Last week a journalist from Making Money magazine asked me some questions about on the subject of how owner/managers of SMEs can improve their recruitment technique and locate the right people for their vacancies. One of the questions he asked, prompted some further thought from me (dangerous I know!).

Question: Recruiting can be time consuming and costly. What general advice would you give to SMEs about how they can improve their recruitment procedures and locate the people they need faster? 

This is a subject close to my heart, as I do work with SME’s, consulting with them about this lovely subject called recruitment! I also wrote about this subject on this site aimed at SME’s . Here are some of my thoughts on how SME’s should go about recruiting staff in an practical and cost effective way. The first steps to do are:

1. What are you recruiting for? Firstly, think about what you are trying to recruit for. Don’t have a knee-jerk reaction and pick up the phone to a recruitment agency. You need to understand what you want first. If necessary take some advice from colleagues or your business network, or even an external consultant (like me!!).
2. Put it in writing. Once you have established the type of person(s) you need to recruit, write a brief job description - roles and responsibilities, objectives and remuneration (well a ballpark figure if not exact). This will help re-clarify the person you want. Using this info, write an advert selling the job and your company.
3. Website. Place the advert on your career site or job pages on your website. If you haven’t got one then you should get this great product  - it will make a big difference to your recruiting.
4. Referrals internally. Place the advert (not the job description) internally, and make sure your staff are aware of the vacancy. Use your referral scheme to network the vacancy through your staff, you will be surprised how effective this can be.
5. Networking. Make contact with your business network locally, and make them aware of your recruitment needs. It is very likely that they have been recruiting recently and they may well have met someone that could be suitable for your role.
6. Social Networking. Use social networking sites such as LinkedIn to identify people you would be interested in talking to for your role.

So far you haven’t spent any money recruiting, and it just may well have been successful. If these methods prove unsuccessful, then here are some that will incur some cost.

1. Direct advertising. The medium depends on the role you are recruiting, but the online job boards can provide value for money, and they will help you tweak the advert and get it placed accordingly. It is worth checking your business network or an external consultant ( that will be me again then!!) on which job board is successful in your geographic area.
2. Online referrals. Try using products such as Jobtonic that will allow you to place your advert online. This is a massive online referral network where your job can be referred around job seekers accordingly.
3. Online CV database. If you are recruiting for a number of positions, you may want to consider subscribing to an online job board CV database (all the job boards have them). This will give you access to 1000′s of candidates. This takes a little time and requires some skill (the job boards all provide free training here), but can be really productive in terms of generating candidates.
4. Social Networking. Sites like LinkedIn (the best for business) allow you to place adverts that get sent out to your full network instantly, as well as being available to be seen online.
5. Recruitment agencies. If after trying all these methods yourself, then you do have the option of using recruitment agencies. Just remember though, that you have already gone through all the ‘easy’ channels they would use first, so at least you know that the fees you will pay will be paying, will be for candidates they have worked hard at sourcing. At least this way they will be seen as value for money, because you have at least tried everything first!!

I have written a help guide, with top tips on using a number of these direct recruiting channels above, which is available for free at Sirona Consulting.