All business owners want employees who are the “total package” with great experience, skills, work ethic, and overall attitude. But it can be tough to find that person in your job market, and if you do, you may not be able to afford to hire them. How do you get who you need in that role on your budget?
Whether you need to backfill a departing person’s position or staffing up to expand your business, finding the right person for a specific role can be a chore. Between sourcing, scheduling, and interviewing prospective candidates, and potentially filling empty shifts while hiring, your time can be heavily impacted. But there are other options – including training a current employee to take on the new responsibilities. Here are some things to think about as you consider the best approach for your pet-focused business.
Hiring New Employees
For many business owners, hiring someone new is appealing for a variety of reasons. It gives you a chance to add qualifications and skills that your team may not currently possess. These include expertise with new tools and techniques that they can teach to their colleagues (and you). They may bring additional certifications that allow you to offer a new service or develop a new product. For example, hiring a dog trainer who is also certified in pet nutrition could inspire plenty of ideas for a pet hotel owner.
But what’s the downside? The cost in both time and money.
According to Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), the more experienced and higher skilled the position, the longer it will typically take to fill. Not surprisingly, it can range from a few weeks to several months. What can make it even more challenging to find the right person is the size of your marketplace. If the pool of potential candidates is relatively small because the area is not densely populated or the skills required aren’t widely available, it can take a very long time to find someone. So if you are looking for an aquarist for your pet emporium located in a high desert town with a population of 9,438 – it could take a while.
On average, hiring a new employee can cost between $3,000 and $5,000 to recruit, hire, and onboard. Even if you are looking to hire an entry-level employee in a small business, it can still end up costing you as much as $3,500. Plus, you are competing with other businesses hiring at that same time and in the same area.
Once hired, regardless of skill set, there will still be a period needed for training and acclimating to your way of doing business. Depending on your onboarding process and complexities of the job, it can take from a few weeks to a year – or more – for your new hire to be fully productive.
