Intuit Payroll Blog

Seven Success Strategies for Hiring Great People

To grow your business, you’ll need help. But finding – and keeping – great employees can be a challenge for small businesses. Whether you’re a first-time employer or already have employees, even if you mostly hire contractors, learning the keys to successful hiring can substantially increase your growth and success.

I’ve been hiring great people for over 15 years, and they’ve substantially helped me grow my business. Some have been with me, on and off, for over a decade. And I’ve worked with hundreds of thousands of small companies.

Below are seven strategies for successfully hiring the very best employees. After reading these strategies, be sure to also take advantage of these free hiring resources that Intuit Payroll is providing:

• Sign up to attend my free Hire Your First Employee Webinar; 1/28 at 9:30am PT
• Get a free copy of my book "Hire Your First Employee: The entrepreneur's guide to finding, choosing, and leading great people" at www.IntuitInc.com/Hire. 
  

Now to my strategies:

1. Hire for attitude, train for skill. An eager, smart employee can learn new software, equipment and the ins and outs of your industry, but if they don’t have a good work ethic and attitude, you’re stuck. Of course, if you’re hiring a pilot for your airline, they have to have skills – or a software programmer – but for most jobs, it’s the attitude and intelligence that matters.

2. Develop a clear, thorough job description. This enables you to identify exactly what tasks you need handled, making it easier to understand the kind of person you’re looking for. And you’ll use this to create a compelling help wanted ad.

3. Prepare for interviews. Just as candidates need to do their homework, so do you. Have a list of open-ended questions to ask, read the applications and resumes thoroughly, conduct phone pre-screening interviews (saves you time!) and check candidates out online before you meet.

4. Get creative with benefits. If you think you can’t compete with big corporations on pay, get creative by providing more flexible work hours, a dog-friendly office, impromptu and unusual rewards, or a family-like atmosphere. Remember, one of the best benefits of working for a small company is that employees get to do more and learn more. Give them a chance for growth.

5. Have a clear – but short – personnel manual. List work hours, holidays, vacation and sick leave policy. If there are other issues that are critical to your business (such as safety or customer service concerns), list those too. That way there are no misunderstandings later.

6. Get help with payroll. One of Rhonda’s Rules: use a payroll service if you have even one employee. That’s because making mistakes can cost you big. Even with contractors it’s easy to pay late, forget to file paperwork. Instead, get an easy payroll service, like Intuit Online Payroll, or an accountant to prepare your payroll.

7. Become a great boss. When you get a reputation as a great place to work, you’ll have more applicants, referrals from current employees, and higher retention rates. One key: say thank you and good job! Everyone wants to be acknowledged, and one area where small businesses can do a much better job than big corporations is letting employees know how much you appreciate them. Just saying “thank you” at the end of the day can increase employee loyalty.

Rhonda Abrams, author, entrepreneur, and nationally-syndicated small business columnist for USA Today, is passionate about small business and widely recognized as one of the nation’s foremost experts on small business and entrepreneurship.

Get a Free Copy of "Hire Your First Employee" on Twitter

UPDATE: In an effort to get Hire Your First Employee in as many small business owners’ hands as possible, we are opening up the giveaway to anyone who clicks here! Please note that the rules below no longer apply. Feel free to pass the link on to friends, family and colleagues!

 

Acclaimed small business expert, USA Today columnist and author, Rhonda Abrams, this week released her latest book – Hire Your First Employee: The entrepreneur’s guide to finding, choosing, and leading great people. In her book, Rhonda advises on the hiring process and addresses hot button employee management issues, including how to improve employee management processes with Intuit Online Payroll.

It’s such a helpful resource for small business owners that we wanted to share the love, so we’re giving away free copies of it through Twitter! We want to hear about your wishes and experiences with hiring and managing employees, so look for the question of the day from @IntuitPayroll. If you tweet your answer to "@IntuitPayroll", you will be eligible to receive a free copy of Rhonda’s book - just check your direct message inbox on Twitter to get collection details.

