{"id":89,"date":"2011-06-01T01:36:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T11:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=89"},"modified":"2011-05-31T18:56:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T22:56:39","slug":"hiring-series-how-to-attract-quality-employees-to-your-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=89","title":{"rendered":"Hiring Series: How to Attract Quality Employees to Your Small Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>For ten years,\u00a0the biggest problem Bottle Washer and I\u00a0had was attracting and retaining quality employees to our Small Business.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<strong>We\u00a0can&#8217;t offer the benefits or top salaries that employees can get from a large company.\u00a0 <\/strong>As the CEO of a rural\u00a0hospital recently\u00a0commiserated, &#8220;A physician is willing to take a 10% salary cut to come here for the\u00a0lifestyle, but, if offered\u00a0a salary any lower than that, New Jersey is looking pretty good.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0Like that small country hospital, <strong>a Small Business isn&#8217;t able to\u00a0entice potential recruits with more cash; we have to offer something else.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was reminded of\u00a0this problem a few days ago.\u00a0 My daughter&#8217;s softball game was two hours in, and it was\u00a0only the top of the second.\u00a0\u00a0The parents began to chat.\u00a0\u00a0Tony was frustrated.\u00a0 He is one of the\u00a0few guys I know who works for a Big Company.\u00a0\u00a0Tony recently got a new boss.\u00a0 The newbie\u00a0feels some of the current employees are overpaid and unproductive; he wants to clean house and replace them.\u00a0 Tony\u00a0has tried to explain to this guy that <strong>finding replacements for these employees could take\u00a0a year or longer; <\/strong>it might be less disruptive to retrain the current employees and restructure their benefit packages.\u00a0 The new guy won&#8217;t budge, and is ready to hand out the pink slips.\u00a0 <strong>This got me thinking: if this Big Company has trouble attracting quality employees, even with the current level of unemployment, what chance do\u00a0we Small Businesses have?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Outlined below\u00a0are some of the ways Bottle Washer and I have tried to stay competitive when it comes to hiring and retaining top employees.\u00a0 Remember: <strong>when pitching a job to a candidate, sell the entire package, don&#8217;t just focus on the salary.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>When recruiting an employee, be as professional as possible.\u00a0 <\/strong>Have a formal hiring process, present a written offer, and state an acceptance deadline.\u00a0 To create a sense of urgency, Fedex the offer to the job candidate&#8217;s home to let him or her know you are a \u00a0serious contender for his\u00a0or her services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If your Small Business can afford it, offer some (or all) of the following standard benefits\u00a0so that your offer is comparable with one from a major corporation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vacation pay<\/strong><a><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Health insurance<\/strong> (d<a><\/a>ecide if you will pay the premium for the employee only or also his or her family)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Life insurance<\/strong> (a payout amount equal to\u00a0one year&#8217;s salary is typical)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Consider these non-standard\u00a0benefits, many of which do not increase your costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Continuing education allowance: <\/strong>This is attractive if con ed is required for the employee to maintain a license or certification.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Specialized insurance coverage, ie professional\u00a0liability or malpractice: <\/strong>Also attractive if the employee will have to pay for this out of pocket in order to practice his or her profession.<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Allowance for\u00a0uniforms or other required work gear<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Coverage for commuting expenses<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Unpaid time off:<\/strong> If you have other staff to perform the same job functions, <strong>unpaid time off for an employee does not hurt your productivity or your bottom line, <\/strong>but is a compelling carrot for an individual who likes to travel or has extensive unpredictable personal responsibilities, such as caring for an aging parent.\u00a0 This is an attractive benefit when your employee&#8217;s income is secondary in the household.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Simple IRA:<\/strong> You <em>should <\/em>have one of these already set up for your company.\u00a0 (If not, see your accountant, one of your Small Business&#8217; four best friends!)\u00a0 <strong>A retirement plan helps your company to be viewed as a legitimate enterprise<\/strong>, not a fly-by-night operation.\u00a0 Adding an employee\u00a0to the plan does involve a small amount of monthly paperwork, but not much cost, especially since you can\u00a0control\u00a0the employer&#8217;s annual matching amount.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flex time:<\/strong>\u00a0 Does it <em>really <\/em>matter to your business if an employee needs to be home in time to meet their kids at the school bus or have off every Wednesday for dog obedience classes?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 As long as you have the\u00a0coverage you need, <strong>adjust employee schedules to their lives.<\/strong>\u00a0 This will make the job you offer immensely more attractive and your current employees less likely to look for work elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0<a><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Opportunity for making extra money:\u00a0 <\/strong>In our Small Business, several patrons began to ask for a related service that Bottle Washer and I did not have the time or staff to cover.\u00a0 However, one of our part-time employees had a related background and more than enough time to provide this service.\u00a0 He started a side business exclusively from referrals from our office.\u00a0 Of course, Bottle Washer and I could have\u00a0added this service to our business&#8217; offerings, but we consciously decided to focus our efforts elsewhere.\u00a0 This can be a win-win situation for a real hustler.<strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Greater opportunity to be involved in and learn\u00a0m<\/strong><strong>ore aspects of the business.\u00a0 <\/strong>A Small Business is, well, small.\u00a0 An employee will be exposed to more aspects of the business than if he or she were compartmentalized in a large corporation.\u00a0 Point that out to your candidate, especially if they have expressed an interest in expanding their knowledge base.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Greater input into decisions and operations.\u00a0<\/strong>If you are looking at a candidate that wants autonomy and responsibility, show how\u00a0they can have greater input into final decisions in a Small Business, with fewer layers of decision-makers than a large company.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Be creative!\u00a0 Remember you are hiring a <em>person<\/em>.\u00a0 Find out what is important to them and cater to that.\u00a0<\/strong> These are\u00a0things we or other Small Business owners we know\u00a0have done to make a job more attractive:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Allow employees to bring their dogs to work.<a><\/a><\/li>\n<li>When stuck for childcare, allow employees to bring kids to work.<a><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Provide housing.<\/li>\n<li>Allow use of facilities, computers, or other business assets after work hours for personal use. (Check with your accountant that you are not violating tax laws and with your insurance agent to be sure you have appropriate liability overage.)<\/li>\n<li>Pay for relocation expenses.<\/li>\n<li>Provide free products or services.<\/li>\n<li>Allow employees to work at home.<\/li>\n<li>Adopt a casual dress code.<\/li>\n<li>Allow employees to do personal\u00a0activities when you need floor coverage and there are no other tasks to perform and no customers.\u00a0 (Personally, I never allow this; I always can find something for an employee to do, however Bottle Washer\u00a0studied himself through graduate school\u00a0during the graveyard shift at a gas station.)\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0As a Small Business, flexibility is your secret weapon when hiring staff.\u00a0 Use it to your advantage to custom-design a position and compensation package for a desired candidate.\u00a0 Cash is not always king when a potential recruit evaluates a job offer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What have you done in your Small Business to make a job offer more attractive?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For ten years,\u00a0the biggest problem Bottle Washer and I\u00a0had was attracting and retaining quality employees to our Small Business.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0can&#8217;t offer the benefits or top salaries that employees can get from a large company.\u00a0 As the CEO of a rural\u00a0hospital recently\u00a0commiserated, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=89\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10,12,9,13,8,11],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employees","tag-attracting-quality-employees","tag-employee-benefits","tag-hiring","tag-recruiting-staff","tag-small-business","tag-staff-retention"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}