Recruiting for small business, Part 4: Are you being realistic?

Posted February 6th, 2012 in For Employers

Not getting the people you need? Maybe they don’t exist.

A few days ago I got a call from a small business owner who had a tall order:

“I’m looking for a great salesperson who’s got an established client base to sell my construction materials.  Ideally, they’d be able to work from home, with their own clientele, and have the ability to develop their own sales materials.  We don’t have a training program, so they’d need to be able to work independently.  The position is entirely commission-based – but if they work hard, they can make a lot of money.”

Except…a strong, entrepreneurially-minded salesperson who’s got an established clientele and the ability to work independently is (probably) already making a lot of money in their current job.  They’ve probably got a base salary, ongoing commissions from repeat business, job security and a certain level of seniority.  Why would they leave that to come to your small business?

It’s important to see your opportunity objectively.

If you’re like most small business owners, you are unreservedly positive about your business, and that’s good.  But when it comes time to recruit key people for your organization – particularly if you’re looking to build a team that can take you to the next level – you have to take a step back.  Top-tier candidates, the ones who can really make a difference to a small business, have choices, even in a tough economy.  Are you really offering them a better opportunity than they could get elsewhere?

Ask yourself:

  • What does the ideal candidate really look like, in terms of lifestage, lifestyle, salary/commissions/bonus and day-to-day activities?
  • How does your opportunity compare with what they are doing now?  If you’re asking them to take a reduced salary/compensation, what are you offering in return?  How long will it take for them to recoup that loss, realistically?
  • Can you offer them a meaningful lifestyle change that will compensate for what they’re giving up?
  • Will what you’re offering really attract the best and brightest in your field, or just a B- or C-list person?
  • If you were offered this position, would you jump at the chance?  (Be honest!)

I know it’s tough, when you’re a small business owner, to commit to making an investment in a new person, whether it’s salary, training, recruiting or even just the time required while a new hire gets up to speed and becomes maximally productive.  But it’s like any other wisely-considered  investment:  You tend to get out what you’re willing to put in.

 

Recruiting for small business, Part 3: Finding great candidates

Posted January 31st, 2012 in blog_news, For Employers

What you can do to find better candidates for your small business

PART 1:  The real cost of bad hires

PART 2:  Getting closer to the ideal candidate

In our first two blogs about recruiting for small business, we talked about the true cost of bad hires and how better screening and interviewing can help you get closer to the ideal candidate.

But for many small business owners, ‘recruiting’ is a whole new world.  If your business is just starting to take off, it’s likely that your first employees came from people you already knew, referrals from friends and family, and hiring ‘accidents’ that just happened to work out well.

Now that you’re growing, you have to get more strategic with your hires, and that often means going outside your comfort zone:  Hiring people with skillsets outside your own, spending money on more senior people who can take on a leadership role, or investing in staff not because you’re overloaded with work but because you know you need to grow in the longer term.

This can be scary – but there are ways to find great candidates

5 tips for finding the best candidates for your organization

1.  Don’t be afraid to call a recruiting company

Many small businesses are reluctant to engage a recruiting company because they think it’ll cost them a lot of money. That’s not always the case.  Try calling a smaller recruiting company and asking if they have an alternative to the standard 20% contingency fee model.  Many recruiting companies will agree to provide you with recruiting help on a per-hour basis (you pay for the recruiter’s time, rather than a contingency fee) or to provide you with a list of potential candidates from which you can recruit directly, for a reduced fee.

2.  Engage your current employees to drive referrals

Recruitment managers will tell you that the best way to find great employees is by tapping into the networks of current employees.  So when you’re looking for a new hire, don’t keep it a secret from your current team – let them know the kind of candidate you’re looking for, and ask them to spread the word via their LinkedIn, Facebook or other social media channels.  (Offering a referral fee if they refer the winning candidate – $250 should do it – can help to motivate them.)

3.  Don’t depend on job boards

If you’re looking to hire 25 new call centre employees, posting on a job board like Monster might be a good way to attract candidates, but when you’re looking to fill a more senior role or need an unusual mix of skills, job boards aren’t going to reach the people you really want.

4.  LinkedIn can be a powerful resource

More than 95% of Canadian recruiters say that LinkedIn is their first stop when they’re looking for great candidates.  If you’ve been keeping up your LinkedIn profile and connections, it can be a great place for you, as a small business owner, to start as well.  Post the opportunity as your LinkedIn status, search your connections for potential matches, and check out industry groups in your area.  Just because someone isn’t actively looking for a job doesn’t mean that they’re not open to a new opportunity.

