Recruitment within a small business

No matter the size, stature, and amount of time a company has been in business, recruitment is a difficult activity. As a business owner, if it is your first time being involved in hiring staff then it can be daunting, especially considering what impact hiring the right staff can do for your business in its infancy.

Employees are absolutely vital one of the most important assets of any company and a company’s development and growth. This only adds to the pressure to choose the right candidate(s), which incurs more baring on the decision making, for better or worse.

A business may well be in a situation where they know that in order to take the next step in development; extra resource is required. It could likely feel like a pivotal moment in the company, so again extra importance and significance on the decision can likely exist.

One of the main issues that can arise in typical small business, is that there may well not be a specific HR function/department, so the recruitment activity may not be given the full undivided attention to one person/department. This, ultimately may be unavoidable for many businesses as time and resource can often be luxury not often available. And outsourcing the process can likely be too expensive and ruled out as an option.

The vetting and shortlisting of applicants can often be an uneven process if a company doesn’t regularly hire. In this scenario, the persons responsible may have to rely more on a ‘gut instinct’ over a more thorough decision. Again, time can be an issue, with a position needing to be filled imminently.

A common aspect for typical small businesses, is that the sheer amount of time the process demands, (even with a meticulously planned and executed process)  can absorb much time and resource, which may well be perceived as best invested in other areas of the business (particularly at the early stages of the business).

So where can you go about finding the right person(s)? Online advertisement has to be one of the main platforms to seek new hires. Online advertising boards such as Totaljobs and Indeed.co.uk, will allow even the smallest of companies to place an advert, which will reach the same audience size of even the largest company job adverts available.

Whatever strategy and decision is taken for this activity, it of course always helps to be aware of the time required to plan and ultimately find the right new hire.

Attempting to find the right person at the right time is certainly no easy feat. Whether you possess previous experience of business recruitment or completely new, you can certainly never take in too much advice.

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This post was written by Chris Beck