If you run a small or medium-sized business (SMB), you know that your employees are the business. When staff sizes are small, talent counts for even more than ever.
But, as the saying goes, good help is always hard to find. You can’t expect the perfect candidate to walk through the door after seeing a “Help Wanted” sign.
According to a survey of small and independent business owners by NFIB, 47 percent of small businesses cannot find qualified applicants for open positions.
Luckily, there is help out there. By using the latest in HR management software, SMBs can refine their recruiting tactics and identify the best available talent for their staff. Online databases offer thousands of potential candidates, businesses can advertise their openings far and wide, manage the laborious work of screening candidates digitally, and track applicants more easily than ever.
Here are four recruiting tips to help your SMB recui, here are four recruiting tips to find the best talent:
1. Share Your Opportunity Far And Wide
One of the most crucial, but difficult steps in the hiring process is simply getting your opportunity in front of the right people. SMBs need to turn to tools that can help their job postings stand out among hundreds more in the same industry. Recruiting software can automatically disseminate opportunities through career sites, advertisements, and social media. While some old-fashioned companies may believe traditional advertising (print, newspaper, word of mouth) is still best for identifying new hires, social media has proven itself to be a fast growing opportunity for emerging talent.
A recent survey of recruiters found that only four percent of recruiters do not use social media to find candidates, even though 56 percent of quality hires were identified on social networks. By getting your message out on new channels and casting a wide net, your business will have a better chance of finding the right people.
2. Create a Deeper Candidate Pool
It stands to reason that the more candidates an SMB has to choose from, the better chance it has of snagging top talent. Many recruiting software solutions give users the ability to amass large pools of candidates, whether they be internal or external, through social media, web marketing, and referrals. By gathering and organizing these candidates, SMBs can easily assess which ones seem like the right fit for them. From there, it’s just a matter of refining the pool to the top candidates.
3. Make The Vetting Process Easy
Once your job posting attracts the right number of candidates and you’ve got their information at your fingertips, the candidate acquisition process can really begin. Through screening measures, the review of referrals, and final assessment, a large pool of potential staff will be distilled to the talent that you want as part of your business.
While casting a wide net is important, it will mean that refining your catches to those who have a real chance at landing the job will be laborious. There are digital solutions that can automatically screen resumes, rank candidates, and notify you of outstanding candidates. The automation of things like emails and paperwork can also save busy SMB managers lots of time.
In many SMBs, managers often wear different hats and more than one will be involved in the vetting process. With recruiting software, all of these people can collaborate on the candidates and their credentials on a central platform, providing each other with feedback.
4. Track Your Applicants
Finally, once appropriate candidates are identified from the masses and the hiring process begins in earnest, it will be crucial to track applicants as they progress. Despite the importance of this process, SMBs tend to ignore solutions that exist to help it run more efficiently.
According to Recruiting Blogs, only 26 percent of employers use an applicant tracking system to manage their hiring process. But Mashable reports that companies that do track their applicant communications are 40 percent more likely to be best in class compared to companies that don’t capitalize on technology.
Automatically keeping track of things like interviews, background checks, and other steps in the process will be hugely helpful in figuring out who is closest to getting the job. Many recruiting solutions have single systems that encompass background checks and skills assessments in one place, ensuring that qualifications are met.
Author Bio:
Peter Chawaga is a contributor for TechnologyAdvice.com with years of experience as a reporter and editor for publications around the country. He’s covered arts and culture in Philadelphia, business and development in Greensboro, and healthcare and technology in Nashville.
