The new financial year is equally important for small businesses as it is for the bigger end of town. It is often wrongly assumed the new financial year is a time solely reserved for large enterprise to plan for the New Year and get budgets in order. Most small-business owners undergo the same rigorous levels of planning and goal setting for the year ahead. In fact, many small businesses sell products and services to larger companies, so it makes sense to mirror their business activities. HR departments with freshly drafted budgets in Australia’s multinationals are working out hiring requirements for 2017-2018, and so are the nations small-business owners.
Job advertisements posted to Adzuna’s Post a Job platform for small businesses are testament to this point, with increases in job postings of 14 per cent in July compared to June. This is by no mistake. After working out projections and setting goals for the year ahead, the savviest small-business owners will have a good idea of how many new employees will be required to take their business to the next level, and they’re striking while the irons hot.
Here are a few tips for hiring new employees for your small business this financial year:
1. Make use of government grants for SMEs
Numerous government grants exist to incentivise small-business owners to hire new staff and get more Australians working. Each state and territory has their own set of eligibility guidelines and application processes that must be met to be considered for a grant or wage subsidy.
For example, small businesses in NSW that do not pay payroll tax – the threshold is currently at $750,000 for NSW – are eligible for $2000 per full time employee to be paid one year after commencement of employment. Many state governments offer incentives to hire indigenous, disabled and also older Australians.
Search the government website of your state or territory for more information on the various types of grants available.
2. Check average advertised salaries online
A key challenge for SMEs bringing on new staff is working out how much to pay them. Industry associations provide general pay scales, but often neglect to factor in job location when determining the rate of pay. Small-business owners do not solely use Adzuna.com.au to post job advertisements, the website is regularly used to determine the average advertised salaries for specific roles.
Adzuna.com.au works by combing the internet and bringing as many job advertisements as possible to the one place to make searching for a job more efficient for the job seekers. A secondary benefit of having most of the job advertisements in Australia on the site is the in-depth data the jobs provide.
Small-business owners can simply search for a job title on Adzuna, including the specified location, and the average advertised salary is provided in seconds. For example, a search for an administration assistant in Melbourne brings up the following result:
- The average advertised salary for an administration assistant in Melbourne is $60,793.
3. Use smart budgeting software to plan the next hire
Long gone are the days of working out the budget for the year ahead in gargantuan Excel spread sheets, with more formulas than Einstein’s chalkboard. Invoicing software such as XERO and MYOB create detailed financial performance reports and budgets. Small-business owners can now track separate financial records for each business department within the business. This is invaluable when it comes to planning hires for the next financial year. A business owner has, at their fingertips, information about the businesses strengths and weaknesses. From this data, decisions can be made about the skillset required for future employees that will bring the most value to the business.
4. Contractor or full-time?
Once the budget for the year ahead has been locked in and the decision has been made to bring on new staff members, the next question is – do I hire a contractor or a full-time employee? The company budget should determine if taking on a full-time employee is a viable option. The benefits are obvious, as full-time employees are generally more engaged in the mission of the company, compared to a contractor. A full-time employee costs the business more in a monetary sense as a result of extra costs including holiday and sick pay, workers comp and payroll tax.
A factor many small-business owners do not factor in to cost is the amount of time spent and resources spent training a new employee. The same amount of time is spent training a contractor and a full-time employee. The only difference is, the contractor will leave the business once the project is finished, whereas the full-time employee will continue working for the business.
Raife Watson, CEO, Adzuna Australia
