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Is a Lack of Recruitment Expertise Costing Your Business?
Bryony discusses the importance of specialist recruitment to SMEs when searching for the very best recruits.
Recent economic surveys from both the North East Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurs’ Forum show business confidence in the region is at its highest point for many years; and with that comes a positive expectation for employment growth.
The last three months have reportedly seen over sixty percent of North East businesses attempt to increase staff numbers, with more and more opting for full-time and permanent recruits as their preferred solution.
On the flip side, one of the key barriers local businesses cite as holding them back from growth is not being able to find the right people to fill their staff shortages – a major problem for any SME.
There’s a lot of discussion regionally about how we need to address skills shortages in key sectors, and rightly so. In tax, accountancy and finance, I believe we’re currently suffering the after-effects of a much reduced level of investment in training since the recent recession began; and it’s impacting heavily on the availability of new talent in the market.
What does this mean? Well essentially, if you want to recruit the best people and find the most promising rising stars in your industry, you will most likely need to be looking for people who are not necessarily actively searching for a new role themselves.
This is where a lack of recruitment expertise could be letting your business down.
With most SMEs the different divisions of the business tend to develop in line with the organisations own growth. A finance manager may join when turnover reaches £5m; if staff numbers hit 30 an HR manager may come on board; and a marketing manager might be made a priority when turnover and staff levels reach a point that requires continuous new business in order to be sustainable.
Until an organisation has an HR manager in place, more often than not, recruitment isn’t any one person’s particular area of expertise. But as the surveys suggest, it is certainly an area that can make or break your business.
In the words of Mary Kay Ash: “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset … a company is only as good as the people it keeps.”
I believe this to be one hundred percent true, no matter what your business, and if you’re serious about growth in a competitive job market, then you need to either understand how to compete for the best talent or work with someone who does.
A specialist recruiter will be an expert in their field and although that may not mean your specific sector, more preferably they will be a master of the profession or skills you’re looking to recruit.
When that’s the case they will not only have the contacts and knowledge in place to help you, but they will more than likely already know the candidates you’re searching for.
Not only that, but they will be able to advise and support you to make sure you truly understand what it is that you need in order to meet your objectives; which is often not what you initially thought you were setting out to find.
Employees who are talented and fit culturally can be hard to attract and enticing them to join you can often be as difficult as winning new business from a competitor.
If you don’t know how to navigate the landscape it’s likely you will struggle to find the very best people, and this is where recruitment specialists can genuinely help you and in turn your business to grow.
