5-Reasons Why SME Businesses & Start-up's Find It Difficult to Attract Top Talent

It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so that they can tell us what to do - Steve Jobs

This is a constant dilemma with the SME Business Owners & Fast Growing Start-Up Founders. Have you ever faced any of the following in your business:

• Inability to attract the right talent for the company?
• Candidates taking lot of time to join the company after getting offers?
• Low percentage of candidates joining after receiving offer?
• Company has the business but does not have right people to execute them?

If you have ever faced any of these challenges in your business, then you should read on..

Let's look at TOP 5 REASONS why SMEs & Start-up's find it difficult to attract top talent and how successful companies overcome them:

1. Owner's Mindset - We have all experienced that all good things in life need time & attention. If we do an evaluation in our own business, we would find that our ability to attract quality talent is directly related to how much time & efforts the Business Owner is putting in this area. Building top quality teams has to be on top of the agenda of any company which is looking to succeed in this era. As you are the central pillar in the organization, it's crucial for you to build your own knowledge base in how top companies are hiring, what are the latest trends beyond your industry, read books, network and do courses to improve in this area.

2. Employer Brand - I was visiting one of my manufacturing clients way back in 2017. As I was taking a round in the factory, I spoke to a few workers and generally started chatting with them. I happened to ask them why they joined this company when the nearby factories are promising higher wages. Pat came the reply from one of them, saying that Gupta Ji (the owner of this factory) has a very good reputation in this area of being an honest and caring employer. The other's added that most of them joined on recommendation of someone already working in the company.

This is called a good Employer Brand and it can make or break your chances of attracting top talent. When the employees truly feel cared, have access to good facilities, approachable business owners, supportive managers, each one of them not only gives their best to the company but are most eager to get others like them to join the company.

3. Robust Hiring System - When I speak to SME Business Owners in this regard, most of them give a blank look. The world is changing fast and so are the aspirations of candidates. Gone are the days when interviews used to happen based on newspaper advertisements, and candidates were fighting for limited jobs. The world is hyper connected now with so multitude of options available for skilled candidates.

Now, a robust hiring mechanism is needed which is all about giving a superb hiring experience to candidates. This includes giving proper job advertisements on relevant channels with proper Job Descriptions, a predictable hiring process, regular updates regarding candidate status, superb interview experience whether online or in person, transparent offer process with a win-win intention, all the way to joining & onboarding. It's important to make all candidates feel welcome and give them proper opportunity irrespective of the interview result.

4. Lack of Online Presence - It's a given fact that the needs of candidates have changed today as times have changed. The question to ask ourselves is whether we have kept pace with changing times? We don't need to go far to find an answer, just need to look at our Online Presence and Marketing material regarding Hiring. Do we have an effective website? If yes, would you apply after looking at the website, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube presence of your own company if you consider yourself as a candidate? Is there enough information available, is your online presence designed scientifically to attract the right candidates. If not, make a start today by investing in an effective website and other social media channels and make your presence felt in front of potential candidates.

5. Continuous Test & Measure - I often ask these questions to SME Business Owners, how do you know your Hiring System is not working well? Or which channels work best for sourcing candidates in your organization & industry? How have the employees who joined in the last 2 years through various channels performed in the company?

Do we ever take feedback on our Hiring process from successful & unsuccessful candidates to know which areas to improve upon in future? All these and more are super critical to test & measure your hiring strategies continuously and adjust to improve your success rate in future. If we need to improve something, it's important to take first steps to change things, try new strategies, fail, test & measure to improve again, the cycle of continuous improvement is the key to long term success.

Winners don't do different things, they do things differently - Shiv Khera

In the end, I would like to leave you with the above thought. We must analyse how much is our inaction costing us in the War for Talent. In the current times, old ways of working won't work and would either put you out of business or leave you at the bottom of the pyramid always fighting for the Talent. We need to change our ways to bring about a change in the results. If Top Talent is critical for long term success of your business, show it to yourself by taking the first steps to be an Employer of Choice in your area or industry. I wish you loads of success, continue learning !

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