Creative recruiting strategies for SMEs

Like salt is to soup, SMEs are essential to building a stronger economy. During a period of economic uncertainty, organisations seek opportunities to hire strong support systems that will contribute to growth. While smaller organisations would love to hire the best and the brightest, they may find it difficult to entice top talents with smaller budgets.

Additionally, SMEs do not have large budgets for major recruiting campaigns. However, experience shows they do not need huge budgets to hire top candidates. Through my HR experience I have outlined strategies that can be used to recruit and engage top hires.

Build the Right Culture

Before a major recruiting campaign, make sure the internal culture of the organisation is what you want to sell to candidates. Many start-ups have come up with different low-cost culture activities to engage their employees. As a start-up I spent some time every Friday on the Happy Hour at the office. Different employees brought items to share for the happy hour. It was a way to catch up with the whole office, and an activity the team looked forward to every Friday.

Flexible Hours and Trendy Work Environment

Another example of this is offering a chance for employees to work remotely on some days. Many candidates may forgo a higher salary to have the ability to work from home. This is a trend that is increasing and by 2020 many companies will have a remote team.

Additionally, having a cool office space like Andela, ACE, and Techpoint is another great way to engage top candidates. If you compare these spaces to most large organisations in Nigeria, there is a clear difference of more collaboration in these start-up offices. Creating a culture that is unique and more flexible than big Nigerian organisations is a top selling point to candidates.

Employee Referral Reward Programs

The best way to bring in reliable candidates is an employee referral reward programs. Your own employees will have a network that they can tap into, to bring more star employees. Organisations can leverage this by giving their employees an incentive to refer their organisation to their network. As an SME, you may not have the funds to pay employees part of the reward programs but you can offer small rewards like a free lunch or a spa item. Most organisations agree that their best hires often come from internal employees.

Networking Events

As an SME looking to expand your business, you will find yourself at networking events. Not only can these events be good for new business, they are also excellent in finding new candidates for your organisation. Not only should you carry business cards, but you can also carry recruiting cards to hand out to people who you believe can be great future hires. A recruiting card is a great way for top candidates to remember your business and is a great conversation starter at networking events. Additionally, you can host small networking events and can invite potential candidates to learn more about your organisation.

Social Media

Lastly, social media is a great method to recruit new candidates. As an SME, you should have a blog that not only talks about your services, but about your organisation and the work culture. I have used social media websites such as Twitter and LinkedIn to recruit new hires. Use social media to ask your network, but also answer questions to potential candidates about your company and the job description. You can use social media to get creative and ask a series of questions a candidate has to answer before going to the next step of the interview process. This will increase competition, thereby giving you higher quality candidates. Many SMEs believe because they do not have the same budget as oil companies, they cannot recruit solid candidates. With creative recruiting techniques, you can position your company to have successful recruiting campaigns.

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Chika Uwazie