Developing your Business: Creating your Core Team 2

The following steps can be used to help you select the right people for your business.

step 1. write a description.

Draw up a description of the job you need doing. This should take into account the current goals and priorities of your business as well as the balance of your current team. For instance, if customers are leaving and no one is trying to find out why, then the business has a problem. What gaps do you have in your existing team?

step 2. write a profile

Draw up the profile of the person you wish to recruit. In selecting people of these key roles it is helpful to begin by listing the skills, strengths and attributes someone would need if they were to fulfil the description you completed in Step 1.

step 3. identify candidates

Candidates can come from a number of sources:

- internal candidates

- people you know in the industry who you can approach

- advertising

- head-hunting.

step 4. the selection process

Be ruthless in drawing up your interview list, using the criteria you have already established.

Highlight a maximum of four of five critical attributes then decide how you will know if a candidate has each of these attributes.

In some jobs it might be appropriate to use alternatives to interviews. For instance you could ask candidates to make a presentation on how they would approach the job. This allows you to assess their presentation skills, knowledge of the area and commitment.

step 5. the interview

There are two ways of approaching this. First, if you have many candidates you might decide to run an initial screening interview. These will be relatively short and can be carried out by one person. The aim is to cut the candidates down to a short list.

If you have only a few candidates to start with you might decide to go straight to the next stage, which is the in-depth interview. This will usually be carried out by two people, the individual's direct boss and one other person.

Compare each candidate to the criteria, not to each other. By the end of the selection process you will then probably find that the choice is obvious. If it isn't, this may be because there are several equally good candidates or because none of them meet the criteria. In the latter case, you may need to start the process again from scratch.

From the Business Team at Learning Curve; offering a range of unique development programmes for small businesses.