With the business world rapidly advancing, it is essential for small and medium businesses to stay ahead of the curve and strategize for the future. In 2023, hiring strategies for small and medium businesses will be vastly different than what we expect today. To ensure success in the years ahead, it is important to understand the factors that will affect how organizations hire in the coming years. From changing technology trends to shifts in demographics, there are a variety of elements which can influence recruitment.
As we fast-forward, the way small and medium businesses hire employees is vastly different than it was in previous years. With technology advancing at an exponential rate, companies must develop new and innovative strategies for identifying the best talent for their teams. In this article, we will explore how a business of any size can leverage modern relevant points to ensure they are on the cutting edge of recruitment.
Continue reading to learn effective strategies to help your small to mid business attract top talent. The best hiring strategies are:
- Employer Branding
- Clear Job Descriptions
- Reaching Qualified Candidates
- Speed Up Hiring Decisions
- Make Attractive Offers
1. Employer Branding
Strengthening your employer branding is important to developing a successful business. All businesses need strong employer branding, but it’s especially important for small businesses to showcase and publicize your name since it’s usually less recognizable compared to larger businesses. A reason why your company could be attracting less candidates could be that your brand isn’t well known yet. Candidates aren’t really sure what working at your company would look like. What’s the culture like? How does the company treat its employees? This uncertainty prevents many qualified employees from applying for job openings.
Remember that your employer brand is likened to an elevator pitch for the company. In the “About Us” page of the website, describe the company’s value proposition, its values and culture, and its mission to attract more people to apply to the company. You can also consider including testimonials of why employees like to work at your company and testimonials from customers who enjoyed your services.
Actively responding to reviews or sharing major company updates could also help you gain a positive reputation in the eyes of the public. Make sure to also update the company’s profiles on various social media such as LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. It would be even better if the company’s brand can be seen through blogs, videos, etc. and is authentic.
2. Clear Job Descriptions
Candidates are most likely reading multiple job postings in a day, so if the job descriptions are vague, confusing, or don’t provide enough information, they could quickly lose interest and move on to the next job posting. Clear job descriptions are necessary to keep the candidate interested enough to apply for the job.
A strong and clear job description includes an accurate listing of the details that pertain to the role. Some such details would include required qualifications, salary, compensation information, location. Well-written job descriptions will attract candidates that are suited for the job and will deter candidates who aren’t the right fit from applying.
The wordings of job descriptions could also unconsciously prevent diverse candidates from applying. Some gender-coded words include the words strong, competitive, and driven, which are seen as more masculine and could stop female candidates from applying. Words like understand, feel, or support, on the other hand, may deter male candidates from applying. The best practice is to use gender-neutral words so that no candidate feels excluded or unable to apply.
3. Reaching Qualified Candidates
One of the major hiring challenges small businesses have is being able to reach quality candidates. A good strategy to reach more candidates is to post your job on job boards that have global or industry reach. Another great way to attract candidates is to post on job boards that target college and university students. Make sure to include keywords that candidates use when they search for similar jobs.
Employee referral programs are also a great way to uncover new talent. They are not only quicker and more reliable, but they are probably cheaper as well. Offering your employees monetary incentives or other such incentives will motivate them to refer suitable candidates. Also remember to keep the referrers updated throughout the recruitment process, even if the person they referred doesn’t get a position in the end. Doing this lets them know that the company is taking their referral seriously and values their opinions.
4. Speed Up Hiring Decisions
Again, candidates are probably applying to multiple jobs at the same time, so a speedy response time is essential for small businesses to gain an upper hand against competitors. A great way for small companies to speed up the hiring process without diverting too much manpower away from the core workings of the company is to use artificial intelligence in the recruiting process. AI is also increasingly being used in recruiting so that unconscious human biases don’t influence a hiring decision that is not based on the candidate’s skills or merit.
Companies like Interviewer.AI use artificial intelligence to screen candidates and help you sift out a pool of talented candidates. The AI software goes through each candidate’s resume and matches the words within the resume to the job description to see their fit. Then, candidates are invited to take an asynchronous video interview and are ranked based on how they score.
This ranking is completely transparent, and hiring managers can see exactly how and why candidates are ranked the way they are. In this way, hiring managers can spend their time focusing on the candidates at the top of the rankings instead of wasting hours going through each candidate’s file manually. This is a great way to ensure that all candidates are fairly considered with no biases and that their applications aren’t lost amidst the many applications.
5. Make Attractive Offers
After you’ve decided to offer a candidate a position at your company, how do you ensure that the candidate is moved by the offer? Research pay ranges for the position you’re making an offer for. Even though larger companies can probably afford to pay more, small businesses have advantages over larger businesses. Win over the candidate by offering perks such as a tighter-knit community, a more flexible work schedule, remote or hybrid work options, and an accelerated career advancement. Inform them that they will have more say in key decision-making and more recognition.
Remind candidates that smaller businesses also provide greater opportunities to take part in roles outside of the single job position, allowing the candidate greater exposure to transferable skills and experiences.
There’s More to Hiring
The hiring strategies offered above are non-exhaustive. Explore your options and see what other strategies could work for your small to mid-sized business.
As the business world continues to evolve, so do the strategies used to hire employees. In 2023, small and medium businesses will have to be particularly savvy when it comes to hiring as competition for top talent is expected to be more intense than ever.
Human resources departments must stay ahead of the curve by identifying trends and having a plan in place for addressing them. Technology will also play an increasingly important role in the recruitment process, allowing businesses to reach larger pools of potential candidates.
Interviewer.AI is a technology platform purposely built to support Recruiters and HR teams in finding top talent for their companies. Interviewer.AI is a state-of-the-art video recruiting software that uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to screen in advance and shortlist the candidates that meet the criteria set. HR teams use the software to make the recruitment process more efficient and shorten the hiring cycle. Learn more about how Interviewer.AI can help your business.
Increase your hiring team’s efficiency using a combination of resume scoring, skill assessment, and asynchronous video interviews.
Hannah Ng is from Boston College studying Finance and Business Analytics. She is currently an intern for Interviewer.AI.
Besides work, she is also very interested in hair styling and is responsible for her family’s hairstyles as a hobby.
