Tips for Making Your First Full-Time Hire

Are you tired of feeling like you’re on an island, surrounded by orders you’re struggling to fulfill on your own? Do you wish that marketing was something you’d never have to do again? Is there something you’ve been trying to get to for months that you can’t seem to get off the back burner? 

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re likely ready to make your first full-time hire. An extra set of hands can go a long way in growing your business. But, if you’re a new ecommerce business owner you might be wondering… how do I even go about making my first full-time hire? 

By the end of this blog post, you’ll feel prepared to make your first, full-time hire! 

What are the pros of making your first full-time hire?

• Expanded Bandwidth: You can finally offload tasks that are draining your time and energy. Say goodbye to (some of) your busy work! 
• Strategic Focus: With someone handling some or all of the day-to-day work, you can focus on growth and high-level decisions.
• Momentum Boost: Bringing someone on full-time can re-energize your business and push you to level up. Plus, you’ll have someone to bounce ideas off of. 
• Accountability Partner: Having a teammate encourages structure, consistency, and follow-through. Maybe you don’t always do the things you’ll ‘get to tomorrow’ when it comes to yourself. But an employee requires you to accomplish the tasks you tell them you will. 
• Stronger Brand Presence: With dedicated help, you can improve customer service, marketing, or product delivery.
• Long-term Investment: Your first hire could become a foundational part of your business and culture.

What are the cons of making your first full-time hire?

• Notable Financial Commitment: Full-time salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes add up quickly.
• Time-Intensive Onboarding: Training and ramp-up can take significant time away from everything you’ll still need to get done to complete your day to day tasks. 
• The Paperwork: Full-time hiring comes with compliance requirements, contracts, and HR tasks. Yes, even just one employee. 
• Risk of Low ROI: If the hire isn’t a good fit, you may not recoup the investment of time and money.
• Culture Fit Stakes Are Higher: You’ll likely be working with this person a lot. Beyond whether or not they can do their assigned tasks, do you want to spend time with them? 
• Less Flexibility: It’s harder to adjust or scale back when you’ve committed to a full-time role. People normally take full-time jobs for stability. 
• Poor Training = More Work: Without clear systems in place, onboarding and management can become overwhelming. Which may leave you thinking, “This was faster when I just did it myself” long past the hire’s training period. 

How to Prepare Your Business For a Full-Time Hire

Once you’ve determined that you are ready to bring on an extra set of hands for 40 hours a week, the next step isn’t to post a job. 

Make sure you’re prepared to bring on a full-time hire by ensuring your business is legally and financially prepared. That includes registering with your state, setting up payroll systems, understanding your tax obligations, and reviewing labor compliance (like posting mandatory workplace signage). 

For a comprehensive list of tasks to prepare for a hire, check out our blog post on making your first part-time hire. 

You’ll also need to determine what you’ll need to save to hire someone. This doesn’t just include 60 to 90 days of wages for this person. You’ll also need money for:

• New equipment (computer, work station, uniform, etc)
• Social security taxes
• Medicare taxes
• Payroll taxes
• State unemployment tax
• Training resources
• Recruiting fees

Benefits can cost up to 20% of the employees wages or more, so it’s important to have a healthy savings to cover all the expenses of hiring someone. 

Not sure if your business is ready to hire someone full-time? In our post on hiring your first part-time employee, we shared some tell-tale signs you’re ready to make your first time hire. These tips also apply to full-time hires. 

The Hiring Process

Once you have everything in place to bring someone on, it’s time to start the hiring process. 

Create a Job Posting

The worse your job posting is, the more likely you are to receive bad candidates. Or you could decrease your visibility online and get little to no applicants. Great job descriptions help candidates determine if they’re qualified or not for your position–saving everyone time. 

Clear and concise language enables quick scanning. Avoid jargon and try to use neutral wording to avoid bias. Be sure to highlight the unique aspects of your business and the role.

