Five essential recruiting tips for business owners

  Here are our five essential recruiting tips for business owners, as we enter a new phase of hiring: Be wary of social media screening Social media has progressed significantly since we entered the recession, and the likelihood is that every individual that applies for a role will have a social profile. However, be careful of screening an applicant via these profiles. You may come across information regarding an applicant’s race, religious views or age – including such attributes in any hiring decision is illegal, so tread carefully. Review your job ads In the past, you may have highlighted a need for recent employment or experience for a role. But with the recession, there are many, many good candidates who may not be able to offer either. Negative statements based on preconceived notions have no place in an ad. Focus on the positive things about working for your company instead. Be open minded Just because a resume may not be perfect or some answers are mumbled in an interview, don’t disregard someone straight away. Look at the bigger picture, and focus on the best in candidates and how they can contribute, rather than how they deal with the stress of job searching. Run background checks Staff testing is an absolute must, and is another area of recruitment that has evolved since the economy went into recession. Background checks are an integral part of many businesses now, and are key ways to ensure you will be hiring productive and valuable members of staff. Check references  When the job market suffers, people are tempted to exaggerate their successes and lie in their job applications in order to get employed. So reference checks are now an essential way of verifying claims made in an application, and provides the potential employer with a much wider understanding of the applicants as individuals and as potential employees. Those are our top five recruiting tips, but there are no doubt many more – are there any in particular you would add? Some of them are down to you, but others – such as reference checks and staff testing are where you could do with some professional help, which is where we come in! If you have any questions about how to implement these key recruiting practices, get in contact with us and we’ll do our best to help.  ]]>