How Small Business Finds and Keeps Quality Employees

Finding Quality Employees in a Competitive Environment

First, it is important to find a trusted resource to help you write effective and applicable job descriptions, one with capabilities to provide reliable guidance and information. 

Secondly, once you find a trusted resource, how do you position the job description so that candidates come to you? 

Thirdly, how do you manage the flow of individuals responding, so that you can determine which ones are a good fit?  Which ones do you want to interview?  Which ones do you want to hire, and so on. 

Keep in mind, these components can be jeopardized in an environment of, “I know somebody who knows this person who says they can do all these things.”  For a small business, this kind of thinking has the potential to be a huge bomb going off. It can take a small business down from the beginning, and I’ve seen it happen in a lot of cases.  So, finding a trusted resource makes sense---that is, finding someone who actually provides these HR services for a living.

Retaining Talented Employees in Small Business

It is important to really know and understand HR. It is an equation---meaning HR is more than an administrative process. HR is a culture built around a process.  This process includes the following cultural components: 

• Training and development to maximize employee abilities;
• A matrix for hiring the right people;
• Paying them correctly; and
• Incentivizing them correctly. 

Then, obviously, we want to retain our people through a number of ways, including access to information and growth opportunities.  In my experience, as long as people are growing and happy within their environment, I find that making the most money isn’t necessarily the only motivating factor. I think that is true, especially within a small business environment compared to a larger business environment. 

Professional Development Opportunities Help Retain Valuable Employees

Professional development helps motivate people. Professional development provides opportunities to maximize a person’s abilities, either as they recognize them or as somebody else recognizes those abilities.

Let’s say someone takes a job in a small business.  For any number of reasons, this job may not particularly match their best skill sets.  So, it is very important to develop a process that not only identifies their current skills, but one that offers ways to develop and exercise those skills. That extra advantage enhances the strength of a small business, and it provides a level of happiness and sustainability for the employees as well.