Ask any CEO and they will tell you that people make the biggest difference to the efficiency and profitability of an organisation. In fact, according to Forbes, employees are a company’s #1 asset, suggesting you should be recruiting the best people for your workplace — and prioritising it!
This advice doesn’t only apply to large businesses. No matter the size of your business, your people will determine its success, and finding the right people starts with having the best recruitment processes in place.
Keep reading to discover recruitment tips to ensure that you hire and retain the best people for the job.
Top 10 Recruitment Tips for Small Businesses
Here are the top 10 tips from HR on Hand, who have over 45 years combined experience in successfully providing outsourced human resources and recruitment services to small businesses.
- Clearly articulate the role.
- Know your company culture and how they will fit in.
- Define your hiring strategy with the help of an HR consultant.
- Ask for and thoroughly check all references.
- Get the right decision-makers into the interview process.
- Be transparent about rates of pay and benefits.
- Use effective and proven onboarding methods.
- Celebrate the hire with the wider team.
- Check in with the new starter regularly.
- Informally ask for their feedback on the process.
Let’s take a look now at each of these 10 tips in more detail:
1. Clearly articulate the role.
One of the simplest but most important elements of successful recruitment is being clear and concise in describing the current vacancies you’re looking to fill.
This is important for your job posting but is also important when verbally explaining the role to potential candidates or the recruitment specialist helping you out. The clearer you are about the role from the beginning, the smoother the process will go, and the more likely you are to find and retain the right candidate.
2. Know your company culture and how they will fit in.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it’s much easier to consider how your new-hire will fit into your company early on, rather than hire someone and hope they are a good fit for your company.
Before you even begin the recruitment process, it’s a good idea to figure out how your new-hire would fit in with your company culture. Consulting your employees is a great way to gain insights into your current company culture and the type of person they think would be the best fit. After all, they’ll most likely work with your new-hire more closely than you will!
3. Define your hiring strategy with the help of an HR consultant.
Recruitment is a complicated process that takes a lot of time away from the day-to-day operation of your business, because you need a hiring strategy before you begin your recruitment.
Coming up with a hiring strategy on your own can be a challenge. Luckily an HR consultant can help you develop a recruitment strategy in less time than you could do yourself and one that will deliver the results you’re looking for.
Learn more about HR on Hand’s consulting services here.
4. Ask for – and thoroughly check – all references.
It can be exciting when you think you’ve found the perfect candidate near the end of the recruitment process. However, it’s important to see the process to the end before making a final decision, including thoroughly checking all of your candidates’ references.
Be sure to ask your candidate for references from previous employers that you can contact. Whether the candidate declines to give you a reference or you’re unable to get in contact with their references, do your due diligence and request them.
5. Get the right decision-makers into the interview process.
Once you have a set of qualified candidates, you’re one step closer to finding your next new-hire through the interview process.
One of the most important parts of the interview process is finding the right people to get involved with interviewing candidates. Considering that this person will be working with your team, it’s a good idea to have members of your team contribute to the candidate interviews.
Get someone who would be working closely with your new employee to interview them and give you insights into whether they’d be a good fit for the role and the company culture.
6.Be transparent about rates of pay and benefits.
Transparency throughout the recruitment process is the key to finding the best-qualified candidates for your open roles.
Make sure that the pay range for the job and potential benefits are made known early on, to avoid wasting your time or the time of your candidates.
7. Use effective and proven onboarding methods.
Even after choosing a new-hire, the recruitment process isn’t necessarily complete.
Onboarding is the key to retaining your new hire, so you must use effective onboarding methods to ensure your new employee feels welcome and has everything they need to get to work as soon as possible, including:
- Having all paperwork ready to go
- Making sure your team is fully briefed on their new colleague
- A plan for their first day
Check out our onboarding toolkit for everything you need for a smooth onboarding process.
8. Celebrate the hire with the wider team.
Nothing is worse than starting your first day at a job and feeling shunned by your new team. That’s why you should get your employees involved with welcoming your new-hire to the team from the beginning.
Celebrate that you’ve filled this open role with your employees before your new-hire even starts. This will uplift employee morale and get them excited about their new teammate. Your new employee will feel that enthusiasm on their first day and immediately feel like they made the right decision.
9. Check in with the new starter regularly.
It’s important not to abandon your new employee, especially in the first few weeks on the job, when they may still be figuring things out.
Make sure to check on your new employee regularly. Schedule one-to-ones periodically and ensure that they know that you’re available for questions whenever they may need you.
10. Informally ask for their feedback on the process.
There’s always room for improvement in your recruitment process. Who better to give you advice than the person who just went through that process?
Ask your new employee for feedback on how they found the entire hiring process. This doesn’t have to be formal — that could be intimidating for a new-hire. Instead, have a casual conversation over coffee to discuss their experience and gain insights on what was effective and what could be improved.
Utilise Our Recruitment Toolkit
If you’re still in need of help and want a structured recruitment process, use our recruitment toolkit to guide you along each step of the way. This toolkit provides you with documents such as:
- Recruitment policy
- Job application
- Interview guide
- And much more!
Ready for Your Recruitment Efforts to Have a Lasting Impact?
At HR on Hand, we offer a series of toolkits to help with your recruitment and HR to ensure that you always have the right people working for your company and that they’re in it for the long haul. Check out our recruitment and selection checklist to start improving your recruitment process today.
