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Strategies for Recruiting the Talent You Need When Starting a Business

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You know going in that starting a business is no easy feat. Unfortunately, unless you’ve ever started a business from the ground up, there will be a number of things you simply aren’t prepared for. Finding the right talent to work with you is something you probably hadn’t considered. If that is the case, you may not even know exactly what you need in terms of staffing various departments. Here are some strategies you can use when looking for the top talent you need to launch your startup.

Define Steps to the Endgame

Obviously, the endgame is running a successful business. However, what will it take to do that? Are you going to be manufacturing products for sale, offering services or selling products made elsewhere? Perhaps you’ll be starting a distributorship or a restaurant or even a car dealership. Before you can run a successful business, you need to look at how many departments you will need to efficiently organize and operate a company.

Define Job Classifications

Now that you’ve outlined the various departments you need to staff, what are the job classifications within each department? For example, in accounting do you need an accountant or are there other professionals who could balance your books? Perhaps a bookkeeper or office manager could do the routine day to day tasks, necessitating an accountant to periodically go over your books quarterly and, of course, at tax time.

If you are totally unfamiliar with the workings of a department and you aren’t sure what kind of talent to employ, check out sites like jobdescriptionswiki.com. There you will find job descriptions, what it is they do, what they expect to be paid, and the education or experience necessary for the job.

Network at Trade Shows

If you know the positions that need filling but you are reluctant to simply put an ad online or in the classifieds, why not network at trade shows. They don’t even need to be local trade shows because recruits are often aware of the fact that they may need to relocate to get that once-in-a-lifetime job with a startup that has major growth potential.

Whether you pull the top talent from another business or find recruits looking for placement, if you know what you are looking for, trade shows offer one of the best ways of grabbing great talent easily under one roof.

In the End, It Is All About Knowing What You Need

The key to recruiting the talent you need when starting a business is to first define how your company will run and what departments you will need to set up. After that, it’s a matter of looking at the types of staff you will need in each department and then you can begin to look at what each job classification entails.

Strategies are dependent on understanding what you hope to accomplish and why it’s so important to have a good working knowledge of each position to be filled. Get this done right and you will be off to a good start. Remember, you can’t do it alone so choose the team you can work with and the rough going at the beginning just got that much smoother.

Smooth HR Equals Smooth Business Growth

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In the business world, growth relies on a team of knowledgeable and experienced professionals. Naturally, the quality of the service or product, the success of the marketing campaigns, and the satisfaction of the customers and partners also play an essential role. But there is no denying that a company that is struggling with finding the appropriate talent or retaining essential skills in-house will also experience a slow or even negative growth. After all, a business is made of people, and it is them who create the necessary additional value. Therefore the performance of the HR department matters hugely to support business expansion. Often overlooked or labeled as the department responsible for internal policies only, the HR has essential tasks to perform successfully in the business structure: From a recruitment process that identifies the right candidate for the job to the effective organization of the team structure. And that is without mentioning the abilities to run useful employee retention policies.

At A Recruiting Level

When it comes to the recruitment process, the HR team is responsible for the job advertisement. While it can be designed in collaboration with the relevant manager, in truth, HR is in charge of defining the job perks that are likely to attract candidates. It is essential at this stage to be realistic. Free gym membership, free coffee, fancy IT devices, company cars, and much more, are among the most common perks to be found in job specs. However, most candidates would happily exchange the latest MacBook against flexible time, as their values have evolved. Additionally, when it comes to the choice of the right candidate, most companies now prefer to use the cover letter as a gauge. Yet this doesn’t mean that the resume doesn’t count: It is used to identify the suitable skills and experience.

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay

At An Organizational Level

StrategyDriven Talent Management ArticleWithin the company, HR continues to make sense of the internal teams for all, especially in large companies where it can be difficult to keep track of everyone. In these organizations, creating an org chart is a mammoth task that needs to be updated with every employee who leaves, changes function, or is hired. However, there are tools, such as the Pingboard org chart software solution, that enable the HR team to complete the chart in a matter of minutes, saving time for more urgent projects. Finally, it is essential that the HR provides each new employee with an information pack and ensures that an introduction day or week – depending on the size of the company – is planned for the newcomer.

Limiting Staff Turnover For A Healthy Structure

Last, but not least, it also falls under the HR responsibility to work on employee retention concepts. This requires regular measurements of job satisfaction, stress level, and team integration, as well as internal communication. It is more expensive to launch a new recruitment process than to try to fix existing issues. With this in mind, the HR needs to help develop recognition models that go beyond monetary rewards, and identify structural issues that turn off new employees, such as excessive micromanagement or disinterested team manager.

