How To Attract Top Talent And Skilled Workers To Your Small Business

Is your small business hiring the skilled staff it needs to be a notable competitor in your market? CNBC reports that most small businesses struggle to get qualified workers, let alone top talent. You may wonder what’s causing this predicament.

Small businesses are facing unique challenges with hiring staff. The pandemic had most of us working from home, and now we don’t want to return to the office. Skilled workers see freelancing as a better option for them. It offers more flexibility, variety of work, and higher pay. Top talent wants the best offer and job security, so they are drawn to larger businesses over startups and small businesses.

Where there is a will, there is a way, even if some roles start off as freelancing contracts, until more favorable hiring conditions come around.

Is there a blueprint small businesses can use to attract top talent now? Yes. Your business is unique – you must find out how and how best to do that with your existing staff.

USPs And Company Culture

Start with your USPs and discover what attracted your existing staff to your budding enterprise. You may be surprised with the response you get from your team when you put these questions to them:

• What attracted you to our business?
• How would you describe our business to new hires?
• What do you like about the company culture?
• Why is your role rewarding?

Specify Your Needs

Since you’re a small business, applicants may assume they must play different roles. This can discourage them from applying, so you must state exactly what you want.

In our article called Hire Smart, we suggested that you take a step back to understand what your small business needs.

Ask yourself what position you’re trying to fill and the responsibilities that come with it. After identifying these, make a detailed description of the role to find the right candidate. State the position and the tasks they can expect to do for your small business.

Example – Graphic Designer

Let’s say you’re looking to hire a graphic designer. Make sure to include the type of products they will need to conceptualize and produce in the job description. Are they banners, videos, or billboards? This will allow top talent to see if your role is a good fit for their skills and aspirations to work on exciting projects.

Graphic design is an interesting example, as the roles vary depending on the business. If your business is an Advertising Agency, you’ll need graphic designers with talent at the bleeding edge of digital design. Creating NFTs and using VR or augmented reality or maybe being an integral part of the short clip video production team may be part of the graphic designer’s role.

Offer A Signing Bonus

When approaching top talent as a small business, offer them a signing bonus. Hiring experts LHH’s post on the talent competition discusses signing bonuses. The site pointed to a September 2021 survey by GlobalData that found that job posts featuring signing-on prizes grew by 454% between August 2020 and August 2021.

A signing bonus shows that you recognize and value their skills so much that you want them to immediately become part of your business. It is also useful when the top talent has many offers from other companies. It sets you above the competition, increasing your chances of hiring them.

A signing bonus can also add or compensate, for example, for the lower salary you offer as a small business. By providing this, you are one step ahead of the competition in acquiring top talent.

Highlight Perks and Uniqueness

You may not be able to match bigger businesses’ unlimited benefits or higher pay, but you can highlight the perks that working in a small business has to offer. As such, list down the things top talent won’t be able to get when they’re in a big company. This can include having a tight-knit culture because you have fewer employees.

What Makes Your Business Unique?

Since you’re a small business, remember that it’s easy to form closer bonds with colleagues. Another highlight is that they can get personal attention if they need assistance.  In a big company, people can be overlooked due to the number of employees. But their concerns and struggles can be quickly addressed in a small business.

You can also highlight perks that are specific to your small business. Online Optimism gifts its employees personalized care packages regularly, for instance. What can your business do so employees feel valued and cared for in your company?

Discuss The Role’s Significance and Value

When working in a company of hundreds or even thousands of fellow employees, it can be challenging for top talent to visualize where they fit in. However, in a small business with fewer people, they are given core roles that will significantly contribute to the company.

While looking for candidates, discuss how being a member of your small business will mean that they will have a significant direct impact on the company. Since you have fewer employees to depend on, highlight that the tasks they accomplish are seen and appreciated by you and management.

Talk about how their role will reflect the business’ success. Sticking with the example of hiring a graphic designer, you can specify how the branding they will make for your business will attract more customers or clients. By discussing the significance of their work, top talent will be drawn to contributing to your small business’ success.

Polish Up Your Interview Skills

To get the talent your business requires, you first need to sell the will the role to get applications. Once you’ve achieved that, your interviewing technique may also need some work. Practice your interviewing style with your existing staff.

How are your Zoom presentation skills? Don’t waste your hard work getting applications with a shoddy video call.

Summing Up

Hiring top talent and skilled workers is tough for a small business. Higher salaries are not always the main attraction. Find out why your staff love working for your business and share it with job seekers. Hopefully, these tips will help you attract the best people to join your team.