Medium and small businesses don’t always have the dedicated HR staff of large organizations. With that said, recruiting and hiring are often performed by individuals who don’t have the same training and experience as most HR professionals. Even if you’re new to the hiring and recruiting processes, there are tools at your disposal to better your understanding and your practices. 

Turn Employees into Ambassadors

Job boards and social media outlets, while a substantial source for candidates, are not the insider’s only trick for best sourcing. Word of mouth in combination with technology remains more powerful in attracting candidates to a position. Use Employee Referral Programs (ERPs) in addition to the use of job boards to attract potential candidates based on the experience of employees who are employer brand ambassadors.

Don’t Ignore Job Boards

Although ERPs do bring in valuable new hires, that doesn’t mean hiring managers should ignore the job board channel. Make the best of the job boards by researching the sites that fit your needs and target your ideal candidates. Research the audiences so you can gain a better understanding of the niche groups. Sites like Indeed, which gets 30% of all job-search traffic, are good sites for mass employment efforts. However, when you’re hiring for a specific position such as a creative director or programmer, niche job boards provide a narrower search field with more qualified candidates.

Look Internally First

Job boards will lead you to external candidates, but first, have you taken the time to observe internal candidates? During their first two years, external candidates make more money but don’t perform as well as internal candidates. In fact, 60% of external hires are more likely than internal hires to be fired or laid off, and another 20% are more likely to leave a job. It’s not always a possibility to hire internally, however. If you don’t have the internal candidate base, then look to external hiring measures.

Is Your Ideal Candidate Ideal?

It’s not enough to examine the quality of a candidate’s work experience. Employers have to understand a candidate’s fit in the company culture. However qualified a candidate might be, the fact is, 89% of all new hire failures happen within the first 18 months because of attitudinal reasons. You have to assess job-specific qualifications and personality matches to the company culture and stresses of the job. Even the best set of technical skills just won’t cut it.

Don’t Sacrifice Quality for Quantity

“Logically, you may assume that the more people you interview, the better your chances of finding that perfect new employee. But when it comes to smart recruiting, it’s candidate quality - not quantity - that really matters.” - Berks & Beyond (@berksandbeyond)

Due to the growth of developing businesses, they have an added pressure to assess candidates quickly. However, don’t hastily sacrifice quality for quantity. Attempting to sift through the pile of resumes at warp speed can leave those in charge of recruitment and hiring vulnerable to mistakes and disorganization, not to mention the potential to miss great candidates. Doing so can damage the employer brand and reflect poorly on the organization.

Look at Work Samples

Want a reliable way to assess candidates? Look at real examples of their work. Those in hiring positions can ask for examples of work as part of an application requirement. For writers, ask them to bring writing examples; for programmers, ask them to bring examples of coding. If the examples of work match your expectations of a new hire’s work, then you can assess for cultural fit.

For those who aren’t HR professionals but still have to recruit candidates to their small business, assessing them can be a daunting task. However, utilizing employer brand ambassadors to spread the word of job openings is a good place to start if you’re unfamiliar with the territory of job boards. Even looking internally before looking for candidates outside the organization can ease some of the pressure. Regardless of where you decide to begin your candidate search, it’s essential that the assessment is a combination of skill and cultural match. Use samples of work to help determine the candidate’s functional fit. Then, the interviews can be saved for assessing a cultural match. Despite the novelty of hiring new employees for the non-HR savvy, you can use these practices to guide you through the process.

Bio: Sean Pomeroy, CEO

Sean has worked in the Human Resources industry since he graduated from Radford University with a Bachelors in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. After working in HR as a generalist for a government contracting company, he moved to the HR Technology arena and began assisting companies in the selection and implementation of HR software.

While selling other companies software solutions, Sean worked with Michael Warden to design over a dozen applications for different organizations and industries over the years. Sean now focuses on the vision for the company, business development, and continues involvement in the software design of ATS and LMS: Cyber Recruiter and Cyber Train. Want to see what Visibility Software has to offer? Take a demo now.

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