Rules for Hiring Great Office Staff

Try the 2-week rule to avoid spending resources on a new hire that isn’t a good fit.
Rules for Hiring Great Office Staff

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When hiring office staff, I will give anyone a try. I really love hiring people fresh out of college. They haven’t worked many other jobs and you can mold them any way you want. They can take some extra time when you first hire them, due to their lack of experience, but usually they are eager to work and will try any type of job.

A great way to test this theory out is by employing summer interns. I hire two to three interns every summer. I have been lucky enough to have a couple come back for multiple summers and winter breaks. I also had one that stayed with us for a couple of years. If you find a good one, offer them a job after graduation. This saves you so much time by avoiding training someone new.

Over time, I have also found that people from large companies don’t work well in our office environment. We expect people to be flexible and their job can change from day to day due to the fact that we are a small business. People who came from a large corporation are used to a lot of rules and structure. It is very hard from them to adapt to our office environment. 

My last rule for office staff is that they have to be a good fit with the rest of the employees. We have all hired that person who just rubbed other people the wrong way. It sounds ridiculous, but it is true and it actually happens a lot. Those people just mean wasted time for you when you’re forced to deal with petty disagreements. Save yourself the stress and be aware of the warning signs when you have a fox in the chicken coop.

The most important thing to remember when hiring is that everyone you hire may not work out. I generally have a two-week rule. You can tell within the first couple of days if the new hire is going to be able to do the job. But I try to give everyone at least two weeks to show me what he or she can do.

If they aren’t capable of doing the job or if they just aren’t a good fit, it is best to cut your loses early and find someone else. In any small business, you just don’t have the time or the resources to waste on bad employees.

About the Author: Alexandra Townsend is co-owner of A Royal Flush, based in Philadelphia.


Do you have rules you follow when hiring? What qualities do you look for when hiring office staff? How do you weed out applicants that won’t be a good fit for you company?



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