How to Find Employees That Are a Great Fit for Your Company

As a small business owner, there’s a lot you have to plan and account for, including finding employees that are the right fit for your company. It can be challenging at times, especially when you consider just how crucial it is to find someone that’s a good fit. After all, a good employee can have a positive impact on your company culture — increasing employee morale and productivity — whereas a bad hire could cost you both money and valuable time. That’s why we’re here to show you how to find employees that have the same values as your company.

First and foremost, you need to ensure you’re taking the proper recruitment steps. Sometimes this means hiring an HR and recruitment team, but for small businesses that need to be a little more scrappy, there are plenty of resources at your disposal you can use to ensure you’re finding the right people. Below, take a look at some of the tools and steps you can take internally to ensure that you’re set up for success when it comes to hiring employees.

Use ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter makes it easy for small businesses to find qualified candidates in just four simple steps. All you have to do is write a job description using ZipRecruiter’s customizable templates. Then, send your job out to 100+ top job sites with just one click. With its AI matching technology, ZipRecruiter finds candidates with the right skills, education, and experience for your job. But don’t forget to invite candidates to apply when you see a qualified applicant. You can use this feature to automatically send a pre-written, personal message to your favorite candidates while sorting, reviewing, and rating them, which helps the platform send you similar applicants to the ones you liked.

Talk to local universities

Colleges are great places to recruit top entry-level talent, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Soon-to-be college graduates are looking for jobs long before their graduation date so the likelihood of hiring is very high. To determine if they’re the right candidate for your company, consider implementing a paid summer intern program. This gives you the opportunity to “test run,” so to speak, if they would be a good fit while giving them the chance to see if yours would be a company they’d like to work at long-term.

Ask for referrals 

If you hire an employee who happens to be a good fit, chances are they know other people who could also be a match. Employee referral programs are also a good way to incentivize current employees through bonuses, extra PTO days and other perks. Research also shows that employees referred by existing employees tend to be better performers and stay longer at the company.

Attend job fairs

Job fairs and career events are also great ways to screen and recruit employees. Job fairs tend to target specific industries and people with a certain skill set. And similar to visiting local schools, they could be excellent sources for young talent. Let me put it this way: people that attend job fairs are clearly looking for work and even if it doesn’t work out finding a candidate then and there, it’s a great way to get word of your organization out to the public, increasing the chances of potential employees hearing about your company.

Leverage social media 

Using social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram can be a great way to find potential job candidates. It’s all about networking and using social media to help increase your reach in an effective way to get new hires. You can also ask current employees to share the job listing as well to help further increase your chances of finding candidates. Other useful social networks include Reddit and Facebook — the latter has a variety of job-related groups divided by industry that would be a great tool to tap into.

Make sure you have a careers page

With a careers page on your business’ site, you’re ensuring potential employees already interested in your organization are able to view job listings and apply as needed. It’s also a great way to target candidates who follow your organization on social media and are looking for more information on your company’s career opportunities. And aside from being a great resource for applicants, it allows you to further elaborate on your business mission, goals, and revenue. Essentially, it’s the perfect place to tell everyone and anyone more about the business and what you’re looking for in potential employees in terms of experience and responsibilities.

This article was created by BlogHer for ZipRecruiter.