed employment contract that can outline the terms of employment for each of your team members and allow both them and yourself to know where you stand.
2. A Great Working Environment
Not only is a good working environment a must for health and safety, but it is also integral to employee productivity and happiness. Your employees are likely to stay with your company for longer if they cannot wait to get to the office, factory, or store each day and if they feel comfortable at work. A great working environment is just another way of showing your employees just how much you value and appreciate them. This means that you should deck your office out in bright neutral colors and creative décor that can boost the mood of your team. You should create cozy break-out areas for casual meetings and staff breaks, and ensure that your space has all the facilities that they need, such as tea and coffee-making equipment. You should ensure that there is enough light in your office so that your employees do not constantly feel sleepy, and it is vital that you provide desks with ergonomic furniture that can prevent back pain and repetitive stress injuries. It is also important that this office space is cleaned regularly to minimize staff illness and that air purifiers are added into the space.
3. The Right Equipment
You also need to give your staff the tools that they need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. For instance, you should provide them with fast and reliable laptops or computers with all of the software that they require pre-installed onto these systems. Although you might favor hotdesking to reduce the need for so much office space, it is often better for staff to have their own individual desk and laptop so that they always know that there are available resources to complete their work with. You should also look into investing in accessories such as printers so that your team are able to have paper documents to refer to. However, you must constantly inspect and maintain this equipment to ensure that your staff’s working days do not stop in their tracks due to a problem with the tools you have provided.
4. Comprehensive Policies
Your staff will want to know that you have their backs at all times. To do this, you should write an assortment of comprehensive policies that your employees can refer to at all times. These policies will reassure them that you are always on their side and that you have their best interests at heart. These policies should include a discrimination and anti-bullying policy, as well as policies concerning fair dismissal and redundancy, should these be needed. You should make these policies easily available to your team members at all times so that they do not feel as if they have been left adrift if they encounter an issue that they would like sorting out. These policies should outline the steps that you take in each circumstance.
Before you take a giant leap and start to employee staff, it is vital that you take action first to ensure that your business is ready for employees and that they will have an enjoyable and productive time working for you. This could include anything from designing a great office space to developing employment contracts that can ensure that you and your staff have a legal agreement.
