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A A large percentage of companies do not survive their first year, so congratulations on getting your business successfully through the last 18 months. Before starting on recruitment, make sure there’s a proper business plan in place which caters for growing your employee numbers by 200pc and beyond.
It is hard to know by looking at a CV if a candidate is suitable for the post. The role may or may not require a strong academic background. Either way, the letters I often look for are not taught in college, and not obvious on a CV. They are the five letters C O P O N.
If a candidate has cop-on combined with passion, a work ethic, and is aligned with your company’s vision and culture, then you are in luck.
As one becomes two, it’s important that both your personalities gel.
You don’t need someone that thinks the same way as you, but someone who will complement your traits and personality.
Many of these traits are not apparent when reading a CV, so face-to-face interviews are the ultimate test.
When interviewing you need to find out if the candidates have the skill-set to make your life easier so you can spend more time on creative thinking to further grow the business.
What you don’t want is to delegate tasks that end up boomeranging back, and end up causing more stress than assistance.
Initially, it may be hard for you to delegate, as you are so used to doing things yourself and in your own way.
Go into it with a positive mindset and trust whoever is coming on board to do the role as well, if not better, than you.
Before your first employee comes on board, prepare a clear and detailed induction that includes targets, to avoid misunderstandings and clarify expectations.
With just the two of you working closely together, you will have plenty of time to discuss where improvements and changes may need to be made.
Along the way, make sure to schedule a formal review and provide an employee-appraisal form in advance for quarterly reviews.
Remember, not everything works out the first time around, but hopefully you will be as lucky as I was when I interviewed my first employee who had me at “hello” when she walked into the boardroom and was still with me when I sold my company.
Q I have a medium-sized company that has a lot of interaction with the media. Journalists often get in contact with queries and we feature in newspapers and on the radio quite a lot. We use a public relations company, which bills us on a per-day basis. Sometimes the bill is quite high, and they generally refer media queries to someone in the company anyway. Should we hire an in-house PR person instead?
A There is no simple answer to your question without knowing more about your situation and PR objectives. However, if you engaged the services of a PR company in order to free up time to concentrate on other important company assignments and you have ended up doing it pretty much yourself, it would seem sensible to consider employing an in-house PR person.
Replacing the middleman with someone in-house who understands your company culture will reduce the number of emails and phone calls that ask the same thing over and over again. You will also be in a better position to gauge the return on your investment.
If you recruit a full-time PR employee, they could combine that role with marketing and sales. Bottom line: you may well end up with more control of your PR activities, getting better value for money and having more time for important tasks.
About Vicki O’Toole
A mother of five who had spent many years as a homemaker, Vicki O’Toole stepped in as managing director of JJ O’Toole Ltd, Ireland’s oldest packaging company, when her late husband retired in 2008.
She went on to win many awards for her leadership of the Limerick firm, including Image magazine Businesswoman of the Year, and she was a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2018. Four years later, Vicki sold JJ O’Toole Ltd to Zeus and now has a company of her own, Tola Consultancy. A director of Limerick Racecourse, she enjoys mentoring young female entrepreneurs.
If you have a question about your business you’d like to ask Vicki, email finance@independent.ie.
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