The top 6 recruitment challenges for small business and how to solve them!

First published on www.revolutionconsultinggroup.com.au on 13/10/22.

Small businesses are often at a disadvantage when hiring new staff, compared to big businesses who have bigger budgets for salaries and benefits, are more easily recognised by their brand and often have a lot more opportunity for different types of roles and internal growth.

However, with more and more candidates leaving jobs to seek better work / life balance, more autonomy and working options, small business have been given a fighting chance by differentiating themselves from the big players and offering a more personalised candidate experience and responsibility and autonomy in their roles.

So what are the challenges for small business and how can we solve them?

1.? ?Attracting the RIGHT candidates

The job market is more competitive than ever, so you need to attract the best candidates for the job. Writing a clear, specific and interesting job ad addressing what’s in it for your candidates will help you attract the best of the best.

2.? ?Creating an efficient recruitment process and hiring FAST

Most small businesses I speak to don’t have a clear recruitment process and figure it out as they go, or the process is in someone’s head.? This can mean confusion between the people tasked to hire the role and/or a delay in the process. Make sure you have a clear written process (even if it’s only 1 page) and that everyone is across it and commit to agreed turn-around times for reviewing resumes and block out interview slots prior to advertising your job, so you can book people in as you go. You can also use free tools such as candidate questionnaires with the right questions to sift the applications before you even see them.

3.? ?Creating a COMPETITIVE job offer

Do you know what your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is, and can you articulate it? ?

An EVP is about more than just the salary. Small businesses often don’t realise how easy it is to build their offer out to include things like:

• paying for training courses;
• adding income protection insurance;
• starting a monthly or quarterly book club (book gifted linked to their role or your work);
• movie tickets;
• flu shots;
• subsidised gym memberships (pay some or all);
• paid parking;
• covering the cost of weekly train tickets;
• annual Netflix subscriptions; and
• pizza. Yes pizza, everyone loves it, and hosting pizza Friday’s brings the team together and builds a positive interactive culture.

Non-monetary benefits could include:

• highlighting and living your company Values;
• great workplace culture
• hybrid working;
• flexible working hours;
• negotiating a better job title in lieu of a higher salary; and
• growth/project opportunities. ?

Maybe you already have some of these things in place but don’t know how to present them in an enticing way. Defining and marketing your specific EVP in an attractive way can be a game changer for potential new hires.

4.? ?Building a STRONG employer brand

If you have a good employer brand you will attract better candidates. Businesses that invest in employer branding are 3 times more likely to make a quality hire. While it’s a complex process and includes everything from your EVP to candidate experience and culture.

The best place to start is to prioritise your candidate and employee experience, have a professional workplace with guidelines, policies, procedures (even if you are only a business of two people), provide flexibility and autonomy and encourage people from your business to tell a story about why they love working there via a written or short video testimonial. You can use this on your socials, web page or blog.

5.? ?Ensuring a good candidate EXPERIENCE

Candidate experience links to your employer branding, candidates considering job offers and building trust with new employees before they have even started with you. This is often overlooked and so easy to do:

• Set expectations by outlining the recruitment process and timelines.
• Set reminders and stick to timelines, even if you don’t have an answer, ensure you email or call with an update when you said you would.
• Follow through on any promises.
• Give them all the information they need including who they will meet with, contact details, what is expected in any interviews (is it formal or just a chat over coffee) links to your website and social pages to make it easy to research you.
• Don’t agree to a start date unless you have an induction plan, know their equipment will be ready and someone will be available to spend time with them. Turning up to an unorganised first day can make them question if they have made the right decision.

6.? ? Recruiting FAIRLY

Providing a fair and equal recruitment process not only adds to your employer branding and the candidate experience it also lowers your risk of legal issues that might arise from poorly run recruitment processes. Be mindful of your unconscious biases and stereotyping people and look for candidates that meet your criteria. Implement a strong pre-screening process via questionnaires at application stage, phone screening before interviewing and ensure everyone goes through the same process. ?

Need more help?

Do you need more help with any of the above, or want to assistance with making your next hire?? Getting support for your small business is much more affordable than you may think!? BOOK A CALL with us now and let's chat about how we can help you save TIME, save MONEY, and hire the RIGHT people!