Is your small business hiring the skilled staff it needs to be a notable competitor in your market? ABC News reports that 90% of small businesses are struggling to get qualified workers, let alone top talent. You may be wondering what’s causing this predicament.
Small businesses are facing unique challenges with hiring staff. The pandemic had most of us working from home and now we don’t want to return to the office. Skilled workers see freelancing as a better option for them. It offers more flexibility, variety of work and higher pay. Top talent wants the best offer and job security so they are drawn to larger businesses over startups and small businesses.
Where there is a will there is a way even if some roles start off as freelancing contracts until more favorable hiring conditions come around.
Is there a blueprint small businesses can use to attract top talent now? Yes. Your business is unique – you just need to find out how and the best place to do that is with your existing staff.
USPs And Company Culture
Start with your USPs and find out what attracted your existing staff to your budding enterprise. You may be surprised with the response you get from your staff when you put these questions to them:
- What attracted you to our business?
- How would you describe our business to new hires?
- What do you like about the company culture?
- Why is your role rewarding?
Specify Your Needs
Since you’re a small business, applicants may assume that they will need to play different roles. This can discourage them from applying, so it is important that you state exactly what you’re looking for.
In our article called Hire Smart, we suggested that you take a step back to understand what your small business needs.
Ask yourself what position you’re trying to fill and the responsibilities that come with it. After you’ve identified these, make a detailed description of the role in order to find the right candidate. State the role and the tasks they can expect to do for your small business.
Example – Graphic Designer
Let’s say you’re looking to hire a graphic designer. Make sure to include in the job description the type of products they will need to conceptualize and produce. Are they banners, videos, or billboards? This will allow top talent to see if your role is a good fit for their skills and aspirations to work on interesting projects.
Graphic design is an interesting example as the roles vary so much depending on the business. If your business is an Advertising Agency you’ll need graphic designers with talent at the bleeding edge of digital design. Creating NFTs and using VR or augmented reality or maybe being an integral part of the short clip video production team may be part of the graphic designer’s role.
Offer A Signing Bonus
Offer a signing incentive to exceptional candidates approaching them as a small firm. LHH, a hiring guru, writes about the talent wars and signing incentives. The website cited a September 2021 GlobalData poll that revealed the number of job postings with signing incentives increased by 454% between August 2020 and August 2021.
A signing incentive demonstrates your appreciation for their talents and desire for them to join your company right away. It is also helpful when great personnel receive several offers from different organizations. It elevates you above the competition and raises your likelihood of landing their hire.
A signing bonus may also supplement or make up for other things, such as the lesser pay you can provide as a small firm. You are one step ahead of the competition in attracting top talent by providing this.
Highlight Benefits and Originality
You may not be able to match larger companies’ limitless benefits or greater compensation, but you can emphasize the advantages of working for a small company. List the benefits that top talent won’t be able to get working for a large corporation. This can include establishing a close-knit culture because of your small employment base.
What Sets Your Company Apart?
Since your company is tiny, draw attention to how simple it is to develop stronger relationships with coworkers. They may get individualized care if they need help, which is another important point to emphasize. People may go unnoticed in a large organization because of the sheer volume of workers. However, with a small company, their issues and difficulties may be quickly resolved.
You may also draw attention to unique benefits of your small company. For instance, Online Optimism often gives its staff individualized care packages. What can your organization do to help workers feel appreciated and cared for at work?
Discuss the Importance and Value of the Role
Top talent may find it challenging to see their place in a workplace with hundreds or even thousands of coworkers. However, in a small company with fewer employees, they are assigned key responsibilities that will greatly benefit the company.
Discuss how joining your small business will imply that they will have a major direct influence on the firm while you are seeking applicants. Since you have fewer workers to rely on, emphasize that you and management are aware of and grateful for their work.
Discuss how your job will demonstrate your company’s success. Sticking with the example of employing a graphic designer, you may define how the branding they will produce for your firm will attract additional consumers or clients. By highlighting the value of their job, top personnel will be enticed to contribute to your small business’ success.
Polish Up Your Interview Skills
To attract the talent your organization needs, you first need to sell the will the position to get applications. Once you’ve done that, your interviewing method may also require some tweaking. Practice your interviewing approach on your current personnel.
How are your Zoom presenting skills? Don’t allow your hard work obtaining applications to waste with a bad video conference.
Summing Up
Recruiting top talent and qualified staff is a demanding task for a small firm. Higher pay is not necessarily the major appeal. Find out why your workers appreciate working for your firm and share it with job searchers. Hopefully, these recommendations will help you recruit the greatest individuals to join your company.
