Small organisations don’t have the luxury of being able to rely on a big-name brand to attract job candidates and are also frequently unable to match big company salaries.
Therefore smaller employers need to work a little harder to ensure they do as much as they can to make their organisation somewhere high quality candidates want to work.
Here are our top five (inexpensive) ways of making your business attractive when recruiting:
1. Be clear what your business is all about
Those higher quality candidates you want to attract aren’t just interested in money. They want to work somewhere which aligns with their values and their priorities; what they believe in. The good news is, being clear about your organisation’s ethos and values on your website, social media presence and places you are recruiting isn’t either difficult or expensive. It just requires a little bit of effort, and not only might make you more attractive to candidates generally, if you think about it, they will be more likely to be the best candidates for your business. People who are already aligned with your values and ethos before you even meet them should absolutely be your priority when it comes to looking for new team members. They are more likely to fit in with the team, more likely to get up to speed more quickly, and more likely to stay for longer.
2. Offer flexibility
It is well-known that flexibility is something employees really value. It’s not possible for every job, obviously, but if you do offer any degree or flexibility, or could, make sure you shout about it! Many of our clients are pretty flexible with staff, allowing home working, and a wide range of part time and other arrangements around working hours.
But they have a tendency to offer this to existing employees and don’t see it as a key valuable feature of their business which could widen their pool of candidates when it comes to recruitment.
3. Make applying easy
Most people looking for work are working already, and they don’t tend to conduct their job search sat at home on a desktop computer. They’ll do it on their phone, so if your website isn’t mobile-optimised, especially the job vacancies page and any information you hold on there for candidates, you are missing a trick.
Post your jobs on recruitment websites which are very easy to use for candidates, make applying through your own website very simply, and make the process to be followed clear, so candidates aren’t put off by having to get in touch to find out things you could have easily included in the job details.
4. Use social media
If your business doesn’t have a presence on LinkedIn, it’s worth considering. Huge numbers of people now have LinkedIn profiles, and use LinkedIn for their job searches, and tapping into that market is worth looking into.
If you’re a small local business you probably have a Facebook page you use to interact with the local community and potential customers.
This is all giving an impression of you to potential candidates as well, so make sure it is giving the impression you want to give. Facebook is obviously not nearly as- static’ as your company website, so you have an opportunity to give a more human, more personal impression of the kind of place your business is to work.
If your business is on other social media such as Twitter or Instagram, these can all be used for recruitment, and will give an impression of you to potential candidates as well as to potential customers.
5. Be clear about the job
There are few things more off-putting to potential job applicants than an inability to find out the information they need before deciding whether to apply. Is the job title clear or vague?
Do you have a clear, easy-to-understand job description available for candidates to review? Do you give proper information about salary and other workplace benefits? Does your jobs page on your website give any more of a clue about what it’s like to work for you, or does it just list the roles you have available?
These are not difficult things to include, and can make a big difference to the quality and quantity of candidates you find expressing an interest.
If you’d like help with anything to do with recruitment, do get in touch.