Abacus Payroll recently hosted a webinar on HR headaches and the top pain point in 2022 for small businesses has proven to be recruiting and hiring talent. Many of these challenges have been spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, so employers need to evaluate their current hiring practices and see if improvements are needed.
While we wish we had a crystal ball to show the magical answers that will solve all hiring headaches, we can provide tips and resources that might make the process less painful. If you haven’t reviewed your hiring process and recruiting materials since early 2020, below are some considerations that may need your attention.
Appealing Job Postings
A “help wanted” job posting is often your company’s first impression with a candidate. Make sure it’s accurately reflecting the job duties. Let your corporate culture and personality shine, too. It’s costly to onboard a new hire — you don’t want them to put in their two weeks notice because their perspective of your job description did not match up with their actual tasks and responsibilities.
Streamlined Hiring Processes
Your process from advertising the job to accepting resumes to interviewing to hiring to onboarding should be as uniform, consistent, and complete as possible. The more confusing and extra steps a process is, the more of a turn-off it is for candidates. A manual process can let things fall through the crack. A resource such as AdvancedHR can digitize and streamline the steps in recruiting, hiring, and onboarding. Once a candidate is hired, this extends to effective onboarding, too.
Ensuring Safety and Flexibility
As a result of COVID-19, employers have seen a drop in employee morale. Workers faced illnesses, increased risk, and higher expectations from their managers. Along with increased pressure, the workplace had to change to adapt to the effects of the pandemic. Do you require masks or vaccines? Are you making extra efforts to care for your staff’s safety?
Maintaining positive mental health is also a concern that workers aren’t afraid to shy away from prioritizing. Excessive burnout during the pandemic scarred many workers and helped drive the Great Resignation. Do you have work-from-home/hybrid options? Employers must find newfound respect and priority for a work-life balance for their employees to keep them engaged and feeling appreciated.
Competitive Pay
Minimum wage has been steadily creeping up in New Jersey and many other states. Have you evaluated your salary scales? Take time to review your industry benchmarks for salary and wages. What are your competitors offering? Don’t be left in the 2010’s with your pay offerings.
Is There Room for Growth?
If yes, make it known. Some want a job, some want a career. Career development and training varies depending on the industry and job. Be transparent in the interview with what the future can hold and if career growth is attainable. Set the table for expectations to strive for, so both you and the prospective new hire are on the same page.
Advertising of Current Benefits
If employees are largely working from home, advertising on-site snacks, social events, and more office-only perks won’t appeal to your remote staff. Review what benefits and aspects of your culture will appeal to your current ideal candidate.
Review Your Online Reputation
Potential employees will check employee reviews on websites like Glassdoor and Indeed. A negative review is not the end of the world, as most readers know to accept it with a grain of salt. Take time to carefully respond to your reviews. Also encourage current employees to leave reviews. Don’t ignore clients and customers either as excessive negative reviews of your overall business could be a toxic culture red flag. Share your wins and community activities on social media so prospective employees can get a true feel for your culture before committing to a career.
Consider Employee Referral Bonuses
A worthy investment may be encouraging your current employees to make personal introductions to potential candidates. Offer a cash or non-monetary reward or even make it a competition amongst your team!
Step Away From What You’ve Always Done
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Maintaining the status quo but not seeing better results with the quantity or quality of candidates will only waste costly time for your business. Take a break from doing the same actions and showing up in the same old places. Shake up your descriptions, give your Careers webpage a makeover, find new websites or resources to promote your job opening. Maybe you will get different results.
HR Resources That Can Help Your Hiring Process
Abacus Payroll’s HR Help Center has an abundance of tools and templates that can aid in most of the above action items. From a job description library to an informative Q&A feed to an employee turnover calculator, the HR Help Center has a resource for all of your human resources needs.
For HR reassurance and reliable payroll, get a quote today from Abacus Payroll, Inc.