How Small Business Can Win Top Talent
Let’s face it ladies, in today’s hyper-competitive landscape small businesses face a challenge that can seem almost impossible: how do you attract the right candidates, avoid costly, hiring mistakes, and build a team that actually stays? For Debra Parent, founder of DJP Right Fit Recruiting, the answer isn’t found in flashy corporate perks to high-priced executive search firms. It’s found in understanding people, and helping companies understand themselves.
Debra brings 20 years as a VP of HR in a family-run organization, plus years of teaching Human Resource Management at UMass Dartmouth (her alma mater) and Bristol Community College. But her most formative experience came when she decided to step out of her long term role, looked up “how to start a business,” and built a recruiting consultancy from scratch, One that serves small business across industries for over a decade. Her mission? It’s simple. Help small businesses find top talent so they can focus on running their business. Debra found that most small businesses don’t have the time, structure, or expertise to recruit well. But with Debra as a long-term partner they know they have high quality recruitment services for whatever position they need to fill, not just a one and done service.
When it comes to running a small business there are things you absolutely need to know about becoming more appealing to candidates. It’s not just about the job description. In fact, that can be where many businesses lose candidates before they even apply. Luckily, Debra shared with us what those are!
4 Ways to Make Your Business More Appealing to Candidates
1. Start with your online presence, because candidates already are.
Before a job seeker ever agrees to an interview they examine:
- Your job positing
- Your website
- Your Glassdoor and Indeed reviews
Candidates are looking for social proof. If your reviews are outdated, negative, or nonexistent, that hurts you before you even begin. Debra often helps clients run internal review campaigns where she encourages current employees to share their real experience. Not only can it boost your ratings if you’re working with a lower score, but it can also build trust with candidates from the start.
2. Update your website to show you value people.
When looking at some of the small businesses she’s worked with Debra was shocked to discover that many small businesses are working without a careers page! If candidates can’t find evidence you invest in people they are going to assume you don’t. You need a careers page that includes a video about the company, testimonials from current employees, information about company values and culture, and gives a good sense of the workplace vibe. These things aren’t fluff, they provide clarity and a definitive look at what you value as a company. This clarity then provides you a clear competitive advantage. Looking for inspiration? Check out the Walt Disney Company’s career page. They give you a thorough idea of the values and culture of the company before you look at a single job description.
3. Modernize job roles and expectations.
Unfortunately many small businesses are operating like it’s 2004 (or 1994). It’s common for small, family run businesses who have been operating a certain way to keep those same processes across the decades, but that could be hurting your chances of attracting modern day candidates who have different expectations. These companies can be guilty of working with outdated job structures, rigid hours, old technology, and unclear growth opportunities. All of these will have A-players running for the hills before they even meet with you. Today’s workforce expects flexibility, updated tools, and a sense of purpose. If a role hasn’t changed in 20 years, candidates can tell. And they won’t choose it.
4. Stop the multi-round interview process.
Let’s say you’ve attracted the perfect candidate. You sit down with them for an initial interview and feel like it’s a great fit. But you’re not quite sure and you do have a process so you bring them in for a second interview. And a third. Then you administer some employee tests. And then call them in for a case study. Well, likely you won’t be calling them in for a case study because they will have dropped out of the process long ago for a company that isn’t putting them through the ringer. Top talent is not going to tolerate a three-round process with tests and case studies. Feeling respected as well as working in a timely manner matters to candidates. Debra recommends that business owners apply anonymously to their own job post and see what the experience is like. Are they getting prompt replies or any reply at all? The candidate experience should be a company wide initiative, not an after thought.
How to Avoid the Hiring Mistake Trap
Let’s say you’ve gotten a great batch of candidates from your recruiter and you’re ready to go through them and find that perfect fit for your company. Yet, you pause for a moment. The last few times you hired it ended up not being quite right and they left or you fired them before the year was out. What went wrong? Well, you might have been falling into one or more of these hiring traps. These mistakes can cost you a lot of time and money down the line, even though it may seem like a smart idea in the short term. So what can you do to make sure you hire the candidate who will be a long term fit? Debra shines her wisdom on us again with 4 mistakes people make when it comes to hiring.
1. Hiring for experience, and experience alone, instead of attitude.
Debra shared her top rule for hiring: hire for attitude, train for skill. Many clients fixate on specific experience and overlook A-players who have valuable characteristics like emotional maturity, strong values, adaptability, and initiative. These candidates can become top performers, but only if they aren’t screened out for lacking a narrow requirement.
2. Hiring for budget instead of quality.
Many businesses choose the cheapest candidate simply to meet a salary range. If you wanted the cheapest person you don’t need a recruiter, just put out a post asking for whoever will work for the least amount of money. A recruiter’s purpose, and your priority, should be to find the best-quality person, not the cheapest.
3. Skipping reference and background checks.
Many companies can be pressed for time and tend to skip this step entirely. For companies dealing with finances like accounting firms or financial investment firms a criminal background check is highly recommended. For all other positions, speaking to past employer references can be extremely informative. These conversations can reveal performance patterns, work ethic, and interpersonal behavior. Really pressed for time? At the very least do a quick online search for your candidate, what you find online can be telling.
4. Not examining their own retention problems.
If a business is filling the same role every two years. Debra doesn’t just find another candidate. She begins to look at that business’s employer relations program. She takes a look at things like training and supervision to try and figure out if there may be something internal that’s leading to this retention issue. While other recruiters only care about getting someone in, Debra is really looking at the business from a 360 viewpoint. If this is happening regularly, it may not be about having the wrong candidate, but needing to tweak the internal processes.
How to Find the Right Fit for Your Company
With a name like DJP Right Fit Recruiting, you know Debra’s had years of experience finding that perfect right fit for her clients. But what does the “right fit” even mean? It’s not as though candidates come with measurements that fit the company’s size chart. But there are characteristics that can create a “right fit” mold you can re-use for your company over and over again. For Debra, and most small businesses, skills matter. But they’re just the starting point. When Debra interviews candidates she is screening them through an HR executives lens. She looks for people who will strengthen a business and add value, not cause unnecessary strain.
The true right fit shows up as:
- Accountable
- Respectful
- Emotionally intelligent
- Strong organizational skills
- Consistent progression in their career
- Professional
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Stable (no job hopping)
When Debra recruits she pays close attention to every interaction throughout the interview process. She wants to make sure the candidate is going past who they truly are, not who they’re performing as during the interview. Candidates who demonstrate long term growth potential and are aligned with the values and culture of the company are far more likely to stay and thrive rather than just the candidate who matches the job description.
Whether you’re just getting started on your business journey or have run your business for over 20 years, you don’t have to compete in the job market alone. Debra works 7 days a week because top candidates move fast. If you don’t respond quickly, someone else will and then you lose out on that A-player. That speed, dedication, and long term support is why clients return to her whenever a new need arises.
As a small business you can’t afford to make the wrong hire but you don’t need a giant recruiting firm to find great people. All you need is someone who understands their culture, challenges, and goals, and will act as a true partner. That’s part of what makes Debra so wonderful to work with. She is there to truly understand YOU as a business, not just fill an empty slot. And any recruiter you work with should do the same. For Debra the “right fit” doesn’t just apply to candidates, but to the relationships built with every small business she serves. With the right strategy and the right partner, small businesses can hire people who not only excel in the role, but stay and thrive.
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