Are you starting off the year with a clearly designed marketing plan and have realized that your business might need an extra team member? During the budget and goal planning, a business owner usually will re-evaluate to see if the business could use another set of hands. However, most of us realize how much time it takes to hire the right candidate. Throughout the three years of existence, we have learned a thing or two about recruiting. This month, we would like to share with you some tips-n-tricks learned along the way.
Please note: we are not partnered with any of the companies listed below and all reviews are simply based on our experience with them.
Once a business owner has decided that an additional team member would be beneficial to the company, one should create a recruiting plan which should include a job description, hourly rate/salary, yearly goals etc. Once you have a well written job description there are many ways you can advertise your opening. Below, we will look into options available to you and the costs associated with it.
(Friendly warning: a bit long but worth the read and a save for future needs)
Local newspaper: You can post a help wanted ad in your local newspaper, which will appear in the classified section. For example, The Morning Call allows businesses to advertise their job hirings daily, and these ads start at $418. There are multiple ad sizes and design options available, but the price for the ad will increase with the add-ons and enlargements. You have the option to decide which day you want your ad printed and also if you wish to have it printed in other sections of the newspaper.
Pros:
- Many advertising options, both small and large
- Ad can be published on any day you would like, even the very next day
- Newspapers can reach large numbers of people throughout the area
- Newspapers tend to charge relatively high costs
- They are not conducive to last minute changes because of tight printing schedules
- Large space ads are very expensive and their longevity is fleeting
- Ads in newspaper tend to compete heavily with other ads on the page.
- They tend to deliver only to an adult audience. If you have products targeted at teens or even college students, a newspaper probably won’t reach these people.
Pros:
- Employers and applicants can meet each other in person
- You can offer on-the-spot interviews and speed up the hiring process
- Employers can screen many candidates on the same day
- Jobs fairs feature an extremely limited time frame. An applicant might not be able to visit every employer whose openings interest him or her.
- Employers must make quick judgments about applicants based on short exchanges and interviews
- Applicants with strong resumes but weak interpersonal skills might not stand out at job fairs as well as they would when applying through a more traditional process
- Job fairs can be costly for companies to attend and may not always be worth the money for the short amount of time being there
Monster.com: Monster.com is a premier global online employment solution for people seeking jobs and the employers who need great people. Monster has over a million job postings, over 1 million resumes in the database, and over 63 million job seekers per month. You can choose 30 or 60 day job postings, and can purchase a job posting first and then publish it instantly, or buy up to 249 ads in bulk and save money on all of them. The cost to purchase one job posting to be published for 30 days is $375, and the cost to purchase one job posting to be advertised for 60 days is $395.
Pros:
- Most job postings and resumes of any job site
- Multiple search options
- Monster offers advice about resumes, interviewing and salary negotiation
- With their standard job posting, your job listing can also be put on various websites including Facebook, Twitter, Military.com and Jobs.com.
- Numerous "junk" postings; no way to filter
- Online searches offer employers visual cues only, i.e. the absence of other pre-screening elements
- Posting just one job or only a few jobs can be costly and may not necessarily lead you to the appropriate employees
Pros:
- Offers comprehensive talent sourcing with multi-dimensional assessments and employment marketing solutions, as well as hiring management to handle the background check, tax screening and onboarding process
- Has a separate search option dedicated to teens
- People can search by zip code, location, part time, company, full time, position, and summer/seasonal teen jobs
- Provides job tips and email alerts
- Only caters hourly jobs and does not offer other features
- The search filter tends to get botched often
- Targets mainly those interested in food service or retail positions
- It is up to the employer to delete an old post after an applicant has been hired. This means that a job search on this site could be just as likely to turn up non-existent or as an outdated position as it will be to find a current listing
Pros:
- You can target very specific audiences, even more so than you can with your regular posts
- You can even target your current clients and leads by uploading your email list
- Facebook’s reach is enormous, connecting people from across the globe all in one place
- Ads can help you grow your online fan base or bring traffic to your website
Cons:
- Social media’s main goal is networking, not selling; people are not on Facebook because they are looking for an immediate job, they are there to get inspired. Users log into Facebook to communicate with their friends and often do not take much notice of ads.
- Advertising overload causes people to stop paying attention to ads. It’s hard to make your ad stand out from the crowd.
- It is difficult to tell exactly how many hits your ad is getting, as some users will see the ad and not click on it
- Creating a page and maintaining your ads on Facebook is extremely time consuming
Craigslist: Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, for sale, services, resumes, housing, personals, discussion forums, and more. It is updated daily by everyday people trying to sell, advertise their service, find employees, get volunteers, etc. The website is built around communities, and Craigslist now offers sites in hundreds of cities and many countries throughout the world. For the most part, all Craigslist postings are free, except for some things, such as posting for busy areas like Philadelphia.
Pros:
- Unlimited services – you can post about anything you want and as much as you want
- Can target people from certain locations
- No fees to Craigslist
- It’s completely anonymous. Searching for things doesn’t require a user ID and your e-mail is never used, unless one contacts a seller about a specific item. As the seller, your e-mail is never given unless you respond back to an inquiry.
Cons:
- If you put your phone number in your original post, expect a few solicitors to call.
- If you put your email address in your original post expect your spam box to get active.
- Although many people use Craigslist to find an apartment or used furniture, some job seekers prefer to look for work through other channels, so there is a shallow talent pool on the site
- You may get many responses from unqualified applicants
I would strongly advise that a company puts together an interview process which in detail describes what happens at each stage of the interview. Each company should have a customized hiring process and it should be reviewed by your lawyer or a human resource specialist. Some things you might want to consider are your state’s guidelines and regulations that protect the applicants from unfair hiring tactics. There are many restrictions in what can be legally asked of the applicants and what data can be collected in order to narrow down your candidates.
Depending on the nature of your business a national background and criminal check might be necessary. Due to the cost associated with this feature, many companies go with the ‘low cost’ option that is available via the Internet. Please be cautious when utilizing ‘instant’ online background companies as they might not give you a full access to the candidates data. We have compared a report ran by an ‘instant and cheaper’ company vs our current background check provider and were shocked at the difference in results. The cost of a good quality background check will vary based on how many locations the candidates resided in and how many ‘alias’ names are available for that candidate. Here, at All Service Concierge, LLC our average background check per candidate costs $100 with the most we ever paid was $300. When interviewing background check agency it is important to compare what is required of you in order to be able to utilize their services. Again, a higher end agency will require an ‘on-site’ visit to audit your safety procedures. Also, pay attention to the turn-around time of your reports. Be cautious of the ‘instant’ or ‘semi-instant’ checks. A good background check requires a ‘live’ person to confirm the results with the individual counties. For us, we typically receive our reports back within 5 – 7 business days; however, we have waited up to 4 weeks for a handful of reports.
Our clients like that by utilizing All Service Concierge, LLC they do not have to worry about the costs and time requirements associated with recruitment. Our recruiting manager, Alyssa, screens each candidate and our on-boarding process consists of five stages: applications, phone interview, in-person interview, background check, references, client on-boarding, etc. The management maintains and updates all background records throughout the year and updates all necessary legal documents associated with the checks. If you would like to find out more about our process or have any questions about recruiting or hiring feel free to reach out to us. We can discuss this in more detail over a cup of hot coffee.
And if you are interested in finding out more information about our team of Personal Assistants we would be happy to schedule a complimentary meet-n-greet. Let us handle your staffing needs while you focus on growing your business. As always, there are no minimums to utilize our services. Please note, on average it takes us 4-6 weeks to on-board a new client. Contact us early to make sure you give yourself plenty of time to go through our process. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
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