How to Adapt Your Recruitment During Fast Business Growth

Small Businesses face recruitment challenges when in expansion mode. According to LinkedIn, Small, and Medium-Sized Business Recruiting Trends 2017 Report, this upcoming year is projected to be a high growth year for over half of all small businesses. Despite these increased goals for recruitment, HR teams are not projected to grow. Recruitment teams will have elevated recruitment goals for 2017 with the same budget of 2016, meaning that HR/Recruitment will need to work to be more efficient and creative with attracting talent.

However, in every business category surveyed, CEOs report “lack of skilled applicants” and “locating talent” as the biggest challenges to planned hiring activity according to Wall Street Journal/Vistage Small Business CEO Survey.

How can a small business ensure smart growth from their recruitment team?

Keep the Bar High
Do not compromise on talent due to growth. A bad hire at a mid-sized company is just as expensive and damaging as a bad hire at a small business. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of a bad hire is at least 30% of the employee’s first-year salary. The “true financial cost” of a bad hire doesn’t even consider the cost of the team’s productivity and employee morale due to turnover or a “bad apple” with a small team.

Small companies should take a page out of Mark Zuckerberg’s, “Only hire someone if you can see yourself one day working for them.”

Cultivate your company culture with employee referral programs. Employee referrals are a key source of a quality hire for small and medium-sized businesses.

Hire a Dedicated Recruiter
What attracts a candidate to a company: Culture and Values, Perks and Benefits, and Mission and Vision, according to LinkedIn Small and Med-Sized Business Recruiting Trends 2017 Report.

“Nobody will view recruiting for what it is: the area that will make or break your business. Once you put a dedicated recruiter in place, that person can be 100 percent focused on sourcing and hiring great people, and only then will you be able to build a great company.” Jill Witty, VP of operations at recruiting software Entelo.

Headhunter fees are increasing to 20% – 25% of a candidate’s first-year salary; depending on your growth projections, internal recruitment saves your company money. Having an internal recruiter who aligns with your company culture can focus on marketing, retention, and a clear message of your company culture to the talent pool.

Focus on the Employee Value Proposition

Employer branding has a significant impact on the ability to hire top talent. Partnering with the marketing team is more important than ever to have a clear Employee Value Proposition.

When growing from a small to a medium-sized business, recruitment must stretch to beyond the basics. The branding of your company must now gain sophistication to span across multiple channels to attract the right talent. Candidates now want to know a lot about your company before applying for the position. Recruitment teams should work with marketing to create branding consistent with your company culture. Recruiting strategies must clearly and consistently communicate this message across social media, job postings, job descriptions, company website, events, marketing, and blogging.  Ask yourself “Does my company branding effectively communicate the complete package of why a candidate should want to work here?”

CFO Strategic Partners is projected to hire 8 CFO Consultants in 2017 due to growth. Our mission is “To Enrich Lives” – focusing on a work and life balance for our CFO Consultants. We focus on collaboration, flexible work environments, and cultivate a constant learning environment. Check out our Career Page to learn why we were recognized as Orlando Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” 2016.