When is it Time to Hire Again?

Everywhere you look, there are signs of an economic recovery. If it hasn't affected your industry, hopefully it will soon.


The stock market is up, local economic indicators are more healthy, heck---even the Packers won five more games this year!

The area that has been slow to recover is the job market. Employers are faced with the difficult question, when is the right time to bring back or hire new employees?

While some of them may seem obvious, here is a five question checklist to ask yourself when considering to make room for a new cubicle.

1) What Type of Training is Required?---When adding this new role, how much training will be necessary? A common barometer to use is when can you anticipate your new employee will start making/saving your company money as opposed to eating up salary as well as the trainer's time getting up to speed.

2) Is this Talent Available?---How high in demand is your desired employee in the marketplace? If your company uses a rare software package that few people would know, it might be time to strike sooner than later before everyone else has hired all the good people.

3) What Else Can They Do?---Let's say the orders don't come in as expected, yet you still have this outstanding new employee that is dedicated to dealing with customers. What else can they do in the interim to benefit the organization in the event their core job duties can not immediately be accomplished?

4) How are you Currently Getting By? The ultimate question when deciding to add staff. If your current employees are effectively covering the duties of a laid off employee and the business is not being adversely affected, its probably not time to call this person back. But perhaps something appreciative for the employees picking up the slack would be good.

5) What Will your Customers Think? As the quote goes "image is everything." If your customers and potential new business see your business as suffering, they may shy away. Does this new employee improve the company's image in the eyes of those who buy your products or services?