When you have a close-knit team working for your small business, you’d sometimes hope you wouldn’t have to change a thing. If you can have the same high-achieving, well-bonded people working for you, you can continue to reap the rewards. However, there might come a time when you need to hire someone new to keep up with demand or replace someone leaving, and you’re concerned about hiring a new employee who doesn’t fit in. Take some of the following actions, and you might not need to worry. 

Perform Psychometric Assessments

More business owners than ever before are beginning to realize that you can hire the wrong people for a role when you measure the wrong qualities. Attempt to rectify that issue by using TRAITS tools to perform psychometric assessments of potential new employees. 

With such tools, you can measure the traits that shape work behaviors, potentially improving your chances of hiring someone who gels with your team and helps your business grow. After performing a psychometric assessment, you can learn whether applicants have crucial work behaviors, such as assertiveness, sociability, detail orientation, and creativity. 

Be Thorough During the Vetting Process

Providing references is standard practice, and you’ll likely have at least two for each applicant you can call to find out more about the person you might hire. As tempting as it can be to skip this time-consuming step and rely on their job application information alone, you can find out who they are through the eyes of someone else. 

Ask past employers about their strengths and weaknesses, how they work, and how they fit into a dynamic team. You might also like to ask your job applicants for past examples of their work where appropriate. 

Introduce Your Team

You might be in charge of hiring, but your team will work closely with whoever you hire. Include current employees in the process so you can be sure that you’ve made the right decision. This can involve letting job applicants sit with other employees for work simulations, informal chats, and even one-on-one discussions. The more time your team spends with an applicant, the easier it might be to make your hiring decision with confidence. 

Be Honest About the Job

While you can encourage prospective new hires to be honest about their strengths, weaknesses, work history, and qualifications, don’t forget to be honest about what new hires can expect from their role. The job description might only show a small portion of what the job entails, and providing further information might ensure they have all the information they need to make an informed decision about working for you, should you offer them the job. 

There is nothing wrong with highlighting the benefits of working for your business, but you might be able to keep expectations in check by ensuring they’re aware of anything that might impact their decision, such as occasional long working hours, overtime, and stress during big projects. 

Hiring the right people for your small team can be an arduous process, especially when you’re concerned about retaining the same dynamic within your workplace. By taking some of the actions above, you might stand the best chance of finding a new employee who fits in as if they’ve always been there. 

Picture: Brooke Cagle 

HR Future Staff Writer