Almost every SME and start-up that we have spoken to is facing challenges in securing the right talent for their organisation. So let us explore how we can manage this challenge.
Who are we hiring?
Before we dive into our talent (resource) search, let us answer a few basic questions to ensure we are clear of who we are looking for.
1. What will be this person’s role and responsibility?
Try to be as specific as possible – what are his/her responsibilities? What will he/she be performing on a day-to-day basis? Who are the people that he/she will be interacting with most of the time?
2. Any preferred age/experience or qualification?
Do you require a highly qualified and experienced personnel, or someone who has just graduated from the university? Any particular age group that would make it easier for him/her to gel well with in your team?
Determining this will very much dictate where you would advertise or search for the talent. This is because prospective candidates of different age and skills search for jobs through different media.
3. Is it a full time or part time role?
Can you utilise this person fully? If not, is it critical that this person need to be accessible all the time even though he might not be fully occupied?
4. Is this a temporary or a permanent role?
Is there a specific need for this resource to just complete a particular work or project? Or will this role form part of business day-to-day process?
5. Is it important that he/she be physically in the same location as you are?
Some of the responsibilities can be performed in isolation and the resource can be anywhere. For example, accountants, lawyers, website developers.
6. What is the budget for hiring?
Hiring costs here refer to the cost of searching for your recruitment. This includes, job advertisement, posting fee and referral fee etc.
7. What is the range of salary to be offered?
Before hiring anyone, it is important to understand the cost that you are going to incur, to minimise any future cash flow issues. PayScale offers salary report which will give you a good indication of how much you should be paying your employees.
By answering all the above questions, you would have a better idea of who we are searching for.
Then, where to search for your talent?
Now we know ‘who’ we are looking for, then we can start exploring where to find your new talent.
Freelancer
If you are looking for a resource to complete a specific task in a short time frame and it does not need to be in the same location as you, Upwork or MomoCentral might just be the solution for you. There are no recruiting costs in these sites. You can select your own budget, level of experience and qualifications to meet your needs.
University
If you are looking for a resource on a permanent basis with a small budget but need to have the employee working with you in the same location and if you don’t mind doing a bit more coaching and training, fresh university graduates would be a good way to go. They can bring in new way of thinking which would be very valuable to the business. Contact relevant university’s career department. They are usually happy to assist you and get your job description to their graduate students.
Online job classification – Corporate
In recruiting a permanent, qualified and experienced local resource, online job boards like jobstreet, jobs db, or government job boards might be the way to go. Fees are usually around a few hundred dollars per job advertisement. Job seekers on these websites usually seek attractive remuneration packages. Be prepared that there is one available.
Online job classification – Start-up firms
Start-up firms have a very unique characteristic in how the company runs and people who works in the firm. Hence the package is usually very different from the corporate world. If you are looking for someone to join your start-up firm, StartUpJobs or AngelList are good places to start. There are no advertising costs. Job seekers on these sites are usually of the younger generation and with a diversity of qualifications and experiences.
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is a method that works for pretty much any kind of hiring if you are not pressed for time. This can be further conveyed via social media as well.
Professional recruitment agency
For professionals, experienced and full time employees, engaging a professional recruitment agency can help with the process. However, the hiring cost is usually very high and can reach tens of thousands of dollars, all depending on the salary offered.
Head hunter
For an executive role, where you have a substantial hiring budget and salary budget, using head hunting agencies (e.g. headhunt) might be the way to go.
Found one!
Hiring is only the start, next step is how best to retain your talents which we will explore in the next blog.
I am late for payroll, what should I do?
While you are busying securing new contracts and delivering goods / services, there may be times that cash available is just insufficient to cover your payroll due to your customers’ late payments.
InvoiceInterchange can help businesses fund this cash flow gap by converting receivables (invoices) into immediate cash. This gives back cash flow control to businesses instead of depending on customers’ payment timings. Our online process of auctioning receivables is simple and flexible and very efficient. Read more here.
