According to several Canadian business publications, staffing and human resources challenges remain a primary barrier to growth. These challenges include finding skilled workers, improving productivity, and planning for impending retirements. Attracting and retaining quality employees should be an ongoing process that, over time, mitigates these challenges and builds a highly efficient company. Canadian small businesses are constantly searching for talented employees; being able to access recruiting tools and services is essential to attracting and successfully recruiting top talent.
Resource: How to Find and Recruit Top Talent – Canadian small businesses often use job boards to attract and sort through qualified candidates. Discover the most effective job boards for Canadian small businesses, including its target audience and cost to advertise a position.
Strategic Planning Considerations when Recruiting New Employees
Small businesses in Canada should consider how their recruiting strategies help to achieve strategic objectives. Planning and understanding voids in your business’ human resources is often the best way to start this process. Understanding the skills needed to accomplish projects the coming year should also be considered to ensure your team has the capacity and technical ability to achieve success. Once a job description and ideal candidates have been documented, businesses should consider other factors that will impact their ability to find and retain the best possible employee.
Seasonality of Hiring Top Talent – Recent Graduates
Hiring recent post-secondary graduates is a strategy underutilized by most Canadian firms. There are many benefits associated with hiring recent college and university graduates, including the ability to shape a young person into your ideal employee. Young graduates haven’t developed bad habits in previous positions, are energetic, and are technologically savvy. Integrating this hiring practice can help your business develop a stronger and more diverse workforce.
What’s even better is that forward-thinking companies that hire graduates in the spring can also apply for Canadian government funding that subsidizes the wages of recent graduates. Businesses can receive $13,000 – $20,000 in government grants to hire recent graduates, covering up to 50% of their salary. This funding must be accessed within approximately 3-4 months of its release; it receives top-up funds in the spring and becomes depleted by early summer due to businesses using funding each year as part of their hiring budget.
Time Commitment of the Recruitment Process
The recruitment process may seem fairly simple and straight-forward to most Canadian companies, however finding top talent requires a significant time commitment. From the human resources planning phase to finally hiring a qualified candidate, many Canadian businesses can spend upwards of three months to complete the process. Understanding this time commitment can help businesses plan more effectively, especially if they plan to use small business grants to hire their employees.
Those using wage subsidies to hire elite post-secondary graduates should be starting their recruitment in January and February. By the time an eligible candidate has been found and offered a job, businesses will be able to apply for funding and ensure there are still funds to be claimed. Postponing your recruitment process delays the ability to apply for funding and reduces your chances of success.
Top Online Job Boards
Canadian small businesses looking to stretch their recruiting options may wish to leverage online job boards when developing a pool of candidates. Especially when hiring graduating students, job boards enable small businesses to be seen by top talent, letting them compete with large companies with more comprehensive recruiting procedures. There are niche job boards specifically for students and recent graduates, as well as more general job boards that businesses can post to for a wide range of candidates. Implementing a strategy for using these job boards is critical to finding and generating interest for your position among a pool of qualified candidates. To understand the advantages, target audience, and cost structure of each, access the free How to Find and Recruit Top Talent resource.
Develop a Recruitment and Job Board Strategy
Small businesses can often be overwhelmed with the options when choosing which job board to use to attract candidates. With so many options to choose from, which one will deliver the right crowd and help you connect with top talent?
Mentor Works has evaluated many of the most common job board recruitment options that Canadian small businesses use. Documenting the benefits, target audience, and cost structure of each, you will be able to easily compare sites to find the option most suitable for your needs. Our informative slides, “How to Find and Recruit Top Talent” will put you in absolute control of your hiring practices. Small business owners and executives can download this resource for free.