Intuit will send one free copy of Rhonda Abrams' new book, Hire Your First Employee to the first 5,000 people who submit the required contact information online. The Twitter giveaway runs from January 25 through February 5, 2010. Offer available for a limited time only, while supplies last. Limit one book per address. Must have a valid U.S. shipping address. Book will be shipped approximately two weeks after receipt of online submission form. Terms, conditions, pricing, features, service and support options subject to change without notice. Participants are eligible to receive a book by responding to any of the hiring questions posed by @IntuitPayroll, and are not limited to responding to the most recent question tweeted.

Why Background Checks Are Essential to Your Business

It’s always good to minimize your risks when hiring new employees. When looking for an employee, personal referrals help to ensure that you have invited a trustworthy, honest person to join your business. But what if you don’t have the comfort of referral from a known source? In this case, background checks help you from making uninformed hiring decisions and potentially damaging your business. Background checks are an effective way of providing peace of mind during what can be a long and nerve-racking process.

Consider the following (rather sobering) facts:

• One-third of all application forms contain false personal information.
• Three out of 10 business failures are caused by employee theft.
• Average awards in workplace violence lawsuits exceed $1 million.

For every dollar an employer invests in employment screening, the return on investment ranges from $5-16. So background checks are highly beneficial for a business, but doing them yourself can be complicated and time-consuming. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Intuit’s new partner, HireRight, manages the background-checking process and helps you navigate applicable laws and regulations, so you can be confident in who you hire.

Find out more about reducing hiring risk for your business by visiting www.hireright.com/intuit.

Intuit Payroll team

Free Payroll/Employee Management Events this Month

As we learned in last month's Intuit Payroll survey, a significant portion of small businesses are planning to hire within the next 12 months. At the same time, there are challenges to attracting and managing these future employees. If you fall into one or both of these categories, we're offering a series of free online webinars which address many of the common issues you may be dealing with:

• Employee Management and Motivating Your Staff: Wed, Nov. 11th at 9:30am PT
• Getting QuickBooks Payroll Right From the Start: Tues, Nov. 17th at 11:00am PT
• QuickBooks Payroll at Year-End: Wed, Nov. 18th at 11:00am PT
• How to Select the Best Employees: Thurs, Nov. 19th at 11:00am PT

You can register for these events and others at our Intuit Live Events page.

Are the Clouds Beginning to Part?

Our latest Intuit Payroll survey findings are out, and the results give me hope. While unemployment figures have reached a 26-year high, 44 percent of the 1,000 Intuit Payroll customers we surveyed said they plan to hire new employees within the next 12 months. Now, don’t get me wrong — we here at Intuit are not uncorking the champagne bottles quite yet. But we do think this is at least one sign that the clouds are beginning to part.

Although we’ll start seeing more “now hiring” signs hanging in windows, business owners are facing a dilemma when it comes to attracting strong talent. Nearly 90 percent of our survey participants cited health insurance benefits as an important carrot in attracting and retaining good employees. Yet nearly 60 percent don’t actually offer healthcare insurance of any kind.  The most cited reason: high cost.  Employer-provided retirement plans are even scarcer. Just a quarter of the businesses surveyed offer them. 

So what I’m seeing is a widening gap of expectations, in which society assumes that health and retirement benefits are part of every employee’s compensation package, but small business owners are particularly worried about being able to afford the cost of these benefits. And rightfully so.

Now back to the good news. For those of you who are looking to staff up, or even just thinking about it, we’ve put together some useful tips for you on how to get started and manage employees at: http://IntuitOnlinePayroll.com/hire.

These are just a few of my observations. You can make your own by checking out the survey results at: Intuit Payroll Survey Stats. And then come back here and let me know — is this what you’re experiencing in your business?

Nora Denzel is SVP of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions Division. Nora grew up helping run the family business, an organic cattle ranch in upstate New York. 

Accountants: Save the Date for a Free Payroll Virtual Conference

Making Payroll Painless and Profitable

Join this special web event and learn from thought leaders such as Darren Root and Doug Sleeter - find out how thousands of accountants are making payroll profitable and helping their clients save money. The sessions will review the opportunities, products and services that meet the combined needs of both accounting professionals and their clients, at whatever level they choose to be involved with their clients’ payroll.  Attendees will have the opportunity to earn CPE credits and learn from their peers.

