Your business is growing [yay], which means it’s time to grow the team and start recruiting. This can be a challenging process with resumes, interviews, emails, research, and writing ads, taking up valuable time and effort.
What’s the solution?
Handing the recruitment process over to someone who’s experienced and passionate about it.
We spoke with Margherita Colley of Highland Recruitment to learn more about why outsourcing recruitment can be highly beneficial for busy small business owner.
1 // It saves you time
Anyone who runs a small business knows how scarce time is.
“Small business owners are already struggling with time. When you add recruiting a new team member into an already overflowing task list, it can be hard,” Margherita says.
“Depending on the role you are recruiting for, you can get inundated with applications. Most of the applicants will be unsuitable but you still have to go through the process of reading all the applications and responding to them.”
“Then when you decide on who you would like to interview, it’s time consuming to organise the logistics of that for a number of people, conduct the interviews and do reference checks too.”
“And you have to run a small business at the same time. Squeezing recruitment into your day takes your focus away from your key business activities,” Margherita points out.
Every business owner we know could definitely use a bit of extra time in their day.
2 // Access to expertise
When it comes to recruitment it makes a great deal of sense to turn to the experts.
“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Margherita tells us.
“We know the questions to ask, we read people well, we draw out the candidate’s skills and experience, and from knowing our employer and employer’s business well, we also get a good understanding of whether the candidate’s attitude and personality will fit into the team.”
“Sometimes an applicant might not have all the skills, but they have the right personality and we know they’ll be an asset to that particular business,” says Margherita.
“So we’ll encourage the business owner to see that person. If the employer was managing this part of the process, they may have discarded someone who could turn out to be the perfect match for them. That’s where our years of experience come in handy.”
3 // Step away from the logistics
There is plenty to deal with in the recruitment process. Writing a job ad, advertising the job, receiving and looking through resumes, organising interviews, conducting interviews, doing reference checks, writing up letters of offer, the list goes on.
“Writing a job ad might seem like a simple thing to do but it’s actually quite specialised,” Margherita says.
“Writing an ad that helps attract the right person is crucial to streamlining the whole process. We have someone who does that. She knows exactly what to say and how to say it to get the best outcome.”
“Anyone can put an ad on Seek, however knowing the nuances of how to upload a job and what category is best to put it under is important and helps improve the chances of finding the right person for the job,” Margherita adds.
“We also provide temporary staff for local businesses and manage all the logistics including payroll, superannuation, group certificates.”
“Taking away that admin element saves our clients so much time.”
4 // Cost effective
Of course there is a cost attached to outsourcing your recruitment but it’s a smart investment that frees up your time and makes sure you stay focused on running your own business.
“Our fees are extremely competitive, so it’s a real plus,” says Margherita.
“We understood early on that small businesses in the Southern Highlands don’t necessarily have the budget to outsource so we priced our services accordingly, built our reputation locally and can provide a cost effective solution for our clients.”
“The cost of getting recruitment wrong is always more than the cost of outsourcing it,” Margherita points out.
5 // Access to an awesome database of candidates
Recruitment agencies have strong candidate databases and may have seen someone who wasn’t quite right for a previous job, but perfect for yours!
“We have a huge database of potential candidates which is great.”
“That gives us more opportunity to find the right person. We often know where the good people are compared to a small business owner who may not have access to a database of potential candidates.”
“We place ads on our website, our Facebook page, Seek and other recruitment sites. Quite often employers put an ad out there and hope it lands on the right person. A recruitment agency has more of a targeted approach and will have that database of candidates already too,” Margherita says.
6 // Trust and teamwork
“One of the things we love about what we do is we become part of our client’s small businesses,” says Margherita.
“Over the years we’ve become an extension of a lot of our client’s businesses. They treat us like a part of their team.”
“We love that!”
7 // Locals helping locals
The Southern Highlands employment market is unique, and having locals who understand how the business landscape is faring is a good thing.
“We care about everybody. We’ve been operating for a long time and we’re certainly not a bums-on-seats sort of agency,” says Margherita.
“We’re all locals and we get what small businesses are dealing with around here. Everyone knows everyone in the Highlands, and that’s what makes it so special. But it also means that if you’re not ethical, you wouldn’t last long at all.”
“We really do enjoy watching our clients’ local businesses grow and being part of that.”
“We like people. You have to like people if you’re in recruitment,” laughs Margherita.
“We like employers, we like candidates and we love to help businesses get the right people in their team.”
“It’s so key to the success of a small business. If you get the right people, your business will run well.”
Highland Recruitment provides the best personal service, tailored to your requirements. They take the hassle out of recruiting staff by sourcing, sorting and screening applicants, and they can find you the right candidate with the skills, experience and attitude to fit the role.
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