A lot has changed over the past nine months and small business owners may not be in a position to hire at the moment.
But when the business starts growing again, new talent will be needed to help you keep up, and a strong recruitment plan can play a big role.
What is a recruitment plan?
A recruitment plan is a blueprint for determining when to hire, how to put together an offer, bring together a hiring team and other high-level steps that can guide the hiring process.
It offers a set of guidelines and steps that can be replicated no matter what position is to be filled.
It helps identify what internal resources need to be in place before kicking off the hiring process, where to allocate resources, how to get the right people and how to ensure the best people are recruited.
Recruiting is about the continuous research needed to find the best employees, promote the workplace culture, build an employer brand and network.
Hiring is consistently ranked as one of the top five things that keep small business owners up at night. A recruitment plan is a simple, yet powerful way to alleviate some of the worries.
The first part of a recruitment plan should help confirm when it is a good time to initiate the hiring process.
Pay attention to these signs to understand if the business is ready to find a new employee.
1. The company is growing fast: Look at sales numbers, cash flow and profit margin.
If a small business is missing opportunities because the staff cannot keep up, you need new staff. But revenue must be sufficient to support hiring, it can be an expensive process.
2. The staff is overworked: If a small business is working remotely, it can be hard to discern if employees have too much on their plates. Look for these signals to find out if the team is overworked:
- Work quality has dropped
- Customer issues aren’t being addressed quickly
- Employee requests for time off is refused
- Overtime is above normal
- Employees are burnt out – they are late, cranky or making mistakes on the job
3. The owner is taking on too much: The small business owner should be able to delegate much of the day-to-day work to managers and staff.
If the owner needs to fill in for employees who can’t keep up, it is time to hire. If the owner is stressed and overwhelmed, the team probably is too.
It takes on average 36 days to hire a new employee and train the individual. So, do not wait until the company is desperate to fill a role.
Develop a great offer
A recruitment plan should anticipate some of the more consistent elements of a job offer. Identify salary ranges to control pay expenses and ensure pay equity among employees.
Salary ranges depend on a person’s experience, industry standards, roles and responsibilities and what the organisation can afford.
Then, look at the non-monetary benefits. Several surveys have found that smaller merchants are getting creative with their perks, offering things such as:
- flexible hours
- flexible work locations
- advancement and mobility
- generous vacation policies
Create hiring materials that speak to the advantages of working at a small organisation.
In employer branding and job description templates, highlight that employees often wear many hats, learn on the job, avoid the bureaucracy and company politics of a corporation and become part of a tightly knit team.
Identifying skill gaps in the team
The recruitment plan should provide steps for identifying skill gaps in the team.
It should account for the strengths in the existing workforce, skills that are needed for which training can be offered and ongoing market analysis that shows where new skills may be needed in the future.
Ask team members what skills they wish to develop further – empowering existing employees with training and development is a great retention tool.
Look to technology solutions to see if there are free tools or software updates that can help account for current skill gaps.
The remaining skills not covered by training or technology is what the hiring process should be designed to seek out.
What budget and hiring tools are needed?
Technology can speed up the hiring process and help find the right candidate the first time around.
Look for ways to automate things such as candidate sourcing, communication, job ad placement, candidate surveys and more.
Artificial intelligence can dramatically speed up hiring and do most of the sourcing, screening and interviewing administration.
The budget will vary, but plan to set aside a few thousand per open role. Do the research and budgeting before it is necessary to make a new hire, so when the time comes, everything is in place to get started.
Design the hiring team
Typically, the hiring team needs to include a recruiter or HR representative, the hiring manager and a team member or co-worker who will be working closely with this person.
Diversity on the hiring team should be a priority as it helps “increase the likelihood of success in hiring a diverse candidate,” according to Breezy HR.
Outline who will be involved in which stages of the hiring process to create clarity and employee buy-in as the process unfolds.
Making sure the process is working
Schedule regular check-ins to evaluate and adjust the process. Note key performance metrics such as time-to-productivity, employee engagement and first-year attrition rate to make sure the hiring process is working.
Send out surveys to employees to check in on their development and engagement.
Ask candidates for their feedback, even if an offer is not extended. They can tell a lot about what works and what does not.
This article first appeared in Vervoe.
At Vervoe, their mission is to fundamentally transform the hiring process from mediocracy to meritocracy.