3 tips for recruiting when employees are hard to find

Right now in many cities, people who are looking for $18/hour work can get 4 or 5 job offers in a day.

If you find yourself in need of employees, here’s what you can do to attract potential hires (even in an employee’s job market like we’re in right now.)

The first thing to realize is that your business is a balancing act. You can think about it like a tightrope walker carrying a balance bar.

On the one side of the bar, you have sales – bringing new business in the door. On the other, you have staff – the people you need to deliver services.

Business owners tend to put most of their effort and resources on the sales side of the bar – and to let the recruiting side slip. As you might imagine, this creates an imbalance.

Because business is good right now, most businesses don’t have to work that hard at bringing in more sales. Many of my clients could easily take on more business if they had the crew.

If you’re in this position, you’d be well served to take 20-30% of the effort you currently put into generating sales and direct it towards hiring people instead.

Here’s how to do it.

The W5 4-step recruiting system

One of the tools I use with my clients is a 4-step recruiting system based on a fishing metaphor:

1. Prepare the bait: create your ad
2. Cast the net: generate leads
3. Fill the deck: conduct virtual interviews
4. Reel them in: do a test drive

(If you’d like a PDF file with full instructions on how to implement this, send me an email and I’ll send it to you!)

Tip 1: Make sure you attract enough people

Most businesses don’t do enough to attract people.

In a market like this when potential employees can have their pick of multiple job offers – you need to do even more.

I have a list of 15 things that employers can do to attract people, yet most people only do one or two of them – typically posting on Craigslist or Indeed.

Have you tried recruiting at networking events? Or incentivizing your current team to help?

Tip 2: Make the job appealing (quit being boring!)

There are about 200 vacant jobs for physio therapists.

If you needed to hire a physio and you posted an ad like everyone else does “physiotherapist wanted” – you’d be competing with 200 other postings just like it.

One of my clients has a thriving physio practice in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.

Their job posting sells potential employees on the benefits of moving to the Cowichan Valley – giving 7 reasons for them to consider relocating – including things like the weather, housing affordability and outdoor activities.

You can see their post here: https://thrivenowphysio.com/looking-for-a-new-job/

Another client of mine wanted to hire a VA, so he wrote a personal letter to his future VA. He got over 400 applicants!

Boring doesn’t work for marketing – and it doesn’t work for hiring, either.

You need a USP not just for your marketing, but for your recruiting as well.

Tip 3: Always be recruiting

The client that I mentioned earlier recruits year-round.

They have a permanent page on their website.

They’re always thinking ahead. They even recruit students before they graduate.

You need a system for recruiting and hiring – and someone in your business needs to be responsible to oversee it.

Don’t have anybody? Hire someone!

Feeling stuck in a world where you can’t seem to get your business to the next level?

If you’re like many of my clients, you could easily add 30, 40 or 50 percent more sales if you had the people to deliver.

Implementing a recruiting program should be a priority for any business that wants to grow.

If you’d like some help with that, business coaching can speed up the process. You can learn more about my services here: business coaching or book a 15-minute call on my calendar here: Book 15 minutes with John