How To Recruit Well As An SME

One of the most common and biggest challenges we see with growing businesses is finding the right people and getting them on-board. 

 

According to the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) : 

 

This has always been a challenge for small and medium sized businesses competing for talent with bigger names. We are never going to be able to outspend a big company – either in terms of our recruitment spend or probably the salary that we are able to offer – so we need to think differently and systematically and give it the attention it requires. 

 

In 2022 it’s not just energy and fuel prices increasing but people as well. It’s not simply inflation either, many are reporting that the proportional costs of hiring have increased dramatically in recent times. 

 

Before we get into the detail, there are three overarching principles to punching above your weight class in hiring followed by 5 to minimize the risk of a bad hire: 

 

1. Think and Act Differently– don’t limit yourself to what everyone else does. 

2. Make the job appealing. What’s in it for the candidate? 

3. Always be recruiting. Consider having a permanent page on your website. 

 

 

Think and act differently; don’t limit yourself to what everyone else does. Recruitment platforms such as Indeed and other tactics can be great, but what can you do that would get you in front of hard-to-find people earlier? Are you regularly going after people with a particular skill set? Where do they get trained? Could you offer your time to train, and could you even run your own training? 

 

 

Making the job appealing reflects the paradigm shift that has been happening for a while – namely that the attitude of ‘they should be grateful for a job’ has been turned on its head. Recent stats suggest that every candidate has the choice of around 38 jobs and as employers we need to the have the mindset of ‘What’s in it for them?’ 

So this is about how you can appeal to the type of candidate you are after – what do you offer that they might value that they might not get elsewhere? This is where the idea of the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) comes in and aims to answer the question ‘Why should I work for your company instead of somewhere else?’ 

 

 

The key to this is having a forward view of what kinds of roles and people you will need for the next stage of your ScaleUp Journey. If you define the key accountabilities of that role as part of this, then you will be able to keep a lookout for promising candidates in the meantime and in advance of when you may actually need them. You may have a permanent recruitment page on your website which not only includes any current vacancies but a distilled version of your EVP along with an encouragement to get in touch even if you don’t see a precise job that matches your CV. 

 

What are you current hiring processes? Should you do it yourself or get assistance from an agency? Is there going to be a better time to hire than right now? 

 

Recruitment is a topic that comes up a lot with our clients, so I have made it a key point in my upcoming book The Entrepreneurial Scale Up System or ESUS for short! Pre-orders will be available soon for more information on recruitment and every other topic in the scaling up process. 

 

You can also reach out to speak to us directly about recruitment or scaling your business at admin@biz-smart.co.uk 

 

For more on recruitment watch BizSmart's SmartQuestions episode on 'When is the best time to hire new staff' HERE.