After the positive feedback received from his first guest post, Guy reached out to me again to contribute another article for my blog. This time, he provides some tips for small business owners on how to recruit top talent to help grow their companies.
Thanks to Guy for this new contribution!
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3 Tips for Hiring the Best of the Best in Your Small Business
By Guy Ascher
Many business leaders say that their most important asset is their staff, yet many company bosses continue to take the quickest possible route to hiring their employees. However, hiring a new worker is probably more significant to a small operation than it is to a large multinational conglomerate. A new salary for a small business will be a huge investment, and several steps need to be taken in order to protect that investment. The average small business may not be able to provide company sick pay, and offering the extra benefits such as private healthcare and life insurance may be beyond the means of smaller operations. All of these factors combine to make it difficult for more modest companies to compete with the major players within the same industry, and that often leads to fantastic talent going elsewhere. A structured and vociferous approach to recruitment will give small businesses the best chance of success.
Take an Aggressive Approach to Recruitment
The best talent on the market will not simply walk through the door and ask for a job. Company management need to be proactive in their approach; they need to always be on the look-out for new talent. It is always a good idea to have a formal succession plan in place, so recruitment needs can be ascertained and planned for in advance. A small business can’t afford to have only a vague idea about its recruitment needs. It needs to devise formal job descriptions, and that will facilitate the creation of desirable skill-sets, experience and personal qualities. Once those documents are in place, a small business should spread its reach as far as possible. If it is practical, no hard and fast deadline should be imposed on the process, as this may result in the procurement of mediocrity. The recruitment process itself should be robust, and candidates should be expected to take part in at least three stages of interviews or presentations. Many companies use on-job experience as an extra stage of the process, as it allows them to see the candidate in the role for a short period.
Stay in Touch with the Competition
There should be no shame in trying to emulate the success of competitors, and that includes how they fulfill their recruitment needs. A small business will need to be competitive in the recruitment market, and that requires checking what the competition is doing in order to lure the best personnel. If a competitor is having some success with a particular recruitment policy, there should be no reason why something similar won’t work for a small business. Regardless of whether a business has a vacancy to fill, time should be taken to check the local job listings in order to ascertain the types of skills competitors are looking for.
Small Companies Can Use the Scale of Their Operation to Their Advantage
There will be times when a small business simply doesn’t have the resources to compete with larger firms in terms of salary and benefits. However, smaller operations are more flexible, and their employee hierarchies are often adaptable to change. This may allow small businesses to entice the best talent with flexible working hours, more autonomy and ad hoc bonus payments. These flexible terms will often be adequate compensation for the acceptance of lower salaries and less impressive benefits packages. The UK has seen a number of relatively new businesses adopt a flexible approach to recruitment during a period of rapid expansion. Companies such as Starbucks UK, Lenstore.co.uk and Nando’s have all had to take this flexible approach during unprecedented rates of growth in their respective businesses.
The small companies of today may well be the large multinationals of tomorrow, but they may experience some difficulties along the way. Adopting a flexible approach to recruitment – and not accepting mediocrity – will ensure they have the skill-base they need to succeed.
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Guy Ascher is a business personnel consultant. He also enjoys writing about his insights and knowledge on business blogs.
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