When writing your job post, skip the jargon and focus on clarity. Here’s what candidates expect to see:

• What the job is
• What they’ll be doing
• What it pays
• Where and how they’ll work
• What you offer in return

Where should I post my job opening to find candidates?

There are lots of places you can post your job opening to find qualified candidates. First, consider your own network and circles. Do you know anyone who might be a good fit for this job? Or, do you know anyone who might know someone? 

The wider your network, the more likely you’ll be to fill your roll without having to post it anywhere but your website. 

If you know your networks don’t have the kind of expertise you’re looking for you can post to job boards, social media, and industry-specific forums. Consider what kind of job you’re posting before sharing it anywhere, and determine if the medium is a good fit. 

For example, it may be hard to find a qualified CPA on TikTok, but it could be a great place to find a social media manager. 

When posting on social, upsell the company culture with photos, graphics, and videos. Include a short job description encouraging people to apply with a link to the application in your bio or the text. If you don’t have a large social following, boost the post to increase visibility. 

Sometimes it’s helpful to post in more than one place to attract a diverse group of candidates. Especially if you’re not entirely sure what kind of person will be the best fit for the role.

The Interview Process

The interview process is broken down into two parts, screening and interviews. 

As you begin to sort through applications, you’ll want to look for candidates who have an interest or passion in what you do or a lot of experience in the role you’re hiring for. Depending on the level of skill needed will determine how much you’re willing to give someone a shot with little to no experience. 

Next, develop a screening process to shortlist candidates by checking their resume, cover letter, or CV for qualifications and professionalism. Check for employment gaps and information inconsistencies. Vague language or formatting inconsistencies could indicate that someone is mass applying for jobs. 

Give grace for candidates who might have learning disabilities, non-native english speakers, or other people who might thrive in your role with some accommodations. Keep in mind it is illegal to look up candidates online, as you don’t want to access protected information like sex, race, and nationality. 

Once you have your shortlist of applicants, it’s time to set up a phone screening. 

For each screening, try to keep conversations under 30-minutes. You’ll share the qualifications and the job details again during the conversation to avoid candidates who aren’t actually interested in your job. After that you can set up a virtual or in person interview. 

This interview can be longer – the length is often dependent on the role. Prepare questions that will help you get a full picture of the person’s skills, experience, and cultural fit. Ask about their career goals, skills, experience, strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments. 

Once the interviews are complete, you can also set up a test project to put their skills to the test. While it’s easy to say the right things, it’s harder to deliver an exceptional project when you don’t know what you’re doing. 

As a last step (to avoid a discrimination lawsuit) conduct thorough reference checks on your candidates. 

The Last Step: Making the Offer

You’ve found the right person for your job and you’re ready to make an offer. Congratulations! 

Before you make the offer, double check that you’re offering competitive compensation. Research industry standards for salary and benefits, including perks like flexible hours, remote work, professional development, and more. 

When you have the compensation package dialed in, draft the offer letter. Your offer letter should include all the essentials: who they’ll report to, when they’ll start, what they’ll be paid, and what’s expected of them. Be thorough—this document sets the tone for the relationship.

Once they accept, you’ll need them to fill out a W-4 to get started. You’ll report any new hires to the state registry. 

Once the candidate accepts the job, send a rejection letter to anyone you won’t be moving forward with. It’s nice to let people know you’ve decided to go in another direction. It’s also a good idea to hold onto any applications that you might want to hire in the future. 

The Good News About Making Your First Full-Time Hire

The good news about making your first full-time hire is that the first one is often the hardest. You have to get a system and all your processes in place. But, once you get everything together once, you’ll be able to do it much more efficiently for your second, third, or fourth hire. 

Best of luck in finding the right fit for your organization!

Doing anything for the first time as a business owner can be tricky. At Polygon, we send out helpful information via our newsletter for entrepreneurs and ecommerce business owners. Sign up today via the link at the bottom of this page. 

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