NFIB

The Advantages of Hiring More Than One Employee at a Time
04/ 03/ 2002

Many small businesses tend to hire employees one by one as needed -- writing and putting out job descriptions to recruiting agencies, interviewing and evaluating applicants, then hiring and training. This process may be the only option for small companies with uncertain cash flows, but Jeffrey Moses shows in today's Workshop why hiring in groups may be more efficient when possible.

Company managers are usually responsible for hiring. This means that a great deal of management energy is spent each time an applicant is hired. Managers have to be involved with every stage of interviewing and evaluation, and if hiring goes on continuously throughout the year, managers are forced to take ongoing time away from their regular duties.

Whenever possible, hiring in groups is preferable. This allows managers to focus on all the year's hiring at the same time, gathering information needed for job descriptions; writing up requirements; contacting agencies or placing want ads in newspapers, magazines or online; and evaluating incoming requests for application. Group hiring also allows managers to schedule applicant interviews so that they take place within a certain time frame, for example all within the same week or even several days. This focus enables managers to be more effective at the task.

Group hiring also saves time and effort after employees have been brought on board. Initial orientation to the company can often be given to the entire group at once, and may not take much longer than when orienting a single new employee. Also, the company's accounting department can take care of all financial arrangements at once for the group, saving time and energy.

Each new employee will have specific duties, of course, and individual training may be required to actually get a person up and running. This will take place within each department of the company that receives a new employee, and for the same reasons presented above, time can be saved if more than one new employee is entering any specific department.

The hiring of new employees, and integrating them into the ongoing daily operations of a business, often requires quite a bit of time by existing non-management staff. Scattering new hiring throughout the year stretches out this problem, but grouping the hiring of new employees can enable your staff to train, integrate and get back to work.

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