Organization chart photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Recruitment Strategies – What To Look For In A Resume

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These days any employer advertising a post knows they will be inundated with applications. That mean you will have a large number of resumes to sort through before you can narrow down your choice of candidates for interview. This can obviously take a long time. Many recruiters choose to use recruitment agencies or talent scouts to select the very best talent to come into the office for an interview. It can take a lot of the time and hassle out of the process, but there will be a cost added. If you’re currently recruiting, what do you look for in a resume?

Cover Page

Many recruiters read only the covering letter to gauge whether a candidate will be right. This can be a little naive though, as it will only give very brief information. Still, it should provide an insight into the level of professionalism you can expect. Spelling errors are simply unacceptable to recruiters today. Some won’t accept anything that isn’t personally addressed to the manager. A cover letter should offer you enough detail that you want to read on.

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Photo courtesy of Pexels

The First Paragraph

Many resumes feature an introduction paragraph designed to sell that candidate to recruiters. Not everyone is a great marketer, and self-promotion can be difficult for some. Still, a candidate with the confidence and clarity to identify relevant qualifications and achievements in a single paragraph could be worthy of an interview. Look for insights into the candidate’s personality in their writing style. Sometimes quirky, chatty styles fit well in the company.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
Photo courtesy of WOCInTech Chat via flickr

Qualifications

Some companies have strict policies about the schools they will recruit from. Others simply demand a degree. The qualifications should be clearly listed so you can quickly identify the level of education for the candidate. You should be able to see any recent continuance of studies. Some colleges like UAB offer degrees online. Candidates that study this way can manage work and study in tandem and so might be of more interest to demanding employers.

Work Experience

Do you frown upon candidates with gaps in their work history? There are many reasons why a potential recruit had time away from work. Before you completely dismiss them, consider how rounded their experience might be. Have they taken on non-salaried projects? Perhaps they were studying, raising a family, or running their own business? If they’re unemployed now, consider the benefits of a well-rested candidate!

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Photo courtesy of Kathryn Decker via flickr

The Closing Paragraph

If you’ve read this far, chances are this candidate has piqued your interest. Now they have a chance to let you know if their personality could be a fit for your firm. This final paragraph often offers an insight into their hobbies and interests outside of the workplace. We’re all trained to include something artistic and something that suggests we look after our health. You might ignore those references because every resume has them. What else can you find that fits in well with the culture of the company, the products you develop, and the customer base you’ve built?

Recruitment is expensive and time-consuming. It’s important to find candidates that are right for the business. That’s not easy without a recruitment strategy.

Recruiting is Broken, Succession Planning is The Future

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Yes, I realize that saying “recruiting is broken” may sound like something Donald Trump would say if he was in the HR business. But as inflammatory as it may sound, it’s true. Think about it. Is your recruiting process delivering, on a regular basis, the top-tier leaders that your company is desperately seeking? Most people that I talk to are telling me “no.” They’re not happy with the results that their recruiters are producing, or at the very least, they’ve come to terms with what their recruiters can realistically produce.

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About the Author

Michael TimmsMichael Timms is a management consultant, author and speaker specializing in organization and leadership performance and the founder and principal of Avail Leadership. Michael is also the author of the new book, Succession Planning That Works. You can learn more about Timms and his book at www.availleadership.com and connect via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Secret to Successful Recruiting

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Recruitment has always been a tricky business. So many times a candidate can sound like the perfect match on paper, only to prove a disappointment at interview. Then there are the even worse scenarios, where a candidate comes across both in real life and on paper as perfect, only to then not meet the criteria when actually in the job. There must be a way for recruiters to ensure that they hire only the best and most promising candidates, those who are almost guaranteed to perform and stay in a role for the long term.

While workplaces are swiftly becoming more and more advanced in cloud computing, using social media for marketing purposes, and generally becoming au fait with modern technology, there is one area which is sadly lacking when it comes to technological advancement. Despite the realization that computer software greatly enhances the efficiency with which businesses operates, the use of recruitment software is not widespread. The simple fact is that not many business leaders are aware that recruitment software can transform your HR practices for the better and make hiring a simpler process.

Why should you invest in software for your HR department? There are several reasons for doing so, each of which is detailed below.

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About the Author

From her 25 years in business, Elizabeth Hill aims to pass on knowledge and skills gained in that time through her writing. She loves walks in the countryside, spending time with family and friends, and is ever so ‘slightly’ addicted to coffee.