As a small business owner, it’s essential that you implement the right hiring strategies when it’s time to expand your team.
In smaller companies, the individual contributions of your people are magnified, meaning they have an exceptional impact on company growth, innovation, and customer experience.
But great talent can be tough to find.
From finding the best candidate to making an offer, here are nine effective hiring strategies for small businesses.
9 Effective Hiring Strategies for Small Business Owners
Hiring the right people doesn’t happen by chance—it happens through a strategic approach and intentional action.
Here are nine effective hiring strategies to try.
1. Audit Your Hiring Needs and Processes
Before diving into the hiring process, you must audit where you already are. Spend some time considering:
- Your current staff team’s roles and responsibilities
- Your company’s operational needs
- Employment and skills gaps you need to fill
This helps you know who you are hiring and what you’re hiring for. As you’re looking at this, make sure to assess your current hiring and onboarding processes and if any changes need to be made.
For example, if you’re on a tight timeline, how can you speed things up? Or, if you don’t have time to hire, can you appoint someone else to oversee the process? Taking stock of where you are is the first of many hiring strategies you need to bring in the right people.
2. Craft an Effective Job Description
You can’t hire a strong team without creating an effective job description. It’s your opportunity to communicate both the role’s responsibilities and your own company cultures and values.
Be sure to include the following elements in your job descriptions:
- A clear job title that reflects the role and is easily searchable (i.e., no company-specific jargon).
- A concise job summary that explains the primary responsibilities and objectives.
- Key qualifications needed for the role.
- A company overview that introduces your mission and workplace culture.
- Application instructions that give a clear overview of the application process.
Spending time on your job description saves you time later by weeding out the wrong candidates. You can optimize this process by creating templates to reuse again and again in the future.
3. Create a Career Page
Your company’s website should have a dedicated career page where potential candidates can learn more about your organization and its job openings. It should also go beyond listing open roles to showcasing your company’s values, cultures, and opportunities for growth.
- Employee testimonials or success stories.
- Unique benefits or peaks.
- Your company’s values and long-term vision.
This all speaks to your employee value proposition—what you have to offer potential candidates. A well-crafted career page will also make your job opportunities more visible and searchable online, so you can attract more potential candidates.
4. Create Compelling Job Recruiting Campaigns
Waiting until candidates find you is not one of the most effective recruiting strategies. Take a more active approach by seeking out talent through recruiting campaigns.
Utilize social media, job boards, and professional networks to advertise your job openings. You can also leverage paid advertising on platforms like LinkedIn, which increases visibility and allows you to target specific demographics, job titles, and industries.
5. Showcase Your Business
Small businesses have a personality, culture, and charm that make them unique and engaging for potential candidates. Showcase what makes your company special, whether it’s a close-knit team, a commitment to community involvement, or advancement and education opportunities.
You can do this through some of the other hiring strategies we mentioned, such as optimizing your job postings and website. But you can also make a concerted effort to be visible in your industry and community by attending events, trade shows, or industry networking opportunities.
6. Look for Candidates in the Right Places
It’s crucial that you target your efforts in the right places, where potential employees are likely to be. Beyond the typical job boards, you can promote your open positions on:
- City or state professional associations.
- Physical billboards or posters in key community locations.
- Newspaper classifieds.
- Networking events.
- Industry-specific job boards.
- Social media and online spaces, including those like Reddit or Discord.
When considering hiring strategies, always keep this in mind: Where would my ideal candidate spend time? Then, meet them there.
7. Review Your Benefits Package
Just as you should audit your hiring needs, you can also audit your benefits package. Are you offering attractive perks and benefits that your ideal candidate actually wants?
Make sure you are competitive with other companies in your industry and consider what’s really desired by employees today. Flexible work hours or flexible workspace, healthcare options, retirement plans, and professional development are all appealing to candidates. Or, maybe you’re ready to take the leap into a 4-day workweek or other out-of-the-norm benefits.
8. Consider Your Salaries
While related, salary and benefits should be analyzed separately. That’s because the vast majority of candidates do not want just good benefits—they care about their salary, too.
So, take time to review salaries in your company and consider if it needs to be updated. This is especially important if you’ve been having a hard time recruiting strong candidates. We have a complete guide on how to perform a compensation analysis so you can be thorough in this process.
When making a job offer, be prepared to discuss salary openly and negotiate if necessary. Transparency in salary discussions can help build trust with candidates and demonstrate your commitment to fair compensation.
9. Prioritize Work-Life Balance
The last of our effective recruiting strategies is to prioritize work-life balance—starting with you! As a small business owner, you wear many hats and may expect the same from your employees. That’s why it’s important to take care of your physical and mental well-being to reduce stress and overwhelm.
This will strengthen you as a leader and set the tone for the rest of the team to build a healthy and thriving workforce.
Building a strong team ultimately comes down to finding the right hiring strategies for small businesses. You need to be intentional about how to promote job opportunities and attract ideal candidates. These nine hiring strategies can help get you there!
And if you’re looking for a supportive professional community to grow your small business, you’ll find it at Launch. Contact us today to book a tour of your local Launch.
