As a small business owner, you might not have access to the same recruitment resources that are commonly available to larger companies. To successfully attract and hire the employees you need to take your company to the next level, you’ll likely have to get creative in your recruitment approach. Clue yourself in to four professional recruitment solutions designed to help small business fill talent gaps.
1. Bring Your Work Environment Into the Modern Age
If you don’t already offer your employees the option of telecommuting, you might want to start before you start looking for new hires. These days, employees are all about having more flexibility when it comes to when and how they can perform and submit their work, which often provides them with a better work-life balance. Sometimes it’s preferable to work with an employer who’s concerned more with the overall results of the work rather than the amount of time spent on the work.
Depending on the position that needs to be filled, working remotely might not be a very good option when it comes to helping small business fill talent gaps. The same is true of employees who fulfill several roles within the company and might be needed onsite to perform one or more of those roles. Something else you can do to change up the dynamic of your work environment is think about offering unlimited paid time off. While it might not seem like it, you could be surprised at how few of your employees change their current work schedules should you decide to implement this strategy for employee recruitment and retention.
2. Let Your Customers Help You
There’s a chance one of your current customers or clients knows of the perfect candidate for an upcoming job position. If you’ve formed a personal relationship with any of your customers (and you should), let them know the type of employee you’re in need of and provide them with all of the information they need to pass on to potential applicants. With the power of social media and the speed at which information spreads, this can be a rather effective strategy to help small business fill talent gaps.
Additional external recruitment strategies you can employ include seeking out new graduates from local technical schools and colleges, campus job fairs and working with career service offices. There might also be professional industry organizations or job boards you can put to good use.
3. Contract Work
If the job you need to fill is one that’s in great demand, you can get equally great results by hiring an independent contract to perform the job. The great thing about this recruitment solution is that it often results in lower overhead, and the contractors enjoy the freedom and flexibility that comes with contract work. Should you know you’re likely to need an independent contractor or two several times throughout the year, you might want to keep in touch those individuals in order that you don’t have to look for new and well-qualified individuals each and every time the need arises. In addition to this being a great way to help small business fill talent gaps, it can also lead to offering a contractor a permanent or full-time position if you enjoy working with her or him.
4. Woo Well-Qualified and Hard-to-Find Employees With the Benefits of Working With a Small Business
As a small business, you may not be the top choice for candidates who have an abundance of experience, education or professional qualifications, even though those are exactly the type of employees you and your company need. To strengthen your case, you need to show what’s appealing about working for a small business that’s not common when it comes to working with a larger company.
Examples of the advantages of working with a small company rather than a large company include building a more intimate relationship with clients (and potentially employees), working with a smaller staff and having the opportunity to work with different kinds of clients. What’s more is that you should also think about what makes your company unique from other local small businesses that offer the same services or products as yours. You never know when a well-qualified candidate might be considering offers from more than one small- to medium-sized company.
Helping small business fill talent gaps is no small feat, but it’s one that can become easier with the right professional advice and resources. If you ever find yourself in need of additional ways to build a better business or make all-star hires, don’t forget about the additional tools and articles found here on Mighty Recruiter.