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Employee Recruitment: The Small Business Edge
For a small business owner, it can be a grim prospect – competing with big companies for talent. What does a small business have to offer compared with industry-leading salaries, benefit packages, and a coffee shop in the lobby? The answer is a lot. Small businesses actually have a huge edge when recruiting employees. The key is to learn to market the unique benefits of working for a small business.
Think Small
To leverage the unique benefits of working for a small business, you have to think small. This is because the reasons that people love working for a small business are due to its size. In a How-To Guide, the Wall Street Journal outlines the “advantages that small businesses have over big businesses.”
Small Business Employment Benefits:
- Less bureaucracy
- Closer relationships to business leadership
- Broader job responsibilities
- Tight-knit work family
- Potential of high growth
- More flexibility
College graduates freshly entering the job market face tough prospects. Many know that finding the perfect job will be a work-in-progress but seek the opportunity to grow and be a part of a company’s success in the meantime. For these young job seekers, a high-energy startup can be an attractive starter job.
Employees gain enormous satisfaction from influencing a company’s trajectory. When recruiting talent, emphasize that, in your small company, each employee plays a critical role. Tell the true story of your company and your team’s collaboration – and tell it well. Do not underestimate the appeal of working for a small team that feels like a family, people who develop lifelong relationships.
Employee Retention: Salaries and Job Titles
If you don’t want your small business to be a starter job, deliver real growth that drives the careers of your most valuable talent. A growing small business should reward their loyal employees with promotions that include salary growth and changing job titles.
In March 2017, Glassdoor Chief Economist Andrew Chamberlain wrote about employee retention for the Harvard Business Review. After looking at over 5,000 job transitions through thousands of resumes, he found two significant indicators of why an employee leaves to work for a new employer: stagnating salary and job title.
“Even after controlling for pay, industry, job title, and many other factors, we find workers who stay longer in the same job without a title change are significantly more likely to leave for another company for the next step in their career.”
– Andrew Chamberlian, Harvard Business Review
Small Business Recruitment and Retention
As a small business trying to recruit and retain top talent, tell your true story and work hard for your success. If you can deliver growth, your employees will become loyal parts of your work family.
Sources:
https://guides.wsj.com/small-business/hiring-and-managing-employees/how-to-attract-talent-to-a-small-company/
https://hbr.org/2017/03/why-do-employees-stay-a-clear-career-path-and-good-pay-for-starters