Hiring is a huge milestone for small businesses. Whether you are bringing in your first employee or your 50th, discovering the right talent is key. As the job market for skilled employees heats up, you should proactively look for new hires the same way a talent scout discovers the next big thing — track them down and knock their socks off. At Bigcommerce, we recently hired eight new technical support Ninjas through our Rock Your Resume event, which featured 80s glam cover band LC Rocks and a full series of interviews. Now, a rock concert might not be your style, and you probably don’t want to look in dive bars or honky tonks. But you do need to figure out where the best candidates are and find a way to get their attention. Tune in to your network The first step is good old fashioned networking. Let friends and family know about the opportunity. This assumes, of course, that you trust the opinions of your friends and family. If your mom lied about your last haircut, you may want to think twice about hiring her bingo buddy’s niece. But getting personal recommendations can make the entire process much faster and easier. The most efficient way to get the word out is through your social networks. Leverage your friends’ networks by posting on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter about the job opening. Keep your posts short and simple with a few important details. If you are looking for an accountant, for example, and that accountant has to know Quickbooks, include that in your post so you don’t set yourself up for some awkward conversations. You also want to give them an easy way to contact you. A good example of a social posting would be, “Bigccommerce is hiring a rockstar accountant! 2 years experience, Quickbooks a must. Email jobs@bigcommerce.” Hit the right notes with your job description If the friends and family approach doesn’t work, it’s time to move on to the recruiting version of an open casting call. When it comes to public job postings, you need to consider what to post and where to post it. For the what, follow the same guidance as above, making sure you outline what you need and how to get in touch. Job descriptions should include keywords for the position as well as your industry so they show up in relevant searches. Career sites generally let you put up more than social networks, so you should also use this as an opportunity to stick out from the crowd. Let the candidates know why working for you and doing this job is awesome! Check out some of our Bigcommerce job postings for inspiration. By the way, it is totally acceptable to find “inspiration” from other job postings online. You don’t copy and paste, in addition to being unprofessional that can cause you issues with SEO, but you can find similar companies or job openings and use them as a starting point. Turn up the volume on your search Knowing where to put your job listing masterpiece them is the toughest part of this adventure. There are so many outlets for every niche you can imagine. So before you jump in, start thinking through your target audience and your budget. Radio and television tend to be the more expensive but have the widest reach. These are good if you have multiple positions, like customer service agents or administrative assistants. Print media also works well for these and can be cheaper. The career sites are a little trickier. Your best bet is a comprehensive site like Indeed or Simply Hired that has a large, active audience. But prepare yourself for a deluge of resumes, possibly from a lot of unqualified candidates. The more details and keywords you can add to your posting, the better your results will be. Before you go with niche sites, check to see if your competitors or other employers in your geographic area are posting on the site. If they are, jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of regional traffic they are already driving to the site. Depending on the job, you may also want to consider remote candidates. You should also consider posting on Craigslist. I know you aren’t trying to sell a couch, but these job postings are so popular and effective that they are one of the few things Craigslist actually charges for. Depending on your market, it could cost up to $50 per post, but that is a very small price to pay for discovering the right candidate. To get the most bang for your buck, come up with a creative headline and make your posting as detailed as possible. You want to stand out from the crowd while also being descriptive enough to prove you have a legitimate opportunity. Following these talent scouting principles will help bring the talent to your door. The next step is to audition them to ensure you are getting true rockstars! More tips on that in the next post.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 22:55:14 +0000
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