recruiting Archives - BenchmarkONE

7 Small Business Hiring Hacks You Can’t Live Without

Finding strong talent is important for building a great team. However, small businesses often struggle with recruitment, since they can’t dedicate an entire department to the process and don’t always have the same things to offer that big companies do. Rather than settling for the lower talent pools, here are some hiring tips for hacking your recruitment process.

Streamline the Process

When you designed your website for the consumer, you probably put a lot of time and effort (and money!) into making the process easy to navigate and conversion-friendly. However, most companies don’t put much thought into their application process to encourage potential talent. Make it a one-click process and don’t require your talent to fill out page after page of information they have already entered elsewhere. To really streamline the process, you can even embed an “Apply with LinkedIn” button directly onto your website and remove barriers applicants might face with lengthy forms and indirect processes.

Treat Candidates Like Customers

As we just stated, you want to make the application process as easy to navigate as your product website is for your customers. At the same time, you want your listings to read like enticing products that peaks the interest of top talent.

Be Authentically You

Your brand needs to be a realistic place with a realistic approach to appealing to candidates. Stop purchasing cheesy stock photos and using them as-is. Instead, create your own images and visual aids that resonate with candidates because of the authenticity shown. Give your employees free reign to talk about their workplace on social media and be the kind of brand that builds brand advocates. This will help improve your candidate pool.

Nurture Your “Leads”

Candidates are like leads and you have to go past the lead generation. Sure, you can get new people clicking on links and viewing your job listings, but how are you connecting with them after that initial show of interest? Look into retargeting ads for those who saw the listing and never applied. Also, create an outreach plan to keep your candidates in the loop and let them know what they can expect from you and the company during the hiring process. Keep your leads in the loop and you won’t burn bridges with top talent as you go.

Reduce Multi-Tasking

Surprisingly, studies have shown that multi-tasking actually slows down productivity. Focus on one task at a time to get the most out of your efforts. If you have to juggle the recruitment efforts, consider taking a certain day of the week or time of the day to focus solely on your tasks related to recruiting talent and listing jobs.

Create an Autoresponder

To reduce your efforts, you can simply set up an automatic email to be sent to each new applicant, thanking them for applying and explaining the next steps in the process. By letting the applicant know what they can do next or when they can expect to hear from you, you will receive fewer calls and have to write fewer emails yourself. Send the email from the CEO or boss who will be overseeing the hiring process so there is continuity in the procedure.

Keep the Candidate in Mind

Once you’ve brought in the candidate for an interview, never keep them waiting. Your first impression is a lasting one and could make a big impact, driving away talent you need. Be prepared for the interview and offer refreshment. After the process is over, send a personal thank you and be honest about where they stand in the proceedings. Constructive feedback is valuable for nurturing talent and you may be able to glean tips for your own process (such as how other competitor hiring processes went and what you could improve on).

During the hiring process, you are also being interviewed.  With these hiring tips, you will win over the talent you need for your business.

How to Hire the Right Employee for Your Small Business

There are few things more crucial to the success of a company than its people, especially for a small business. With a small workforce, each new hire has an outsized impact on the company’s culture and achievements.  Brett Lewis, who co-founded Skillbridge, an online platform for business freelancers, has said, “Great people versus okay people is the difference between success and mediocrity.”

Hiring the right people is also important for controlling costs. Recruiting is a big expense for a business of any size, and if that employee isn’t a good fit it’s expensive to replace them.  The median cost of replacing an employee is 21 percent of that person’s annual salary according to the Center for American Progress. For employees earning less than $50,000 annually it’s about 20 percent; for positions that pay $30,000 and under—which includes more than half of all U.S. workers—it’s 16 percent. That’s significant, especially to a small business.

Make sure your hiring practices allow you to find the best candidates for every position.

First, write out all the tasks involved in the role you need to fill. Then add to that the personality you feel is best for the role, the salary, benefits, time commitment and the other employees that person will be working with regularly. Write out the overall goal of the position, even if it’s very general. Then include the specific skills needed for the job, whether that’s knowledge of Java, QuickBooks, Excel, WordPress, etc.

Devote time to hiring. As a small business owner, you probably don’t have an HR department—and likely not even an HR person–to whom you can delegate a lot of the hiring process. Yes, it’s difficult to add this to the array of hats you’re already wearing but it’s crucial for the success of your business. So schedule it into the workday as you would any other meeting or task.

Look in the right places for the right people. Now that you know what you are looking for, where do those types of candidates spend time, both on and offline?  Find out by talking with other small business owners, as well as vendors, friends and family about where they find good candidates for the position you need to fill.

Don’t limit yourself to active job seekers. Every employee today is a passive candidate, so it pays to look where people are already doing the job you need done at your company . If you need someone with HR experience, for example, go to human resources association meetings. If you need someone in sales, attend trade shows in your industry.  If it’s someone with very specific expertise, for example, a senior financial officer who understands financial technology, try fintech meetups.

Don’t be desperate. Desperation will only cause you to compromise on what you want and, ultimately, wind up with the wrong hire. So don’t fool yourself into thinking that a warm body in the position is better than no body at all—that can wind up being an expensive mistake. Wait until the right person is available for the job.

Test drive. Consider hiring someone on a contract basis, which is a cost-effective way of conducting a candidate search. Contractors mean you can have the staff you need immediately but without having to make a long-term commitment. If the person turns out to be terrific then you can offer them a full-time position. And since they’ve already been doing a great job, you can be secure in the knowledge you’ve hired the right person.

Hire the right employee the first time to conserve costs and drive growth for your business. Do you have any hiring tips to share with other small business owners? Share them with us on Facebook.