Expert Insights: Focus on Candidates to Drive Hiring Efficiencies

JazzHR is thrilled to showcase a new quarterly feature blog that highlights responses from expert HR service and technology partners. This quarter, we asked two partners for their insights on the following question. See how these thought leaders responded and apply their insights to your own small business. 

• How are you seeing small businesses focus on candidates to drive hiring efficiencies and compete with more well-known brands in the market?

Brian Ip, Co-Founder, Omni 

Small businesses are attracting talent by playing to their unique strengths that big-business often can’t replicate. So, while small businesses may not have the budget for impressive perks like gym memberships or stocked office kitchens, they do have the opportunity to build compelling candidate experiences that reflect their company culture and employer brand in a highly personalized way.

We’re seeing many small businesses present personalized and transparent recruitment processes, from friendly social media outreach to prompt feedback, which really helps set them apart in the marketplace. Candidates don’t want to be seen as another number, the job search is a vulnerable and time consuming process, and adding that human touch can make all the difference. Streamlining the process with technology and clear timelines drives home the respect your company has for candidate’s time.

Beyond the recruitment process, small businesses are focusing on cultivating an authentic employer brand through sharing their company’s unique culture, mission, and impact, and putting an emphasis on highlighting opportunities for growth and purpose. This can go a long way in connecting with candidates and appealing to the mission driven values of Gen Z as they grow in the job market.

Finally, small businesses are investing in boosting their hiring efficiency with smart strategies. We’re seeing a trend of SMEs leveraging affordable tech like HRIS that equip them with applicant tracking tools, automated personalization functions, and simplified benefits administration; it really moves the needle when you’re working with a small team or limited budget because you can do more with less. 

Omni is an all-in-one HRIS platform that frees HR teams from administrative cycles by automating the entire end-to-end employee lifecycle — from recruitment and onboarding to employee engagement and payroll — allowing them to redirect their time to strategic work that drives business growth. Omni is powering Asia’s fastest growing companies to reach their full potential with our fully customizable HR tools that seamlessly integrate with your team’s favorite workplace platforms. Learn more at omnihr.co

Mark Heyman, JD, Founder & CEO, HRHappens.com

The small businesses winning the recruiting wars are the ones who have strong culture. A sense of purpose. A social mission. An engaging and empowering environment where you can learn and grow, personally and professionally.

Culture has the effect of driving greater efficiency in your recruiting efforts when combined with the best talent acquisition software and best practices. Your culture is what allows you to position your employment brand in the most effective way. Knowing your culture will help you identify the talent you really want while also allowing candidates who may not be aligned with your values, your culture to self-select out.

Businesses that “walk the walk” when it comes to culture will always be a magnet for top talent. Top talent is always able to see through the words on the wall when they don’t resemble what happens on a day-to-day basis in the workplace. Small businesses with strong Culture use their size and work environment as an asset.

You do need to provide competitive compensation and benefits you can afford, but in the end, Culture always wins. Culture is why people leave those big brands and big companies that had far more bells and whistles than most small organizations. And if you can’t describe or define your culture, can’t qualify your candidates with the same rigor you’d qualify a sales lead, you may realize some good efficiencies in time to fill, but will lose any gains made battling high turnover.

The best way to drive hiring efficiency and truly leverage the benefits of today’s talent acquisition technology is to not only know your culture, but put it out front and center as the primary opportunity and reason for applying in the first place. You’ll attract the talent you want and allow others to focus on opportunities more aligned with what they want to do.

HR Happens is a human resources consultancy providing a full range of HR consulting services, from project work to developing the HR function in your business and serving as your fractional HR department on an ongoing basis. Our team is focused on developing and cultivating a strong culture and work environment that is engaging, empowering and can sustainably meet your short and long-term business objectives. Our team can provide you with tactical day-to-day HR support as well as strategic HR leadership and guidance to support your growth. Learn more at hrhappens.com