Small business: SMEs hiring staff By Gill South , New Zealand Herald Tuesday Jul 23, 2013 Shona Grundy, CEO and co-founder of Trigger Happy This week's columns describe the scary but exciting task of bringing on board new people for your business often at a time when you have no HR experience whatsoever and their contribution is crucial. You have big dreams for them as you have for your business. Their skills and ideas are going to add to what you have created and you hope they will fall in love with your brainchild as much as you have. One of the recurring pieces of advice from this week's businesses is to take your time and choose carefully. Don't hire in a knee jerk fashion because mistakes are expensive and can even bring a new company down. We hear from the experienced businessman Brett Wells, a director of the music business, Rockshop who has been through 26 years of hiring employees. His key criterion is his staff must be musicians. It's a non-negotiable. For the start-up, Trigger Happy, about to launch its exciting new platform for iPAd, TOON HERO, after two rounds of funding it has gone from four to 18 staff in the space of a year or so. CEO Shona Grundy says it has been an extremely steep learning curve on recruiting and branding the company for employees and others. And when you are launching such an ambitious business, there is not really room for juniors. SMP COMMENT: Small businesses that don't have an HR function should seriously consider bringing in an outside consultant. The idea of taking on your first few employees is daunting. Seek good guidance on behavioural interviewing which will help you figure out if your candidate is the right one for the job.