Hiring as a small business is no minor thing. You have to ensure that each hire works out well. A bad new recruit can drag the morale of an SME down and demotivate other staff. Alternatively, sometimes they aren’t a great fit with the culture of the company which is also something to look out for.
Here are three ways to improve your current hiring practices to get better results.
Recruiting the Right People
Using better quality hiring agencies like Betts Recruiting, for example, that have local knowledge and a passion for what they do is extremely helpful. When they’re not just going through the motions of filling positions with a likely candidate but instead are focused intently on finding just the right person for your business, better hires are likely to follow.

If you need to find temp services to cover a short absence or a maternity leave, then look at Corporate Job Bank, which provides temp services in Phoenix, Arizona. They’ve been operating since 1985 and are now the largest staffing agency in Arizona that’s owned by a local person. Because of this, they’re more hands-on and know the area and the local employers extremely well. This makes all the difference in finding people that can not only do the job but also who will mesh with the company’s culture.
Prepare Standard Operating Procedures
Having pre-prepared standard operating procedures (SOP) that lay out each task needed to be completed in a role is very important. Most employers fail to have an SOP for each position. Even the ones that do have an SOP fail to keep it updated and relevant.
For new recruits, expecting them to dive into the deep end and not drown isn’t a realistic expectation. Everyone has their preferred way to learn. Having things explained in person isn’t always going to work because some people need to learn tasks through repetition to get it.
By having SOPs for each job, the company helps every new employee understand what is expected of them and how to get each part of the job done right. It cuts out the guessing game. As a result, they get up to speed faster. There’s also a correspondingly higher success rate on recruitment this way.
Assign Someone to Make New Hires Feel Welcome
While the person who’s leaving probably has some overlap and is able to assist the new recruit, that’s not always the case. It’s a good idea to have someone who’ll still be around a week from their first day on the job to assist them.
It shouldn’t be necessary to hand-hold someone who has experience, but there are still questions that any new person will have and perhaps feel embarrassed to ask. Rather than leaving them floundering, it’s useful to discuss with them if there’s anything they’re unsure of either with the company or their job specifically.
Doing this systematically avoids a situation where someone had a problem, was afraid to ask and no one offered open-ended assistance which would have rooted out what the issue was. Not doing so sometimes leads to a failed hire.
Getting recruiting procedures right is difficult. Everyone is their own person with unique needs. However, the more suitable the new hire is for the company and the type of work they’ll be completing, and with a good support mechanism, hiring needn’t be so challenging.