Keynote speakers include Darren Root, CPA, CITP, and Executive Editor of CPA Technology Advisor, and Intuit’s Nora Denzel, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Employee Management Solutions.

When:  October 28, 2009, 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time

For More Info or to Register for Free: http://events.unisfair.com/rt/vcon09~payroll

Intuit's Commitment to Accounting Professionals

Are you an accounting professional interested in how Intuit can help grow your business? Are you curious about what our recent acquisition of PayCycle will mean for accountants? Check out this 10-minute interview with Intuit's Director of Marketing for Payroll Services (Cameron Schmidt) to find the answers to these questions, and to learn more about how we're working with accounting professionals and small businesses to meet their needs. For more information on Intuit Payroll solutions for accountants, check out this overview.

PayCycle Gets a New Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." – Shakespeare

PayCycle was acquired by Intuit a little over a month ago.  Since then, I’ve been adjusting to the new environment.  I’ve slogged through a dizzying-- albeit very pleasant-- array of new benefits, navigated and gotten lost on the new Intranet, and struggled to remember the names and functions of the bevy of new co-workers I’ve met.  Despite the changes though, I’ve been very gratified to learn that the core mission of PayCycle, now Intuit Online Payroll and Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals, remains the same.  That mission is to delight our customers with our product and our excellent service.  One of Intuit’s operating values is that our customers define quality and I think that perfectly expresses the approach and philosophy with which we will continue to address our customers’ needs. 

New name, same value, same service, same customer commitment.  Being able to deliver on the same promise I’ve made to customers over the last five years makes me very proud to now be a Customer Care leader for Intuit!

Kathleen Echeverria

Leader of Customer Care, Intuit Online Payroll

Help Your Favorite Local Business Win a $1,000 Grant!

Do a good deed.  Pay it forward.  Build good Karma. 

"Love a Local Business" is your chance to help your favorite small businesses thrive.  A few kind words of praise will put your favorite businesses on the Love a Local Business map (click "Put Them on the Map!" below). Each comment you add gives them a chance to win one of thirty $1000 Intuit Growth Grants.

At the end of each week, 5 of your favorite local businesses will be selected to receive a $1000 Intuit Growth Grant. Each week that you add a new comment, you give them a new chance to win.

You can even nominate your own business! Let your community and customers know why you love serving them.

Do you want to do even more to help the local business you love? You can help increase the odds for your favorite local business to win a growth grant. Add the Love A Local Business widget (ie, the map above) to your own website or blog and ask your friends and fans to support them too. Just click the  image in the widget below to get the embed code.

Good luck!

Intuit Payroll team

Intuit Payroll Survey: SMBs Rely on Themselves, Not Government, for Success

According to a new survey of more than 1,000 Intuit Payroll customers, small business employers in overwhelming numbers are relying on themselves - and not government - to weather the economic climate.

94 percent of those responding say the health of their business depends more on what they can do for themselves rather than on what the government can do for them. In addition, 86 percent do not believe the federal economic stimulus plan will directly benefit their business, while 75 percent do not believe the government offers them enough support.

Saving money tops the lists of concerns among 94 percent of those surveyed, with payroll comprising between 25 and 50 percent of operational costs for many of these employers. Some 47 percent have already reduced their own pay or have not paid themselves at all, while just 22 percent have laid off employees.

Payroll regulations also dominated employers’ concerns, with 84 percent of respondents worried about staying in compliance with federal, state and local regulations to avoid penalties. Their concerns seem justified. This is notable as, according to a recent government report American small businesses are behind on their payroll taxes - to the tune of about $58 billion.

Even with the downbeat economy, employers remain upbeat about growth prospects. Sixty-one percent expect their business to grow in the next 12 months. They plan to invest to fuel that growth, in everything from advertising and marketing (65 percent), employee training and development (55 percent) and new equipment (48 percent). One-third believe it’s important to invest in business or financial software in the coming year to help better manage their business.

But this bullish appraisal does not translate into broader optimism. Some 56 percent of respondents believe the recession will last another two years or more.

For additional results, please check out: Intuit Payroll Survey Stats

Intuit Payroll team