Recruiting Employees: People Are Your Most Important Resource

The task of recruiting employees can be a challenge. It requires human resources training and a strong recruiting program to find and hire the best candidate for the job.

It is hard to find good people, who can do all the things you need them to do, who can learn quickly, who will stay a while, and who will fit into your business and your culture.

Recruiting employees requires

• developing and reviewing job descriptions to make sure they are up to date and accurate (or creating one if necessary);
• ensuring that the salaries for the position or positions ( employee compensation) are considered before you develop the selection criteria (how much you pay should have an impact on what skills and experience you are looking for);


• developing selection criteria (must haves/nice to have);
• creating a job posting (internal) or advertisement (external);
• advertising (both internally and externally);
• reviewing the applications and selecting a short list to interview;
• interviewing the candidates;
• testing the top 2 or 3 candidates for behavior, attitude, aptitude, intelligence or whatever else you want tested;
• checking the references of your top candidates;
• choosing your best-fit candidate;
• preparing a written compensation offer for your chosen candidate and negotiating if necessary – once the candidate accepts, confirm the offer and the acceptance in writing (including job title, job description, salary and benefits, probationary period, expectations, termination notice for with cause or without cause, etc.);
• and letting the other candidates know why they didn’t get the job.

(Note: It is very important that when you are hiring employees you become familiar with the labor laws in your area. Some of the common labor laws revolve around discrimination (age, sex, racism, disability) and equal pay for equal work. In Canada and the United States for example, you cannot ask questions about the age of the applicant, whether or not they are married, have children, etc. These questions might imply or infer discriminatory hiring practices.)

When you have to compete with other businesses to hire good, talented employees, be careful not to become overwhelmed by the high direct costs associated with employees (particularly to hire good employees). Try to become more creative in your job offers and in the job itself.

For example, talk about the benefits of working in a small business – there is no better all-round education that an employee can get (in big business, employees are usually ‘stuck’ in the departments they are hired into, until they transfer out – but their learning in new functional areas is usually limited).

But once you've hired that applicant, make sure that you do provide the all-round cross-functional education - deliver whatever you promised in the offer stage. You might want to build a two year action plan with your employee and show her or him what and how they will learn the facets of the business.

Recruiting employees is time consuming work for a small business owner. And, unfortunately, job applicants have become very sophisticated in their applications and their interview techniques. It all can sound very good to you when you’re desperate for some help in your business. But many applicants just want a job, not necessarily the right job for themselves or for you. It becomes your job to screen and assess those who have the ability to be the best-fit applicants - it is a waste of your time and money if firing employees that you've recently hired is the outcome or if they quit because the fit is wrong.

Human resources, specifically in terms of recruiting employees and managing the whole process of hiring new employees, can be contracted out - there are some significant advantages of outsourcing human resources work.

For example, I’ve provided support on an 8 hours of time per month basis to small business owners. This time commitment can be ramped up or down depending on the needs of the company.

You may want to consider contracting one of the human resources consultants who specialize in recruiting to at least do the advertising and initial screening, and perhaps handle the testing. Or you may want the firm to all the work right up to the selection of the best candidate.

But no matter how you handle recruiting employees, you must be involved in the final interviews, meetings and discussions – in a small business, hiring the right person for the job is very important. You cannot afford to go through this lengthy and costly process over and over again.

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