Hiring Checklist

Hiring new people to work at your business is always a rather time consuming project. After all, you have the interview process, the time it takes to make a final decision, and then all the paperwork you have to do once you have made your decision. Unless you happen to have years of experience working in the personnel department, knowing what steps needs to be taken, and what paperwork needs to be filled out for new hires can be a fairly confusing and intimidating prospect. That is why a hiring checklist can be so helpful. With this checklist in hand you can quickly get started on what is most important in the business world—making money.

• Fill out and file W-4. From a business stand point, one of the most important steps and pieces of paperwork that you need to have filled out is the W-4 form. Officially known as the Employee's Withholding Allowance Certification, this form is what helps the government withhold the proper amount of federal income tax from paychecks. Filling out this form not only helps to protect the business, but also the employee from having the incorrect amount of taxes withheld.
• Conduct a background check. While not a necessity for every job on the planet, you may want to consider conducting a background check. The argument can be made that by conducting a background check you can protect your company from hiring someone that has misrepresented their skill sets, while also protecting your company from a potentially dangerous situation. The decision is still out on this debate though, keep in mind that if you are going to be instituting this policy in your company that you apply it fairly and across the board to all your employees.
• Start a payroll. Part of getting your hiring checklist completed is to get your new hire onto the payroll. Whether you do your payroll in house, or hire it out to someone else, make sure that you have all the information necessary to begin paying them. For direct deposits you will usually need (at the least) their bank information and a voided check.
• Follow procedure for hours reporting. Every business needs to have some method in place for keeping track of the hours its employee's work. About the only time that you don't need to worry about this is if your employees are in a salaried position. Some of the more successful methods are to fill out time sheets each pay period, or to use a clock, computer, or some other method. Which ever method you end up using, make sure that your employees know what it is, and how to follow it.