Recruitment Tips For Small Businesses

Just as a small business knows its clientele, it should know its employees. This includes the type of employee you want, where they apply, and what details to provide about the position when recruiting. New Quest Coaching and Consulting are expert providers of coaching and leadership training for small and large businesses based in Kamloops and servicing all of western Canada and northern USA. New Quest highlights eight recruitment tips for small and large businesses.

Emphasis on Referrals

Probably the strongest social proof is word of mouth. Part of your recruitment strategy should include actively encouraging seeking referrals. Referrals should be found through your employees’ social and professional networks so that they have the potential to net two types of leads. Employees recommending people to the position from social networks tend to be colder leads and don’t have a lot of vetting behind them. Recruitment for them should be tailored differently than a warmer lead. Professional referrals, such as those from a like-business or industry, have a bit less vetting as the quality of their work performance is a bit more on the surface. This gives you peace of mind, knowing someone coming in from the workforce already has a set of skills that may be applicable to your business.

What’s important to remember about choosing candidates that came in from a referral is to treat them equally during the hiring process as well as during employment as to not appear partial or giving favors. With retention being one of the most costly expenses to a business, it is safe to implement a referral bonus program that rewards employees once a lead has been hiring. This cash bonus can save the company a lot of heavy pushing for employees, as the incentive will give the employee the push to recruit qualified candidates on their own.

Whatever your strategy may be, finding candidates doesn’t have to be a slog through recruiting services on the internet. Go to local networking events, business-development events, and anywhere where candidates gather.

Find Your Niche

You know your business, both its clients and who works for you. This is valuable data to keep in mind as an overlay in your mind to find the ideal candidate, but hunting on Monster or Indeed can be a headache and you may find yourself sifting through so many resumes that your eyes cross. Instead, take what you know about your business and start hunting in niche job sites. These sites answer a big question just by making an account and posting a resume, ‘Is the applicant interested in this type of business?’ Niche boards tend to encourage those who are interested in that specific field such as College Recruiter, which is ideal for company’s hiring recent college graduates.

These smaller boards don’t mean the candidates are any less qualified, but they are smaller, which is a benefit to you. You can ensure your listing won’t be buried by heavy-hitting swamping job boards with twenty listings and actually give your position some organic visibility.

Finally, niche sites may have the most customizable options for postings, and for searching through resumes since the sites are looking to highlight skill-sets within the niche. A few final thoughts on niches. Don’t be afraid to look through social media, local newspaper listings, and other online mediums. Your reach can go far for little effort, and there are job seekers everywhere.

Is Your Pitch Attractive?

You wouldn’t try to make a sale with a weak pitch, so why should your job description not be optimized? Your job description is actually selling a position to a potential employee. You’re highlighting your offerings, benefits, and requirements for a candidate, and while you may only have twenty employees versus three hundred, why should a candidate apply for your company versus your competitor? These are the things you need to harp on by writing a better job description. Once again, bring forth your niche and make sure you’re being clear enough to encourage the candidate to read all the way through. The longer they read, the more likely they will see where they can fit in your company and apply. Put an emphasis on writing clearly, describing your job without vague buzz-words.

When a company is seeking entry-level candidates, writing a preferred experience minimum without caveat can potentially drive applicants away who see they don’t have years of experience in that specific field. Instead, make it clear if you’re willing to train, or if similar experience in other fields will suffice.

Finally, you need to be clear about what you’re looking for. “Strong work ethic, go-getting, self-starter” are all fillers that clog your job description and are expected of any employee. You can do well by cutting these phrases and sticking with clear and concise skill sets or qualifications. And while ideally we’d love to have someone with ten years of experience do a job that only requires a few years to master, to ask for that is unreasonable. Expect that candidates know the value of their experience and understand they will seek out commensurate positions. Cut unreasonable standards and take a hard look at what type of experience and qualifications are needed for your position.

Learn to Recruit

New Quest Coaching and Consulting will guide and teach you the skills you need to recruit quickly and find the ideal candidates. Lisa and Riza, two associates at New Quest, have real world experience and a passion for recruitment and their wisdom takes our team’s training to another level. For coaching or leadership training in your recruitment efforts. check out those pages and contact us to book your coaching today!