2014 was declared the Year Of The New Hire More than ever before, to have the tools and resources to better manage the process of hiring employees is essential for small businesses to succeed and grow in 2014 and beyond. First, you need to set the stage for hiring success.
Make Time To Develop Your Employer Brand
One of the biggest challenges of small businesses is to make time to build an employer brand in order to attract talent. In a recent meeting with a client, I found they had a clear understanding of how many employees they needed to hire, however, focusing on numbers is a short-term strategy and once their recruiting needs will change again they will have to devote a lot of work and time once again.
The benefit of developing a strong employer brand is to set up your business for a long-term success. When you make time for defining messages and communication strategies that generate potential candidates’ interest, you cut the time spent on recruiting and increase attraction potential.
Define Your Target Audience
Develop a strategy to reach the candidates you WANT to hire. A client is the owner of a Thai restaurant. He was experiencing a high turnover and was blaming it on the nature of his business. In fact, statistics show long hours with little recognition or pay raises force workers to look for advancement by changing jobs. Low pay and few or no benefits do not help build employee loyalty. As many as 50 percent of restaurant managers report that they do not expect to be in the same job in five years.
I helped my client develop a recruiting strategy and beat the statistics. First, he conducted an employee survey in order to understand the needs of his employees. Then, he examined the reasons the employees give when leaving their job. This helped him develop a recruiting strategy and increased his retention rate. He stopped recruiting based on “a one size fits all” and chose his target market wisely and honing in on it. He can now attract the right people 95% of the time.
As talent becomes increasingly important for organizational success in 2014, recruitment becomes an even more critical strategic partner to your business. However, in order to achieve the business’ trust you need to stop focusing on reactively filling vacancies; rather, you will need to turn your focus to forecasting business needs and branding. You will need to hire as a marketer not a recruiter.
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