BUSINESS COMMENT
14 • March 2021
Coast River Business Journal
Setting the standard: Hiring and training tools for your business
Learn to lead and they will follow
By Kevin Leahy
Hiring best practices
Executive Director
Clatsop Economic Development Resources
Some people just don’t like managing or super-
vising people. Others seem to have a knack for it and
enjoy it immensely. Can the art of managing people
be learned or is it something we are born with? Like
most skills, it can be learned. Most small businesses
start out with the founder personally doing just about
everything. If the business is successful at some point
it becomes necessary to build a team and this, for a lot
of people who have started a business, often becomes
a real challenge.
As an employer, you want to hire and retain
employees most qualified for the positions within
your company. To do this, you need to define who
you are looking for and what’s expected of them once
they are on board.
Policy standards are a must. Begin with a per-
sonnel manual that explains your policy for hours,
overtime, fringe benefits, sick leave, annual leave,
training, dress code, personnel reviews, grievances,
termination and retirement. Every employee should
have his or her own copy of this manual. In addition,
consider giving every job applicant a copy for review.
OREGON SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER NETWORK
2020 Economic Impact
Clatsop SBDC
Through our work with SBDC clients in our region, we help create new jobs and improve the
economic vitality of Oregon. Here are our Center’s 2020 economic impact numbers.
Capital Infusion to Local Businesses
$4,322,930
Counseling Services Provided to Local Businesses
Training Provided
335
69
Clients Counseled
Events
882
Start-Ups
Existing Businesses
Counseling Hours
2,380
1,306
Attendees
Contact & Prep Hours
Jobs
New Businesses
Sales Increase
33
9
Started
$2,390,777
Client Demographics
213
Created
Retained
201
61
Women
Minority
41
Hispanic
15
Veterans
Learn more about the Clatsop SBDC at OregonSBDC.org/clatsop
HELP IS JUST A CALL OR CLICK AWAY
503-338-2402 | sbdc@clatsopcc.edu
Each position within the company, including
your own, should have a job description that out-
lines responsibilities and duties and includes a list of
the position’s objectives with specific and measur-
able goals. Each description should include reporting
relationships. The job description provides you and
the employee a clear road map for the expectations
of the position, from the standpoint of both workload
and expertise required to accomplish the job.
Job application forms for your company should
be simple and focus on relevant employment history,
including names of supervisors and references you
can contact. Provide space for the applicant to sum-
marize career accomplishments.
At the interview stage, you want to learn as much
as possible about the person’s job skills, work ethic
and personality. Ask specific questions that require
more than a yes or no answer. The more dialogue,
the more you learn about the applicant. More infor-
mation will help you to make an informed decision.
Always check references. Competent and
friendly employees make a positive statement about
your business to customers. An applicant who inter-
views well and has a sterling resume may not be the
ideal fit for the job. References will validate your
impressions, and expand on areas not covered in
the interview. This is also a way to learn more about
potential weaknesses as well. What a reference says
or does not say gives you clues as to the character
and skill of your candidates. Take all of this informa-
tion into account before you form your final opinion
of a given candidate.
Build the right team and you will
win every time
Here are a few things which should be kept in
mind. The key to building a long term and effec-
tive organization is balance. The business team also
must be built and organized such that the people on
it complement each other. The small business owner
needs to develop and encourage an atmosphere of
cooperation and teamwork mostly by example. The
work environment should inspire enthusiasm. Maxi-
mizing the contributions of employees through face-
to-face leadership and positive feedback will enable
the business to compete more effectively.
The business owner must always remember
that most working groups are surprisingly quick to
detect insincerity. Consistency, avoiding intrigue
and being non-political are good habits to get into.
It is important to remember that communication is
a two-way process. The business owner should fol-
low the principle of “challenge up, support down.”
In other words, be a good listener who allows and
encourages employees to contribute ideas and opin-
ions before an issue is decided. Maintain a true open
door policy. Hold regular meetings and use the meet-
ings to tell people how they stand, how the business
is doing and what the plans for the future are. On
the other hand, maintain discipline! Letting anyone
get away with doing a poor job for a long period of
time just to avoid confronting them is a serious mis-
Kevin Leahy
‘MAKE THE HUMAN RE-
SOURCE FUNCTION A TOP
PRIORITY, AND YOU WILL
REAP THE REWARDS
OF A LOYAL STAFF, FUN
(BUT PROFESSIONAL!)
WORK ENVIRONMENT,
INCREASED SALES AND
PEACE OF MIND FOR YOU
WHEN YOU ARE NOT
PHYSICALLY AT YOUR
PLACE OF BUSINESS.’
take. And always, always remember how important
the employee team really is to any business.
In our Clatsop Community College Small Busi-
ness Development Center advising appointments,
we find too often not enough time and energy is
spent in hiring, retaining and growing the right staff,
and the results of this are low morale, poor sales,
high turnover, weak customer service and custom-
ers that won’t come back into your business again.
Make the human resource function a top prior-
ity, and you will reap the rewards of a loyal staff,
fun (but professional!) work environment, increased
sales and peace of mind for you when you are not
physically at your place of business. The value of
all that for you as the business owner or manager is
immeasurable.
Kevin Leahy is the executive director of Clat-
sop Economic Development Resources and Clatsop
Community College Small Business Development
Center.