As a small business owner, recruiting top talent is one of your most important areas of focus. Having a team consisting of qualified, motivated and engaged employees helps your business better service your customers and therefore your efforts to recruit top talent should be focused and disciplined with an eye on presenting you, your business, and your open jobs in the most positive light possible. Here are some basics to be thinking about during your hiring journey.
It all starts with a job description
A job description and job posting is an advertisement that should be focused on helping a potential recruit understand why you, the role, and your company are a good fit for them. It’s a competitive market with each job candidate entertaining between 5-10 opportunities at the time their job search commences and it’s this competition and the need to make a strong first impression that makes the job description a critical first step in your recruiting process. Here are a few best practices and basics for capturing a competitive, candidate-focused job description:
- Description of your company: name, when were you founded, any unique characteristics or founding stories. “XYZ towing was founded in 1985 with a focus on providing quick, safe, and cost efficient services for customers in the greater Boston area. Founded by Jane Smith, XYZ towing employs 50 drivers who handle in excess of 2500 calls on a monthly basis.”
- About you: share your story, who are you, how long have you been in the business, anything unique about you and your story you think a potential driver may be interested in? Remember, in sharing this information you are working to “stand out” among a busy market of available driver roles. People don’t choose jobs; they choose companies and leaders – sharing your story WILL resonate with the people you want to hire.
- Describe basic responsibilities: Detailing in 3-5 lines a summary of the role, a percentage breakdown of how they will spend their day, any goals required to achieve on a weekly or monthly basis along with a list of required skills and nice to have skills. It’s important to keep in mind that individuals with and without towing experience will be viewing the role and thinking about applying. For those new to the industry, the percentage breakdown will help them envision their day to day, bring clarity to the unknown and help them understand what working for you in this role will entail.
- Describe the typical day: Following the summary of the job, provide 2-3 lines describing a typical day. In particular, this will help those newer to the space understand how they will be expected to operate and what is expected of them beyond skills and basic responsibilities.
- What you are looking for in a candidate: in addition to listed required skills, licenses and certifications, what attributes do you look for in a representative of your company? Service oriented? A problem solver? Calm under pressure? In addition to detailing minimum requirements, adding the little extras can help the right candidates connect with the role and your company while pushing away some of the wrong candidates who might not share those same priorities.
- How to apply and inquire: Make it easy. If you are posting to a 3rd party job board, make sure the links work and the required fields a candidate must complete are short and that you are clear as to – once a candidate completes the application - WHERE you, the job poster, will be able to find their information. Remember, you want the best candidates applying, and having to complete an hour-long application with 50 questions might push candidates away. A good tip for making this an easy process is asking interested applicants to email you their resume and contact information.
