Recruiting permanent staff for your company

[abhigreen]

Hi,
I have been contracting for 2 years now. However, there was always an ambition to grow into a small consultancy focussing on a particular niche in IT.

I am planning to recruit 1 permanent staff to begin with this year. I wanted to know if anyone else has done it, and if there were any lessons learnt that they are happy to share.

I am especially keen to understand how to make this staff billable - do we apply for contractor roles (in our niche) posted on job boards or do we go to our network, spreading the word about an available resource.

Thanks
Abhi

[kevpuk]

[abhigreen]

Recruiting permanent staff for your company

But I know, I will live to tell the tale - definitely on this forum.

Anyone else, lived to tell the tale? Appreciate your experience if you have done it.

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

Hi,
I have been contracting for 2 years now. However, there was always an ambition to grow into a small consultancy focussing on a particular niche in IT.

I am planning to recruit 1 permanent staff to begin with this year. I wanted to know if anyone else has done it, and if there were any lessons learnt that they are happy to share.

Important pointers are things like having a contract of employment in place, adhering to NMW regulations, having employer liability insurance, allowing statutory rights such as maternity/paternity/sick pay etc etc - The list goes on!

If you haven't already, get an accountant who can advise you on the setup and a solicitor to draw up an employment contract if necessary.

I hope this helps.

Martin

[northernladuk]

I am especially keen to understand how to make this staff billable

Do you not think there is a slight flaw in your business plan?

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I am especially keen to understand how to make this staff billable

Simple.

1. Get work
2. Bill at a daily rate that makes a good margin over an above an equivalent daily rate for the employee (calculated based on their salary + other employment costs)
3. Profit?

[abhigreen]

Recruiting permanent staff for your company

Do you not think there is a slight flaw in your business plan?

Hmm, no, its just like when you decide to go contracting. You study the market, resign mostly without a job offer (in my line of work, notice periods are 2-3 months for perm staff). Hopefully, the demand for your skills is there, and you land a job just before or after your last working day.

Clients are not willing to wait for 2-3 months to place contractors on a specific job. I have studied the market, know that a niche exists. I will try to place him first at my current client (there are definitely opportunities now), but who knows what will happen in 2-3 months time. So, what mode should I use to place him then.

This question also is relevant if the first client work for the new employee is assured, but what happens when that comes to an end.

[GillsMan]

My permie staff has been with me since June. She actually worked for one of my clients, so I knew her, trusted her and we work well together. She's not an admin - in fact, I do more admin than her - she does some of the consultancy and development stuff that I do.

In terms of getting her doing billable work, at first I'd talk to potential clients in interviews/prospective meetings about how I had a staff who could help out with the project I'm working on, this would impress them, I'd bring her in and meet the client, not billing for her time, then gradually she took over my day-to-day role, allowing me to find more business. This worked a couple of times for me.

Next, when we get enquiries from potential new clients, I put them on to her if the project looks small and easily manageable.

She's not directly earning her salary (she's on £35K), which I measure by looking at the invoices generated 100% by her work, but our turnover has increased by more than her salary, so she's allowed us to take more lucrative work.

One thing that made it viable for me to bring her on board was the fact that I knew her and trusted her to WFH, so I saved on the expense of an office. We're likely to want to expand again within 12 months if business continues to increase along current rates, and that will be tricky, as I'd probably need to factor in an office.

Basic Tips:

Make sure you have your prospective employee's basic salary for one year, plus what you need as a warchest sitting as cash in your bank account. I took a slight risk and took her on board with maybe only 6 months of her salary and 6 months of warchest for me, and my judgement was correct in the end, but if I'd gotten it wrong, we'd both be screwed.

Never under-estimate how long it takes to properly onboard them and get them used to how you work and how you want to work.

Start as you mean to go on: We did a very formal recruitment process (though she was the only candidate), and notes from the interview are saved on my drive. We've done a mid-year performance review (based on well thought-out appraisal forms), we had an interview at the end of her probation, we've got the full year review schedule, we have monthly one-to-ones to talk about her progress and quarterly meetings to talk about the business as a whole.

Do things professionally. Not only are you a company director, but you're an employer, with legal obligations which must be taken seriously.

Final point: if you need to ask what you need to do to make your staff billable, then I might need to suggest that you don't have a business need for staff currently.

[northernladuk]

Hmm, no, its just like when you decide to go contracting. You study the market, resign mostly without a job offer (in my line of work, notice periods are 2-3 months for perm staff). Hopefully, the demand for your skills is there, and you land a job just before or after your last working day.

Clients are not willing to wait for 2-3 months to place contractors on a specific job. I have studied the market, know that a niche exists. I will try to place him first at my current client (there are definitely opportunities now), but who knows what will happen in 2-3 months time. So, what mode should I use to place him then.

This question also is relevant if the first client work for the new employee is assured, but what happens when that comes to an end.

Why have we had two posters in two days come up with poorly thought out dismal ideas to take on staff in as many days?
I can't believe people think that an idea is a good one without having even the very slightest idea what it's about or willing to apply some common sense to their ideas. I mean, what happens when work comes to an end? What do you think happens? Seriously....

Is it national sockie day or something?

[abhigreen]

Recruiting permanent staff for your company

My permie staff has been with me since June. She actually worked for one of my clients, so I knew her, trusted her and we work well together. She's not an admin - in fact, I do more admin than her - she does some of the consultancy and development stuff that I do.

.............
Final point: if you need to ask what you need to do to make your staff billable, then I might need to suggest that you don't have a business need for staff currently.

Gillsman, thanks a ton. A number of the points apply to me - worked with him, trust him and know that in the future, he will not just be a billable asset.

In terms of making them billable, my question was around the approach really - what is the method to find roles in cases where you don't have a sales team, not enough brand presence to find a job, and where there is no SPECIFIC job waiting for this resource when he finally joins (yes, onboarding will take long)
My current options are
1. look for opportunties at current client
2. look for opportunties at previous client
3. look for opportunities with network
4. apply for contract roles advertised on job boards (completely unsure about this whether it is ok in this scenario, and this is where I would appreciate advise really)
5. what else