How to Hire an Associate in a Company

Assicuates hiring Guide

Power-Up Your Associate Marketing in 3 Easy Ways

Learn How to Hire an Associate with Special Co-Host: Nipa Patel, NP Employment Solutions 

In this session, we will discuss how and why to hire your first Associate by understanding the difference between a freelancer and an Associate and the best place to find them for future business success.

As your business grows you will be faced with making a decision to hire an Associate. Many business owners opt for hiring Associates as a cost-effective solution to fit their needs but often struggle with the process and where to start. In this session we will discuss:

  1. Why having a holistic view of your business is important
  2. Understanding your need
  3. Understanding what you are offering
  4. Where to find them
  5. The importance of having a written agreement

About Nipa Patel:

Nipa Patel is a Consultant with over 15 years of experience in HR. She has gained experience in a number of sectors including higher education, charities, finance, legal and private healthcare, allowing her to be creative and adaptable to different people’s issues.

She is now an independent HR Consultant assisting businesses in the contentious side of HR, resolving conflict, and managing complex situations in a fair, ethical and legal manner. She firmly believes that people are the best investment a business can make to grow successfully and organically.

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Quick-Start Guide

Key Takeaways from Our Speakers

Hiring an Associate in these challenging times

Key takeaways

For many businesses lockdown has meant a downturn in business and/or a halt on potential growth. Growth can mean adding more products or services to your businesses to grow market reach: many of us have had to do exactly this with Covid-19 and it has probably proved to be successful. In order to do this however, inevitably consideration has been taken on how this could be achieved if they needed some specialist help. Do they consider hiring a freelancer or Associate?

Hiring an Associate or freelancer can give many opportunities to grow, however these are two different type of resources:

  • A freelancer is used as a one-off resource to meet a service/project need
  • An Associate is a more longer-term relationship whereby they can be used to complement the services your business already provides, fills a much needed skills gap (while also adding a cash injection into your business) and enables you to grow and collaborate, helping both your and your Associate’s business. They are not to be confused as employees – you use an Associate on a freelance basis as and when you require, but they are your preferred freelancer because you ultimately trust them with your business.
 

My top tips on how to make a decision on this are as follows:

  • Consider your business: what do you want to achieve?
  • Consider what need the Associate fill and for how long?
  • Where will you get them from?
    • Knowing your network is key. Just because someone is in the same business as you, it does not mean they are a competitor – they are a potential collaborator and provide unique opportunities to grow long term. Consider them as an extension of your wider team.
    • Joining professional networks through Facebook and LinkedIn will give you these inroads to finding these people.
    • If you do not have access to these networks, freelance websites such as people per hour can give some good resources, but reconsider whether you want them as a freelancer or Associate: if you don’t know them or their work, do you risk having them as an Associate?
    • Trust is gold: do not hire an Associate/freelancer unless you know them and trust them.
    • Build a relationship over time. If you cannot do this, interview them at the very least. Do they have the integrity and ethics you want to portray to your clients?
 
  • Ensure you have a contract – be clear on brief, rates and clauses to protect you from them poaching your clients.
    • Contract headings:
      • Contract term: on-going or for specific project
      • Services
      • Charges/terms of payment
      • Records and audit
      • Indemnity and insurance
      • Intellectual property
      • Non-solicitation/conflict of interest
    • Contracts can be downloaded from various websites: simply docs, Rocketlawyer, but always get them checked over by a lawyer, you do not want them to find a loophole!
 

My main piece of advice here is to really consider trust, integrity and ethics as your basis for hiring an Associate, they are a valuable resource to your business. Do not enter a relationship without a contract however – this is there to protect you and them in the long term.

If you require any HR advice for your business, I would be happy to help.

Nipa Patel

HR Consultant – NP Employment Solutions

www.npesolutions.co.uk/

[email protected]

07932 731 542

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