There is actually a tried and true method of finding the right employee for your company. It can all start with knowing what you will hire your employee for. Here are some ideas on how to get started.

Write down exactly what you want your new employee to do for you

How will his or her role help you with your job? Your new employee is there to help you, so find tasks you can delegate to your new employee. By listing everything you want your employee to do, you should be able to determine if you need someone who might be full time, part time, or maybe you just need someone to come in on a freelance/independent contractor basis.

Align similar tasks to one employee. You wouldn't ask a janitor to do the same job as your accountant, however there are many new companies that start out and ask their first few employees to take on all sorts of roles. You might be able to find someone who can do it all, but not everyone can do that.

Understand how to read resumes and cover letters

Resumes and cover letters say a lot about a person. Does the cover letter answer questions you posted in your job ad? Do they ask questions, and more so than asking, "How much do you pay?" Does the resume reflect the type of skills they state they have in the cover letter? Can you verify previous employers?

Knowing how to read resumes for a new employee is important. Don't just match up skills with the job. Try to match up personalities too. You might learn more about this in the interview process, but it can be applied to cover letters as well. Personalities can come through in the words.

Get your business lawyer and accountant in on the deal

Make sure you let them know you are hiring so they can help you with the legal aspects and the paper work involved. Your accountant should be able to help you to figure out if your employee will be worth bringing in and how to set up getting your employee paid. You might also be able to get good references for where to fine good employees in your area by talking with these key people.

Follow federal and state guidelines for hiring

You might be required to pay certain taxes if you hire someone as an employee. Understand the difference between an independent contractor and an employee. You might be considering hiring an independent contractor to handle a few jobs for you. Maybe you're considering a virtual employee to save on office equipment and other potential savings. Make sure you understand the difference between an employee and an independent contractor and what you can ask of him or her. Again, ask your lawyer and accountant what the best way is to hire a new employee.

Complete several interviews

After your first set of interviews, select a handful of prime candidates and bring them in for second interviews. This gives you a chance to talk further about the position, and to get to know the potential employees a little more.

If the job doesn't warrant spending time with additional interviews, write notes in the margins of resumes about the person at the time of the interview. This will help you to remember them later when you are making your selections.

Run a background check on every new employee

There are various levels of background checks you can run on people. If you have a general employee that doesn't touch or have access to sensitive materials, run a lighter background check. If you have someone who will be handling the important materials, have them complete a more through background check.

You should probably run a background check on everyone you hire, not just those close to special data. A background check can be an inexpensive way to learn a lot more about your potential employees. You can save the employee background check for the final step of the hiring process.

Don't forget to run credit checks and drug testing. Some employees can hide their dependency on drugs very well so you'll want to just have everyone do it as a precaution. Also run credit checks to find potential problems early on.

Get signed contracts

Make sure your employees know their job and they will know what they do have access to and what they do not. Those who have access to sensitive materials should be under a contract. Lay out hours they will work, their duties, their salary, if there will be paid sick time, benefits and all the finer details. Have your lawyer check out the contract and have every employee sign one.

Consider an employment service

Some companies out there do a lot of the work for you. You can hire someone who has already been screened. You can start by working with someone on a temporary basis, and see if he works out. If he does, then you can hire that person on full time. You'd just pay a fee to the employment service for working with them.

Just remember to keep your lawyer and accountant involved in the process. Do this least the first few times until you understand how it works for your state and can do it on your own later on if you need to. If you have other employees already, and are hiring new employees, ask your current employees what they think about people who walk in and drop off resumes, or get them involved in the hiring process.

There are lots of things to consider when hiring an employee, but you'll find that if you do the work properly the first time, you'll more likely hire someone great early on. Completing all these steps will save you time from rehiring later on. Just take your time and remember that most all the people you interview have the same desire -- to please you and do a good job.