You know that your team is your best tool as a small business owner or boss. Setting up a good hiring process is important if you want to build a team with the skills and professional values that will please your clients and customers.
You have a lot of things to do. We’ve put together a list of the best ways for small businesses to hire people so you can spend less time looking for people and more time running your business.
Table of Contents
1. Plan how your small business will hire people
Figure out how many workers your small business needs. If you find bright applicants with a variety of skills, you can cut down on the number of people on your team.
Plan your money. A small business hires people every year for about $1,600, so look for pricing choices where you only pay when someone goes through. Put up jobs for free to save money.
Make a schedule. Half of small businesses need one month to go through the whole hiring process. Want to hire people more quickly? Set aside some money to advertise your open positions.
2. The way you post your job should make people want to apply
Use job names that are common in your field or that people will recognize, and stay away from catchy ones like “social media gurus.” You can only list six job duties at most. Leave out things like “Must be able to meet deadlines.”
Ask questions to screen people.
Get rid of people who don’t meet basic standards to save time. Add at least two to three questions, and if you can, make them mandatory.
Keep making changes.
If you’re not getting the people you wanted, it’s fine to change and improve your post more than once.
3. Write good descriptions of jobs
The most important part of the hiring process is sometimes skipped over writing a clear job description. This is one of the best ways to hire people because it helps managers figure out what they need to hire, which means they can make the best hire for your small business.
A well-written job description will also help you find suitable people and show them why they should work for your small business. Ask the people hiring you to include an opening paragraph that talks about your company brand along with the job, duties, and requirements.
4. Make a short list of things
Sort and rate the people who applied. The applicants on your job board should be ranked by how they answered screening questions. This way, the best candidates will be at the top of the list.
Do one-on-one talks with applicants who want to help with your goal. Don’t forget that small business candidates care more about having a cause and being challenged than about money.
Talk to your best applicants as a group. This is a chance to focus on the candidate’s “soft skills,” which are very important in a smaller business.
5. Make a strong offer
Making a strong offer is one of the most important things you can do to hire someone. Find out how much the job pays by using salary tools to find out what the going rate is in your state. There are probably big companies that can pay the most, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the best people to work for you.
Offer the perks that would make someone want to work for a small business instead of a big one. You could, for instance, let people work from home, give them more freedom with their schedules, help them move up faster in their careers, and encourage everyone to work together.
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6. Use technology to get things done faster and better
Recruiters at a big companies usually write job descriptions, put them on job boards, look over resumes and cover letters, and call people to find the best candidates for hiring managers to talk to. In a small business, the people who hire people are probably in charge of every step. The good news is that hiring tools speed up the process.
The step of going through resumes and cover letters takes the most time. ATS software is used by businesses of all kinds to collect, sort, and screen job applications. They don’t have to read every resume and cover letter because the filtering tools let them look for people who meet their needs. Hiring managers should use an ATS that lets them look through all the resumes in the database to find people who would be a good fit for the job but didn’t apply.
7. Use the web
For small companies, the internet is one of the best tools they can use. When you’re hiring new people, make good use of this huge resource. You can use this tool to improve the way you hire people in the following ways:
Get on social media
Small businesses can find people who want to work for them through social media. It lets you talk to people interested in this job and looking for something like it. This makes it easy for you to find out more about the possible individuals and see if they meet the requirements for the job.
A good name for a small business can also be built on social media. Before applying for a job, people will want to find out as much as they can about the company and the job opening.
Use sites that post jobs.
There are a lot of good job-offering sites that can help small businesses find good employees. These are some of the most famous job boards that small businesses can use:
These job sites make it easy and quick to find people who are looking for work. In exchange, you can also give them information about the job opening. Job posting sites are a cheap way to find suitable people who might be interested in working for you. Some sites that post jobs will even rank the applicants automatically for the job you’re advertising.
Do talks on the web
Small businesses can use the internet to help them hold job interviews online by giving them tools like Zoom. Because of Covid-19’s effects on the economy, online interviews have become very popular. They are also a cheap way to screen suitable job applicants. Online talks are great for small businesses that don’t have a central office and have people working from home.
