Five Essential Hiring Practices

Written by Jan B. King


Continued from page 1

3. Arrange a peer group interview. This part ofrepparttar process encourages applicants to speak more freely and helps determine how comfortable they will be in working with their peers. Follow up with a meeting of everyone involved inrepparttar 104152 hiring decision to determine if there is a group consensus aboutrepparttar 104153 applicant’s suitability for work at your company.

4. Do a background check. Don’t neglect this, even if it is an employee’s cousin or your competitor’s best salesperson. It’s very easy to set up an account with an investigative firm online and to relatively quickly and inexpensively find out ifrepparttar 104154 applicant has a criminal record or a history of DMV problems, lawsuits involving previous employers, workers’ compensation claims, and so forth.

5. Do a reference check. You can conduct these overrepparttar 104155 phone, but they may involve a request in writing. Reference checking is less effective than it used to be, although you may still find a few people who are willing to talk. Most former employers play it safe and verify only dates of employment and salary.

Document that you took all of these steps and you’ve gone a long way toward protecting yourself against a charge or negligent hiring. And more importantly, you’ve takenrepparttar 104156 first steps toward finding an employee who can trust and with whom you can establish a successful employment relationship.

Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook. See www.janbking.com for more information.


10 Critical Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Consultant

Written by Jan B. King


Continued from page 1

7. Will you teach us to do this work for ourselves and become self-sufficient? How long will this take?

One common trap in using a consultant is becoming dependent on him or her. Fromrepparttar consultant's perspective, this may simply be good business assuring future work for himself, herself or themselves. From your perspective, it may be little better thanrepparttar 104151 status you had before you hadrepparttar 104152 consultant come in.

By making training part ofrepparttar 104153 consultant's job, you can limitrepparttar 104154 chances of a prolonged engagement. Establish a schedule within whichrepparttar 104155 consultant can accomplish his or her goals. Assign a staff person to work closely in this process-and learn everything he or she can.

8. Have you written anything-published or not-that deals with issues likerepparttar 104156 ones this company faces?

Consultants love to write about their experiences and their theories. Sometimes this can be pretty rough reading, but it will usually help you understand howrepparttar 104157 consultant sees markets and business factors that may affect you. Also, management or technical literature can be a good place to look for consultants. Whilerepparttar 104158 latest management guru writing forrepparttar 104159 Harvard Business Review may be beyond your needs and means, you might be able to find useful experts in trade or regional newspapers and journals.

9. How do you charge for services? Do your fees include travel time and other miscellaneous charges or are those billed separately?

There's no set standard for paying consultants: Some work on a straight-fee basis, others work for a fee plus performance bonus, a few work on a contingency basis- tied to sales increases or cost reductions. As with paying any outside contractor, your concerns should be assuring a high quality of work and containing costs within a predetermined bud get. With consultants, focusing their use as specifically as possible will help accomplish both of these ends. Also, make it clear fromrepparttar 104160 beginning what incidental expenses you're willing to pay and how you'll pay them. Consultants who've worked at or for large corporations may be used to expense accounts that you aren't. Be very clear about how much you're willing to spend onrepparttar 104161 whole project or series of projects. Insist thatrepparttar 104162 consultant warn you-in writing-ifrepparttar 104163 project won't be completed on time and within budget.

10. What kind of documentation will you give us whenrepparttar 104164 project is completed? Who will own that documentation?

Keeping a paper trail ofrepparttar 104165 work a consultant does for you accomplishes several ends-all of them good. First, ifrepparttar 104166 consultation has worked well, this will usually give you some forms and tools that you can use to improve some part of your performance. Second, it allows you to keep a record ofrepparttar 104167 analyses made of your company andrepparttar 104168 responses you've taken. This kind of "scrap book" can be a big help when dealing with future problems or other consultants. Third, it makes clear whatrepparttar 104169 consultant did-and didn't do-while working for you. If any disputes should emerge over payment or ownership or confidentiality, you'll have some support. In general, all work (including spreadsheets, computer programs, mechanical devices or literature) a consultant does for you is your property. Sometimes-especially inrepparttar 104170 cases of devices and literature-this becomes an issue. Make it clear fromrepparttar 104171 beginning that you want to own everything that comes fromrepparttar 104172 consultation.

Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook. See www.janbking.com for more information.


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