Recruiting talent can be a challenge especially if, as a small business owner, you don’t have much experience in the matter apart from what you went through as a former employee yourself. However, this is not to say that it can’t be done. You just have to approach it diligently and earnestly if you want to make sure you hire the right people.
Thankfully, the market is teeming with tools that you can use in your recruitment strategies. We’ll go through the 7 recruitment strategies for small businesses, along with some tools that you can use to aid you in your hiring journey. First, let’s cover the elements of a successful recruiting strategy.
What are the elements of a successful recruiting strategy?
- Figuring out your ideal hire - Hiring the right person means you need to come up with a picture of the right person for the job at hand. Apart from being able to do that job properly, efficiently, and quickly, what do you require of them? What about your team? What do they look for in a teammate? These requirements should also factor into your hiring process.
- Drawing and acquiring - You also need to carefully think about and plan for where you’re looking. Is your job posted on social media? Is it a hard copy printout that’s plastered all over town? Where you post your job invites affect the quality of candidates that approach you so you also need to consider where you put them up.
- Collect and select – You’re bound to receive a shower of applications from all sides as soon as your job post goes up, but you don’t have to entertain each one. Be diligent and careful when winnowing down your applicant pool by going through each one, with your team or managers, if you like, so you can all go through the applicants and separate the likelies from the unlikelies.
- Question and answer – Map out the interview portion of your recruitment strategy. How many stages will the applicant go through? Who are the interviewers? What are the sets of questions and how are they designed to help with the screening process? Who are your decision makers when it comes to hiring new talent?
- Checking references – One last stop before you make that job offer is checking in with your applicants’ references. Ask relevant questions and take note of the answers. These should also factor into the selection process.
- Onboarding – Introducing a newly hired employee into your organization is very crucial in gauging whether or not your selection actually is a good one. Carve out a time period for reviewing their performance, as well as your criteria and talk to everyone to see if the new hire is in fact the right fit for your needs.
Once you have all of these mapped out and figured out how to develop a recruitment strategy, the real fun can truly begin. Hiring new people for your business is very exciting because this means that your business is growing and doing well. This is also why you need to be careful when carrying out your recruitment strategy plan. Hiring the right person is important. That’s why here are the 7 recruitment strategies for small businesses.
1. Showcase your brand
Highlighting your brand properly and successfully shows job hunters why your small business is the one to join and helps attract the right people for your job openings. Start by including your mission and vision in the job ad. What is your company all about? What is it that you do? Applicants need to see that their values align with those of your company before deciding if they want to gun for the position. You might also want to feature your organization’s culture and other job perks, which may help entice applicants to your thriving, professional but fun workplace.
Make sure all of these items are also included in your website – in the About Us section as well as the Careers pages, job ads and social media sites. While you’re at it, go around the bullpen and get feedback from your employees on what they love about your company as well as testimonials from past clients and customers.
2. Make your job ads count
This is important in making sure you hire someone that can do the job properly. Be as comprehensive as you need to be when detailing what the job entails and requires. It’s one of the most effective recruitment strategies because it makes clear what’s needed in an applicant, minimizing misunderstandings and hiring errors.
Take great care in putting into exacting details the role, responsibilities, and requirements of the job. Indicate work hours and workdays as well, along with everything else that may be pertinent to the job opening. Be sure to also include your branding and testimonials from both employees and customers or clients.
3. Attract qualified applicants
If you want to reach the most qualified candidates for the job opening, you need to cast a wide net. The bigger the pool of candidates you have to sift through, the higher the chances of hiring the right person for the role. To further diversify your recruitment strategies, post your job ads in colleges and universities to attract students who may be looking to intern so they can learn on the job while gaining work experience as they study.
Use your network as well. Go to networking affairs like job and university fairs. Use your social media profiles to your advantage in getting the attention of some very qualified and deserving applicants. Tap into your current workforce as well. Ask if they have anyone in mind they’d like to recommend for the role and offer a referral incentive for every successful hiring.
4. Don’t shy away from technology
Technology is your friend. For large companies and enterprises, there are hiring managers and firms that help them match the right people to their open jobs. For small businesses, you as the business owner might have to do everything on your own. You need to use what you have available to you technologically to make sure your recruitment strategy plan is carried out properly.
You can make the process faster and easier by automating everything. From collating resumes, rolling out questionnaires, narrowing down the selection pool and onboarding the new hires. You can also maintain a database of all the resumes that you have received for consideration for future job openings.
5. Build your own recruiter
Being a small business doesn’t mean you can’t have your own hiring manager if needed. You can build from within, so to speak, so you have someone to step up to the plate should you require someone to help you with hiring.
Impart your recruitment strategy template to the rest of your team. Teach them what makes a great job description and enticing job post. Show them what they should be looking for in a resume and how everything correlates to a job opening at your company. Make sure you also cover the law and other legal requirements for headhunting and the labor code.
6. Decide quickly
Take note that quick does not necessarily mean rash. It’s better to be thorough than to rush through your recruitment strategy and hire the wrong person. Be detailed and systematic but be sure that your decision-making process is quick.
Applicants are probably waiting on more than one application outcome so they may be snapped up faster if you’re not fast enough. Remember that you also have a need to fill in your small business so time really is of the essence. You don’t have to have as many screening processes or interview rounds as with bigger companies but you can make each one count by asking the questions that matter. This is so that when it’s time to make a decision, you can make it quickly and confidently.
7. Make your offer count
It’s very important to know how to make an offer that applicants will find difficult to refuse as part of your recruitment strategies. Find out what the median pay is for your area so you have an idea what your offer should be.
If you don’t feel confident about being able to match the salary packages from other bigger companies, don’t be. This is where you can be creative. Instead of offering a bigger basic salary, you can offer incentives instead like sales or productivity bonuses. Or you can also offer the option to work remotely, flexible schedules, or work hours apart from being a valued member of a collaborative team.
One for the team
Recruitment for small businesses can be a long-drawn and tedious process, especially when you’re doing it all on your own. However, publishing and putting out job posts, screening applicants, and onboarding new hires can be more fun and easy once you have your recruitment strategy plan all mapped out and your process automated and properly documented.
Bitrix24 has all the tools you need for a small business to have highly functional HR management solutions. From eLearning to managing your own employee directory as well as time management and employee relations, you’ll be sure to find just the right tools. You can also create your recruitment strategy template and store it in the cloud – all these and more are available for you to use for free. So, sign up today and let Bitrix24 help you make your hiring process a breeze!