8. Plan how you will do in the interview
Once you have a list of suitable people, you can start making plans for the interview. A face-to-face interview should be structured with specific questions that are meant to see how qualified the candidates are.
If you plan well for the interview, the questions you ask should help you choose the best person to hire. There are common interview questions that most companies ask, but you should focus on making your own unique plan for the interview. You can find the best people for your company with the help of a custom interview plan.
You can use the following types of interview plans:
Talks with a panel
When there are a lot of skilled applicants, panel talks are a good way to find the best one. Since there are many reporters, the group will be able to ask the people being interviewed a wide range of questions.
People looking for jobs may be nervous about panel interviews, but they are a good way to find out what kind of person the candidates are. An interview makes it easier for the people in the group to get ready, and you can get a more fair view from them.
Interviews on the phone and video
Phone and video interviews are becoming more common and are a cheap way to interview people. They are mostly used to interview people from out of town or who will work from home for the company. Phone and online conversations work best for people the company already knows will do a good job and trust.
Getting ready for a phone or online interview should be done like you get ready for a face-to-face interview. Before the second, in-person interview with the approved people, there can also be a phone and video interview.
Interviews in person
Most small companies still use the standard in-person interview as their main way to hire people. There is a lot you can learn about a person in person. It also helps the boss learn more about the candidates and decide if they are a good fit for the business.
This is the best way to do an in-person interview:
- Please be polite to the candidates.
- Not making general inquiries
- Being aware of and paying attention to the candidate as they talk
- Giving each competitor the same attention
- Telling the candidate what to do next after the interview
Don’t ask lead-in questions; instead, make sure you guide the conversation. In this case, the interviewer can ask broad questions that let the candidate give comments that show more about who they are. You can make sure you hire the right people by planning and carrying out interviews in the right way.
9. Take part in job fairs
Small businesses have a unique chance to find new employees at job fairs. It can be hard to hire new people for small businesses because they aren’t well known. Going to job fairs is a good way to find new employees, especially from colleges and universities.
Job fairs are a cheap way to meet a lot of people who are looking for work and get your name out there. When you go to a job fair, you don’t have to pay for ads.
A job fair is a great way to find new employees for your small business because you can talk to potential hires in person before making a choice. This saves the company time that would have been used to set up talks and go through a long hiring process.
Aside from hiring people, job fairs also let small businesses talk to other companies in the same field. Your business can learn how to get an edge over other companies by doing this. Working with other companies can help you get better at finding people and making connections in the area.
You can make your small business more well-known by going to job fairs. Job shows are a good way to get people to know about your brand and build a good name in your field. If you do this, your business will look better to new employees, which will make it easier to hire more people. Being aware of a brand is also important because people looking for work want to be associated with a well-known brand.
10. Be as nice to job applicants as you would be to customers
You can do a better job of hiring people if you treat applicants like customers. How you treat job applicants says a lot about your business, and good applicants will often be drawn to businesses with a good past. You should always try to make a good first impression on every applicant, even if they don’t get the job.
If you treat qualified applicants with care, you can build a talent pool that you can use when you need more workers. You can make it better for job candidates at your company by:
Having guests over
Make sure all of the applicants feel welcome at your business. While they wait for the interview, you can give them something to eat or drink.
Taking into account the candidate’s time
Candidates shouldn’t have to wait longer than necessary. Make sure that the interview starts at the time that was agreed upon. If you run into any problems, let the candidate know right away that you will be late.
These days, the best way to build a good image is to treat people well. People who have worked with your company before will often write an online review about their experience. This kind of information can be seen by other suitable applicants that you may not have checked out yet. This is why you should make sure that job applicants only say good things about your company.
In conclusion
Small businesses need to hire the right people. Planning is the first step in a good hiring process. This includes figuring out how many people you need to hire, having a budget, and making a schedule. Job posts and descriptions that are well-written will get suitable people to apply. Carefully look over the applicants and question them in depth to find the best ones. Make offers that people want by talking about the great things about working at a small business.
Use technology, such as application tracking tools, to make the process go more quickly. Attend job events to meet talented people. Like you would a customer, treat all candidates with care. When small business owners and managers hire people, following organized best practices will help them build a skilled, engaged team that will help the business grow.