Last month, one would assume in honor of the new year, Mashable published "10 Hiring Tips for Your Small Business.
" The notion that hiring for a small business is more integral than for large, established companies is spot-on, because we all know there is nothing like the right team to help a business grow.
The article also points out something that, as a hiring manager, you already know.
The longer it takes you to find the right candidate, the more the hiring process costs.
While the article advises us to take the price of a drawn-out candidate search into consideration, it doesn't fail to mention the cost of employee replacement, which I argue is far more costly in the end than a drawn-out hiring process.
Getting the right candidate the first time around, someone who will do the job well and will stay in the position for at least a few years, always trumps making a quick decision to save costs on hiring.
As for making the right choice for a new hire, Mashable goes on to provide several tips, including: Going to where the best candidates are for the job, and being constantly on the look out for talent.
They recommend being on the right job sites, and attending meet-ups and conferences.
Not mentioned is a source that many recruiters fail to consider when hunting candidates - freelance sites.
Freelance sites are an excellent place to find creative talent, because you can commission a project for a set rate and get a feel for how a person works before making a job offer.
Many freelancers would be happy to be scooped up to do what they do well for a steady paycheck.
Laying out all the demands of the job in a clear manner.
Mashable points out the problem from the employee side, how being clear prevents confusion about the job and frustration for the new hire.
As a hiring manager, it is also important to think about how much time you will save in interviews by eliminating people who don't have the skills for the job right away.
Being Flexible Flexibility in work schedules and workspaces keep employees happy, Mashable argues.
What the article neglects to mention is the money it can save on company expenses.
Setting up remote work arrangements with talent means you won't need a place to put them on-site, and it provides the employees all the flexibility they could possibly want in their work environments.
While the Mashable article provides many more great tips, like impressing quality candidates instead of expecting them to impress you, and making them feel like part of the team right away, one area it fails to hit on at all is one of the greatest advantages hiring managers have these days - the apps and technology that make the job easier.
If you are always on the lookout for employees, a business card app, like Cam Card, provides a means of quickly collecting job candidate contact information for sorting later.
Applican Tracking Systems, which can be either web- or machine-based applications, work with both manual entries and automated data-gathering from job listings, referrals from employees, and incoming data from other external sources.
With sorting options, it provides an easy means of elevating the right candidates so that the job of weeding out those candidates to call in for interviews practically does itself.
While the Mashable article is on the side of seeking out qualified candidates in advance, it also doesn't recommend something that many hiring managers for start-ups have come to realize.
When one stumbles upon a candidate with a lot to offer, it is often worthwhile to make room in the budget to hire that person even if there is no currently open positions.
A growing company will need new employees soon enough, and the best candidates don't stay on the market long.