5.  Know what you have to offer

As a small business, you may not be able to offer big salaries or huge benefit plans to potential employees.  But small businesses often have all kinds of other ‘perqs’ to offer:  Accelerated promotion opportunities, a cool office space, a more varied workday, the ability to work at home, a more entrepreneurial environment – many people, after spending 15 years in a big company with established rules, simply yearn for the ‘every day is a new adventure’ atmosphere of a small business environment where they can stretch their skills.  So when you’re writing the job description or talking about it, put the emphasis on these elements – you never know when you’ll capture the imagination of an A-list candidate.

 

Recruiting for small business, Part 2: Getting closer to the ideal candidate

Posted January 25th, 2012 in For Employers

Effective screening and interviewing makes all the difference.

Last time, we talked about how, even for small businesses, doing your own recruiting can be a false economy in terms of hard costs, especially when it comes to sourcing top candidates.

But once you’ve got 25 resumes from potential hires in front of you, how do you choose the ones who are most likely to be a success in your organization?

Screening and interviewing are 2 of the most important steps in selecting the right person to hire, but they’re often discounted by small businesses.  Small business owners often think:  ”I know my business better than anyone else, and I wouldn’t have been this successful already if I didn’t understand people.”

It’s true that most successful entrepreneurs are good at reading people, and building successful relationships with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.  But assessing whether a person will be a great employee requires a different skillset, and asking questions designed to elicit specific responses which will predict on-the-job behaviour.

Professional recruiters – whose reputations hinge on being able to assess the right candidates for a job – can make a big difference by screening out the B- and C-listers, and ensuring you only see the potential A-listers for a job.

But if you aren’t using a recruiter, or it’s up to you to select the final hire from the top 3 a recruiter is sending you, here’s how you can improve your chances of getting a top performer:

  • Make a list of the traits of your current top performers.  Are they high-energy, entrepreneurial types, or more methodical, detail-oriented workers?
  • Envision the ‘ideal candidate’ for the role, including education, experience, work/management style, skillsets and personality.  Write it down!
  • Make a list of the day-to-day skillsets required for the position.  Remember that whether someone has an MBA may ultimately be less important than whether they are comfortable preparing and delivering presentations to senior management
  • Learn more about Behavioural Based Interviewing.  BBI is all about asking interview questions which are designed to get the candidate to provide specific examples of what they’ve done in work situations in the past, and are better predictors of future success than general questions like “So, tell me about yourself…”
  • Prepare a list of interview questions before you enter the interview room.  It’s easy for small business owners to allow interviews to veer off into ‘social interactions’ rather than conversations designed to elicit specific information

PART 3:  Finding great candidates

Recruiting for small business, Part 1: The real cost of bad hires

Posted January 20th, 2012 in For Employers

Sometimes, doing it yourself costs a lot more than you think.

Last week I got a call from the president of a local healthcare technology company.  He had about 25 employees, and was looking for a new salesperson to expand his territory.  But he was frustrated.

“Look, I know what I need here.  I’ve tried 3 people and they haven’t worked out, so I know I need someone who is willing to work harder than the people I’ve already tried. I keep advertising, but I’m not getting good people.  But I can’t spend a lot of money, especially when no one seems to work out.”

The thing is, bad hires cost a lot of money:  Companies say that bad hires can cost as much as $25,000-$50,000 – per bad hire.  And this Bad Hire Calculator shows you that even for junior or commission-based positions, the costs of bad hires are much more than you think.

As a small business ourselves, we know that recruiting costs (especially the traditional contingency-fee-based model) can seem expensive.  It can be tempting to think that if you just put a low-cost ad on Craigslist or even Monster, the right person will land in your lap.

Unfortunately, using job ads only exposes you to active job seekers, who comprise only a very small portion of the available talent pool.  If you’re like most small businesses, and need someone with a wide variety of skills or a unique skillset, you need to be able to cast your net much wider.

A recent survey by recruiting expert Lou Adler found that as many as 83% of currently employed people are ‘passive candidates’.  These are people who are currently working, aren’t looking at job boards, but who would be receptive to a new opportunity if it came along.

This is where engaging a recruiter can make a big difference.  Recruiters make it their business to develop long-term relationships with passive candidates, so when they get a request from a client, they’re working from a much larger potential pool of talent.

PART 2: Recruiters can get you closer to the ideal candidate, faster.