Managing your own small business or start-up is challenging enough without adding the difficult task of recruiting the right employees to help you grow your business.
Whether you’re looking for part-time, full-time, temporary, or permanent workers, you need to be especially selective to guarantee you’re recruiting the top talents in your industry and reduce your turnaround rate as much as possible.
Creating a recruitment plan for your small business is a complicated process that can involve a lot of trial and error before you finally find your stride. That’s part of the reason that it can take many new businesses a few years just to break even, let alone become profitable.
Effective Recruitment Strategies for Small Businesses
Before learning about the different recruitment strategies, you should consider, it’s important to realize that not every strategy or protocol that works for other businesses in your industry will necessarily benefit your company. Each enterprise, regardless of size, has its own unique set of needs and obstacles that may prove challenging.
The following recruitment strategies are just a guideline to help you get the recruitment process started on the right foot.
Define Your Business Goals
Defining your short- and long-term professional goals is an essential aspect of running any business, but it’s also vital for helping you identify the steps you need to take to make your business a success.
Outlining a clear set of business goals along with a detailed business model will help you better understand the type and amount of work that needs to be done within the confines of your business. And this will also help you identify the type of skills you need on your team so you know exactly what type of candidates to look for.
Write a Great Job Description
Job descriptions are a crucial component when it comes to attracting the right candidates to your business. Whether you’re building your enterprise from the ground up and are looking to build a team of industry professionals or you’re an established business that needs a few entry level employees, it’s important to write a detailed, yet concise job description.
Job descriptions should contain the basic information including a brief paragraph telling the story of your company and what you do, a brief description of the role in question, a list of qualifications you’re looking for, salary or hourly payment information, and other pertinent information.
Using certain industry-based buzzwords in your job posting will also ensure that the ideal candidates are able to access and view your job listing.
Use the Right Recruitment Platforms
When it comes to recruiting qualified and experienced candidates to work for your company, you need to make sure you’re using the right platforms to suit your needs. Certain online platforms might be better suited for your specific industry, so you should do your research before deciding which ones to use. Some online recruitment platforms might also collect a small fee from employers for their services.
Hiring a recruitment agency like Resolve Recruit Inc. can help you save on some of the cost of using the platforms and experienced recruiters can even help you choose the right ones for your needs.
Consider Asking for Referrals
Sometimes the best strategy for recruiting new hires is asking your friends, colleagues, and other industry professionals for referrals. These are people who know you and your industry well, which means they can make top-notch recommendations of potential hires for your business. If you already have a few people in mind that you know are hard-working and would be a good fit for your company, it doesn’t hurt to directly make them an offer.
Once you’ve hired a few employees and can confirm their reliability and judgment of character, you can even ask them for a few referrals. While referrals aren’t always guaranteed to work out, they can help reduce your turnaround rate because they usually come highly recommended by people you work with and know.
Hire on a Probationary Basis First
There’s a reason most companies hire employees on a probationary basis before deciding to permanently put them on the payroll and company benefits. Business owners want to ascertain that they’re making the right hiring decisions. By all accounts, a candidate might look good on paper and tick off all of your boxes in terms of qualifications, but you might realize after a few weeks that they’re not actually a good fit for your business.
Setting a limited probationary period allows you to test out their skills and gauge whether or not they should be working for your company permanently.
Consider Experience Instead of Just Job Titles
Job titles are entirely meaningless if they’re not accompanied by proficient industry-related skills. Experience level should be one of the main determining factors when it comes to recruiting new employees.
Hire Temporary or Permanent Employees Based on Need
Figure out whether or not you need temporary or permanent employees for specific roles within your company. This will help keep your costs and turnaround rates under control, which is one of the biggest challenges facing new and small businesses.
Assess your overall and specific business needs and then determine whether or not you would benefit from outsourcing certain tasks or keeping them in-house.
Manage Your Employee Attrition Rates
High employee attrition rates can invariably increase the costs of running your business. After all, it costs money to attract, recruit, and train new employees on a regular basis.
Instating competitive benefits and employee incentives can help you retain more of your top talent and prevents your competition from successfully poaching them from you.
Work with a Renowned Recruitment Agency
Working with a renowned recruitment agency can help you overcome some of the challenges associated with building up your employee base.
Resolve Recruit Inc. can help you compose an effective recruitment plan that works for your small business. If you need help figuring out how to hire for your small business, we can offer up our unique expertise and teach you how to properly network with other industry professionals.
Contact us today to learn more about our recruitment services in Ontario.
