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Job Candidates for Employers-Recruiters |
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| Running a small business is a complex, challenging process. A high level of expertise and numerous skills must be utilized in order to achieve success.
Hiring the right employees to help you run your business smoothly and effectively can often be a long and difficult process.
The first tactic that most business owners and executives use is to place an advertisement in the newspaper. What happens after you place that ad? If you're lucky, you might receive some applications. Then there's the interview process. And, after going through all this, you still may not have found a suitable employee.
You can cut down on these time-consuming steps and increase your chances for success by taking one (or more) of these hiring shortcuts.
There are many excellent "job board" sites on the Internet where you can place a job listing or search for employees. Using job sites can help you to reach a national (and international) audience of job seekers at a low monetary cost. However, you will have to spend some time learning how the particular site's system works and/or how to search for desirable employees.
The obvious first step is to advertise in the classified ad section of your local newspaper. It is best to place your ad in the Sunday or weekend edition of the largest-circulation local papers.
But if you want to take it one step further, you have many other options. Here are some ideas:
- Tap into your personal and professional network. Tell everyone you know--friends, neighbors, professional associates, customers, vendors, and colleagues from associations--that you have a job opening. Someone might know the perfect candidate. This is an effective and virtually free method of developing prospects.
- Distribute fliers. Do what restaurants, dry cleaners, and other businesses have been doing for years. Some companies have been known to do this in hopes recruiting part-time workers. Unlike many other recruitment methods employed by the big guys, distributing fliers is just as easy for small businesses.
- Contact school placement offices. List your openings with trade and vocational schools, colleges, and universities. Check with your local school board to see if the high schools in your area have job training and placement programs.
- Post notices at senior citizen centers. Retirees make excellent employees, and they often do not want or need health or retirement plans.
- Use an employment agency. Private and government-sponsored agencies can help you locate and screen candidates. Often their fees are more than justified by the time and money you save.
- Establish an employee referral program. Encourage your current employees to recommend your company to people they know, and offer cash bonuses for referrals that result in successful hires.
- List your openings with an appropriate job bank. Many professional associations have job banks for their members. Contact groups that are related to your industry, even if they are outside your local area, and ask them to alert their members to your staffing needs.
- Use industry publications. You can advertise job openings in trade association newsletters or industry publications.
- Go online. There are a variety of online job banks like Fastresume.net where you can list job openings. Candidates from all over the country can search these databases.
For small businesses that don't have a Human Resources department, finding the right employee can be an especially time-consuming and frustrating struggle. Why not try one or more of the strategies described above the next time you have a position to fill? You may be pleasantly surprised at how much shorter and successful your hiring process will become.
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