3 Solutions to Your Hiring Woes
There are many reasons you may find yourself scrambling to fill one or more empty positions on your team. A valued employee may move on to a new job or decide to retire. Or, unfortunately, you may conclude that an employee is no longer a good fit for their role. Whatever the case may be, finding top talent to fill unexpectedly available team positions can be a struggle.
Extending your hiring efforts beyond posting to a few standard job boards can help you fill open positions sooner. From hiring internationally to attending local career fairs, here are three ways to more quickly fill vacancies on your team.
1. Hire Internationally
There are many reasons to extend your hiring processes beyond your own neck of the woods. Hiring internationally gives you a larger pool of qualified candidates to draw from. It’s also a great solution if you need local expertise to help you expand into a foreign market. Finally, you may decide to hire internationally because you want to increase the diversity of your team.
But hiring internationally can be intimidating for business owners who have never done it before. It’s challenging enough to make sure you’re meeting employer regulations in your own country. Now imagine trying to navigate complicated foreign laws and keep yourself out of trouble with overseas government agencies. It’s natural to feel overwhelmed by just the thought of it!
A challenge never stopped you before, though, and it shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the many benefits of hiring internationally. To make the process a lot less daunting, consider engaging a human resources partner to help you stay compliant with international regulations. Working with an employer of record or professional employer organization may be just the ticket.
When considering the EOR vs. PEO question, there are a few considerations to weigh. You’ll need to decide whether you want to set up an official business entity in the country where you’re hiring employees. You’ll also need to determine whether you want to be the official employer in the new country. If not, you’ll need to offload that responsibility to an EOR. Unlike a PEO, an EOR assumes all the risks and responsibilities of complying with applicable employer requirements.
2. Attend Local Career Fairs
Not that you should ignore your local candidate pool — you just need to be savvier when jumping into it. A career fair is an event that facilitates interaction and relationship-building between employers and job seekers. This type of event allows employers to set up displays and explain the benefits of working with them. It also enables job seekers to distribute resumes to multiple businesses in a matter of minutes.
Local career fairs serve two important purposes for businesses: exposure and pre-screening. With thousands of employers competing for the same limited pool of job candidates, exposure is essential. Local career fairs can help you advertise available positions to a group of interested individuals. They also let you quickly pre-screen candidates and follow up with those who show the most promise.
You can potentially squeeze a week’s worth of interviews into a single day at a career fair. When you’re trying to fill a position quickly, being able to perform many interviews in one day is essential. If you live by the mantra that time is money, just imagine how much money you’ll save finding employees at a job fair!
Keep in mind that you’ll find all types of talent at such events. In addition to the cream of the crop, you’ll also encounter applicants with scant or troubled job histories. To sift through the masses at a career fair, ask screening questions regarding the role and the candidate’s career goals. Choose your interview questions wisely to determine which applicants have the necessary experience and deserve a follow-up.
3. Set Up an Employee Referral Program
Using internal methods to find top talent is an effective way to grow your team. An employee referral program leverages the company knowledge and personal connections of current employees to obtain candidate recommendations. Drawing from employee referrals improves the likelihood that new employees will fit right in with your company’s culture.
When setting up an employee referral program, outline what skills, education, traits, and experience you’re looking for in new hires. Distribute this information to current employees so they can think of personal contacts who meet the qualifications. If anyone springs to mind, the employee can encourage that individual to apply online or send their resume to the hiring manager.
Since employers already know they can trust their employees, this type of referral system can be quite efficient and helpful. It gives employers a trusted source of insight into a job candidate’s experience and work ethic.
To improve participation in employee referral programs, consider offering incentives. Monetary rewards usually work quite well to encourage employees to recommend qualified candidates for available positions. Alternatively, you could offer another perk, such as additional vacation days or a gift card to a local restaurant. Survey your team to see what type of incentive is most likely to improve engagement in your employee referral program.
Finding top-notch employees can be challenging, but there are things you can do to increase your likelihood of success. When it’s time to quickly fill vacancies on your team, try using the hiring solutions outlined here. They will help you attract and land the right talent for your business needs.