There are plenty of resources out there meant to help job seekers decide whether to work for a major corporation or a small business. However, there are far fewer resources to help small companies versus large companies know what to focus on when hiring employees.
As a nationally recognized recruiting and staffing firm, we thought it was a great opportunity to address this missing area of interest at a time when so many companies are inundated with applications. How do you sort through them all? Which factors are most important to consider when making the right hire for your size company?
To help you out, our team created this guide that outlines a few things to focus on and how to hire employees effectively when recruiting for businesses large or small.
Things to Consider When Hiring Eemployees For Large Companies
As a large company, looking for employees often means having to deal with a long review and hiring process, input from many stakeholders, pressure from above to fill open positions, bureaucracy, and many other challenges.
Here are a few guidelines for improving the employee hiring process in a large company.
1. Treat the candidate like they matter (because they do)
Everyone wants to feel like they, and their time, matter. Unfortunately, when looking to hire employees, hiring managers at enterprise-level organizations sometimes forget that candidates are real people and not just names on a resume. Candidates should be shown respect whether they’re a top contender for the role or not.
Why? Well, aside from being common courtesy, it all comes back to your employer brand. Sites like Glassdoor make it all too easy for candidates who feel like they’ve been scorned to air their grievances about your company, which can hurt your future hiring efforts. Protect your employer brand by offering a respectful, positive candidate experience to all who apply.
When interviewing, you can show candidates that their time is important by:
- Taking the time to review their resumes in advance so you can ask meaningful questions;
- Having an interview strategy for hiring employees;
- Informing them about who will be in the interview (if other people will be involved); and
- Being punctual or informing them in advance if you’re running late.
2. Keep the recruiting and hiring process expedient
When hiring employees for large companies, it’s essential to keep the process moving.
Glassdoor reports that the national average hiring process length in the U.S. is nearly 24 days and that select areas, like Washington, D.C. and Albany, New York, have an average of 33 days. Some reports, such as one from the Society for Human Resource Management, even indicate that the average time-to-fill for a position can reach 36 days. Every day a position sits vacant costs you money in the form of lost productivity and additional recruitment resources spent.
The best way to hire new employees is to recruit, screen, qualify and hire them as quickly as possible while still doing your part to ensure that they are thoroughly vetted. You can still be selective about candidates without dragging your feet unnecessarily.
3. Avoid using too many (or the wrong) staffing companies
The truth is that it’s often best to try to hire on your own whenever possible. However, it can be much more cost-effective to partner with a professional staffing agency and let them take care of hiring.
When choosing the right staffing company or headhunter, it’s essential to find one that demonstrates that you matter and your goals are among their top priorities. If hiring employees for your business isn’t their priority, then they can’t be successful when recruiting for you. Do your research and find the headhunter or recruiting and staffing agency that:
- Is responsive, flexible, and agile;
- Listens to you and your needs;
- Knows your market intimately; and
- Values their relationship with you and your company.
4 Corner Resources functions as a true staffing partner to our clients, treating your business as if it’s our own and always striving to find the right mix of skills, personality, experience and value in candidates.
Things to Consider When Hiring Employees For a Small Business
When you work for a small business, not only are your employee needs different, but your available personnel and financial resources are also different from those of large companies. With this in mind, here’s how to hire employees effectively as a small business owner, manager, or talent manager.
1. Don’t wait to bring in an expert recruiter
The biggest mistake that some small to midsize businesses (SMBs) make as they start to grow is waiting to call in the cavalry. This is where mistakes happen, and even just a couple of bad hires in key positions can set you up for disaster not too far down the road. The best way to find the right employees who will grow with you and hire them is by being willing to bring in an expert like 4 Corner Resources sooner than later to help with the process.
As a professional recruiting and staffing agency, we can expand your reach significantly and help you save a great deal of time and frustration when recruiting and hiring employees on your behalf. We can attract employees who are seeking new employment as well as appeal to passive candidates who already have jobs but are willing to entertain new employment offers. Furthermore, we also know how to hire employees effectively by leveraging our resources, networks, and expertise to benefit your business.
2. Make your job (and company) attractive to candidates
One of the most important things you can do when looking to hire employees is selling the candidates on why they should work for you. This is especially important when you’re a smaller company without a ton of brand recognition.
Whether they’re job seekers who come to you on their own or are candidates that you sourced and are trying to recruit, it’s imperative to make both the position and your company desirable. Hiring employees is a lot easier when someone wants to work for you.
Some of the ways that you can make the position and your company more attractive include:
- Providing a detailed job description that outlines your expectations;
- Providing information about benefits, advancement opportunities, etc.;
- Building on and highlighting your brand;
- Including salary or pay information (this can increase your applicants by 30%); and
- Being proactive and showing interest in them first (seeking out candidates who may already have jobs and reaching out to them is a great example of this).
3. Hire for growth
As an SMB, you’re going to have a harder time attracting industry heavyweights to join your team than a larger company that can offer higher salaries and more lucrative benefits. Since this isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it puts you in the perfect position to hire for growth, training and developing your employees with precisely the skills you need them to have to help your business grow.
Rather than allocating a disproportionate amount of resources to luring in-demand candidates away from competitors, consider hiring for potential rather than experience. Employees who are coachable can be molded into the kind of leaders you want on your team, whereas those with many years’ experience will be more set in their ways and are sometimes less adaptable to change.
Related: 3 Reasons You Should Hire for Potential, Not Experience
4. Consider alternative staffing solutions
When hiring, it’s easy to get stuck focusing on full-time, permanent hires. Though these are the norm, they’re also costly and come with a lot of overhead. Small and medium-sized businesses can gain a lot from considering alternative staffing models like temporary and contract hiring.
Temporary hiring is an ideal option to cover seasonal and project-based demand while controlling costs. Contract hiring allows you to pay only for what you need, gaining access to niche expertise without the expense of making a full-time hire. Contract-to-hire staffing can help you make sure a candidate is a great fit for your role before you take the plunge into bringing them onboard full time.
Get Staffing Help That Suits Your Size from 4 Corner Resources
4 Corner Resources is an Orlando staffing agency that offers professional direct-hire, temporary, contract, and contract-to-hire staffing services for businesses in Central Florida and across the United States. We base our staffing solutions not on how much you can spend, but on what you actually need, helping you maximize your recruiting budget without sacrificing quality.
If you’re a small business, we can tackle the bulk of your staffing tasks, freeing up time for you to spend running your business and developing your team. If you’re an enterprise-level organization, we can help you fill high-volume roles in less time, with less turnover. Our focus is on relationships; we’re with you for the long haul, ensuring you have a staffing strategy that will evolve with you and meet your needs as your business grows.
To learn more about how we can be an asset to your company, schedule your complimentary consultation with us now.
Resources and Sources
https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/how-long-should-interviews-take/
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/2017-Talent-Acquisition-Benchmarking.pdf
https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2015/02/should-you-include-salary-in-job-advertisements
