As a small business, there will come a time for you to expand your team. The problem is, finding qualified candidates to fill a job position is becoming harder and harder. As a business owner, there isn’t much time for filtering through applicants or hand-selecting your members. By promoting your business’s company culture, creating a recruitment video, highlighting your current employees, and offering free training, you can attract qualified candidates and build up a database of potential future employees.
Promote your Company Culture
One of the best ways to attract new, skilled employees is to promote your business and its culture. Offer them a behind-the-scenes look at your business with a glimpse into what they can expect. LinkedIn recently did some research and found that job-seekers actively look for information about the companies they’re applying to. The information you relay on your website and social media should be enticing enough to attract employees. The same study found that 35% of candidates rate “company culture” as a priority when applying for a specific position.
Here are some ways to promote your company culture in a positive light to appeal to your ideal candidate:
Utilize Social Media: Post regular, behind-the-scenes posts, highlighting what these candidates can expect daily. You build a sense of trust and transparency by showing your potential candidates (and even customers) what goes on. It is an authentic but highly effective way to get your message across. As a farmer, post photos with your animals or produce. Include pictures of physical work being done or incredible after-work sunsets. As a winery, show what is happening in the cellar, vineyard, or tasting room.
Create a Career’s Page: If you are actively looking for potential employees, add a careers tab on your website and use this to promote your company’s culture. Many businesses make the mistake of simply displaying an application form on the career page, but this is a missed opportunity. Use this page to highlight all the aspects of the position and attract qualified candidates. Make an offer that no ideal candidate can refuse. While listing the sort of responsibilities they would have, don’t forget to mention the perks that they can look forward to. And of course, promote your company’s culture!
Use your training program to level up their skills and mold them into the perfect employee with all the know-how you require from them.
Highlight Your Current Employees
What better way to attract excellent candidates than to show how happy your current employees are? This is your chance to show you take care of your employees and celebrate their achievements. Candidates want to know that they will be valued and respected. Once again, you can use social media to show your employees at work or have a post about each specific employee. Not only is this great for potential candidates, but it shows your customers how you respect and take care of those in the establishment.
Create a Recruitment Video
Create a recruitment video rather than having a lengthy job description and an endless list of requirements. This video can give candidates a good idea of who you are and what they need to be. The individuality and unique concept of the video are sure to excite all the suitable candidates and get you on the right path to finding a good fit for your business. So when creating these videos to attract qualified candidates, be sure to consider the following:
- Discuss your business, what you do and especially, what your company culture is. Use the recruitment video to paint the perfect picture for them.
- Talk about your current employees and if they agree, feature them in the video. This gives candidates a glimpse into their working life as a current employer.
- Mention the perks and benefits of working for you. By discussing what they can look forward to, you’ll see a higher number of applicants. Knowing what they’ll get stirs excitement within applicants.
- Mention what would be expected from them as an employee, so you can filter out any employees that aren’t in line with the business or the specific position.
- Try to keep the video as short as possible without skipping over valuable information. A ten-minute-long video will become tedious to watch and won’t be as impactful as a two-or-three minute long one.
Offer Free Training
Many candidates avoid applying for certain positions because they feel inadequate. The truth is, some of the best employees you will ever have would never have qualified under “traditional” requirements. Offering free training creates an opportunity for candidates to apply who have the right attitude but might just need some training. You should try to attract qualified candidates who are open-minded and willing to learn since they often end up being the hardest workers.
There is a specific way you can go about offering free training that actually benefits your business as well as the new candidate. You have to find the value in the training you’re offering.
Building a Training Program
- Find the skills gap in your current situation. Do an in-house assessment of the skilled workers you currently have. Then, consider the sort of skills you require from a new employee. You can determine whether you need more of the kind of skill that already exists, or are you looking to employ someone and teach them a completely new set of skills?
- Redo your job description and focus on the candidate’s traits instead of the skills. For instance, mention that the candidate should be adaptable, have a desire to learn new skills, and has a love for working with animals. As a farmer, these are traits you can work will. The skill you require from the candidate is something you can teach.
- Create the training program based on what you currently lack in your business. Think about their daily schedule and what they’d be expected to do from start to finish. This schedule will give you a good guideline as to what skills they’d be expected to learn. From there, you can create the program.
- Finally, employ candidates who are adaptable, have a desire to learn, and possess any other traits you need in your business. If you farm with animals, being an animal lover would be crucial. Use your training program to level up their skills and mold them into the perfect employee with all the know-how you require from them.
If you’re looking for more business tips, have a look at our article on Why it’s the Best Time to Sell Online or Key Marketing Trends in 2022.
