The hiring conditions for small businesses are getting more competitive as the job market continues to tighten. Not only are they competing within their segment but with large enterprises as well for candidates with leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
A recent study reported that 51 percent of business owners cited an inability to find qualified applicants as their greatest challenge. Key highlights from the report include the following:
- 3 percent cannot find qualified applicants when it comes to skills and expertise
- 2 percent need to raise salary to be competitive
- 9 percent need to offer other benefits to attract workers
To further complicate matters, small companies are facing this challenge with fewer resources compared to their larger business counterparts. For example, hiring managers are not able to fully dedicate the time needed to attract the right candidates because of the many different hats they wear in their organisations.
We’ve listed down four of the most common hiring challenges faced by small business owners today, as well as some tips, so you can step up your recruitment game and find the ideal candidate.
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Avoid bad hires at all costs.
Your business loses more than time, money, and effort by hiring and training people who shouldn’t have been brought on in the first place. You must also deal with the havoc the wrong employee can create: the business you lose when the bad hire interacts with customers, the cost you incur when you have to repeat procedures that were handled ineptly, and the pressure on the other staff who have to pick up the slack.
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Don’t go for cheap labor.
More and more forward-thinking business leaders realise cheap labor costs more than it saves. By hiring better and retaining high-performing employees, businesses are finding significant savings to their bottom lines.
Of course, there are still some small business owners who manage their organisations with the attitude that cheap help is easy to find. They’ve created a toxic culture where employees stay just long enough to learn a skill and then go on to a workplace culture where employees are valued and respected.
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Streamline your process.
When it comes to recruiting, time is of the essence. Recent studies have shown that top candidates are typically off the market in just 10 days. This leaves a small window for businesses to attract talent before they’re lost to competition. Cut down the amount of time it takes you to hire by eliminating possible bottlenecks: Start with an accurate job description. Decrease the number of hoops a candidate has to jump through to get into your talent pipeline. Make your job postings easy to find. Have a standardised evaluation process in place.
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Get help.
A report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 54 percent of small business owners handle employment matters themselves. They eventually realise they’re be better off devoting their time to revenue-generating activities.
As a small business owner, you have to realise you can’t and shouldn’t try to do everything yourself. Learn to delegate tasks, including talent acquisition. Invest by hiring in-house recruiters, or partner with a recruitment agency.
The team at Remote Staff have realised that we need to be working not just for our clients, but also for the candidate, giving the same level of care that an in-house recruiter would, improving the overall hiring experience and ensuring your brand becomes renowned for its positive and seamless recruitment process.
As one of the pioneers in the remote staffing space, we believe that the best agency-client partnerships are just that, partnerships; where both parties take steps to ensure that the other can produce and receive a service of the highest quality. Click on the button below if you’re interested to know more.
