How to recruit and retain amazing talent
Recruiting and retaining talent can be one of the most difficult challenges that any business will face, but when you’re an entrepreneur with a smaller number of staff, those problems can be magnified.
Most entrepreneurs and SME owners cannot afford to make hiring mistakes. Money is always tight, and recruitment can be one of the most expensive hurdles for a small business. A wrong hire can also set you back several months or worse, keep your business from succeeding altogether.
These days, many employers face the fact that the talent pool is shrinking. An estimated 10,000 Baby Boomers retire every day, according to new research from the Pew Center. Combine this with a low unemployment rate in some areas, and recruiting real, genuine talent just became a lot harder.
You also need to consider a lack of resources and recognition for a small company may be an issue, making it hard to attract talent to the company.
However, there are certain ways that entrepreneurs can not only attract new talent but also retain existing talent inside the company.
Recruiting
Hiring and retaining talent is already at incredibly tough levels, especially for in-demand areas like coding, developing and data science. Despite this workforce trend, it's still possible to attract more talent than your company needs.
Culture is one of the biggest attractors for job applicants in many cases. Millennials are starting to be the primary makeup of applicants for jobs, and they are increasingly less interested in things that would traditionally attract applicants. For example, millennials aren’t too fussed about salaries. Instead, they’d rather be working at a job that they love on a lower salary.
Creating a culture that employees actually want to apply for is a great way to not only attract employees but also to retain staff. By creating a culture where employees feel valued and appreciated, not only are you likely to retain staff for longer, but you’ll get more applicants purely through word of mouth, one of the strongest and best referrers.
Another relatively easy way to help time-strapped entrepreneurs is through the use of specialist software for recruiting and retaining talent. This can be really useful for administering video interviews, especially if you don’t have time to conduct the first stage interviews - which many entrepreneurs don’t. You can then get the videos on demand when you need them, and share them with anyone else that may be making a decision.
Overall, there are many ways that you can streamline the recruiting process as an entrepreneur. But once you’ve got the correct employees in place, it’s time to start thinking about how you can retain them.
Retaining talent
Of course, one of the best ways to retain talent is to create a workplace where employees actually want to be. Remember that it is always cheaper and more effective to retain staff than it is to find a replacement. This can be achieved through some very simple steps, like treating your staff with respect and consideration at all times.
Another way to create an amazing workplace culture is to be honest and transparent. Be open and listen to new ideas. Make sure that you schedule in actual time to get a feel for the company vibe, don’t always do it in the pub at 5pm on a Friday!
If you’re not sure what your employees currently think, just ask! Don’t simply get feedback from the line managers, however. Make sure that you’re getting direct feedback from everyone you employ so that everyone’s voices can be heard equally.
If that doesn’t work, why not try googling your company name to see if you have a Glassdoor profile yet. Glassdoor houses anonymous reviews of a company for all to see, so if you do have any glaring issues, they’ll be there. This can give you a proper, unbiased (if a little direct) insight into what the issues with your company are at the minute. But once you know, it can be a lot easier to work on fixing them.
Billy Leonard is a Content and Outreach Executive at Harvest Digital. He’s passionate about great company culture, which is why he’s still at Harvest!
Its simplicity has made transitioning from traditional tobacco to vaping a breeze for many.
Bitcoin, the digital currency conceived in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, is a financial phenomenon. Despite the volatility of global markets, it has demonstrated remarkable resilience.
From university students and young entrepreneurs to senior executives, imposter syndrome remains a common thread in everyone’s personal career journey.
Seeing your ideas materialise, working for yourself, leading others, and becoming a CEO might seem like a dream come true, and indeed, it is for many.
While the benefits of a well-executed PR strategy are evident to practitioners, misconceptions among business leaders often cast PR as fluff, lacking business results.
It was more of a gut feeling that led us to the intersection of digitalisation, mobiles and the democratisation of payments. Paynetics felt strongly about making moving and managing money right for everyone and started building a platform that covers it all.
I’m Simon Goodman and I started out in PR, where I was introduced to the noble Choc Ice working on the Cadburys account. At the time they were looking to upgrade the humble choc ice.
In 2017, Matt launched Borrow A Boat, aka the ‘Airbnb’ of boats, making waves in the charter industry by offering a modern marketplace solution with the aim of making boating more accessible, affordable, flexible and inclusive for all.
Founded in 2021 by Alisa Patotsakaya, Immersive Fox is a text-to-video generation startup that specialises in providing businesses with AI-generated videos for sales and customer communication.
Samantha Gilchrist, co-founder and CEO of The Gilchrist Collection, shares her life as an entrepreneur.
Co-founded by Conrad Poulson in 2014, Huq has been at the forefront of utilising cutting- edge technologies and innovative mobility research methods.
Going from employee to founder was a huge leap of faith. I announced the agency just a few days after turning 26 and like most 26-year-olds, I hadn’t ever owned or run a business before.
Patchwork Health was co-founded by Dr Anas Nader and Dr Jing Ouyang with the mission to make truly flexible and sustainable working a reality for all healthcare staff, amid the current workforce crisis.
After a lifetime working as a project manager for some of the world’s largest tech companies, Jeb Buckler set up Startup Giants PLC to ensure that no good tech concepts should go to waste.
So, I encouraged Ben to officially incorporate The Handbag Clinic as its own independent luxury handbag offshoot in 2013 – all still operated through our ecommerce platform at the time.
I’m Diana Babics, founder of Nourish Awards. I began in finance (accounts and auditing) before deciding this simply wasn’t for me. I then headed off to university as a mature student, initially to study art and design and latterly interior architecture.
greenworkx is co-founded by two education sector workers, Mat llic and Richard Ng, who are passionate about the planet and believe reskilling and upskilling UK workers into green jobs is future-proofing the economy.
Blaise Hope, founder and CEO of Origin Hope, brings two decades of media experience to his groundbreaking content partnership venture.
Co-founded by Nisha Ramisetty and Sam Williams, the idea for Naksha was born in 2020 when cooking became an escape during lockdown.
Charlene Hurlock was inspired by her daughter and her best friend who independently started swapping their pre-loved clothes. Aside from being a Mum, Charlene's background is predominately in global exhibition sales and media advertising.
In North America, Iced Teas (Coldbrew) is a bustling £2bn marketplace. Yet, in the UK, despite being the second fastest-growing soft drink sub-category (after cold brew coffee), there is still a lack of appreciation for brands like Kaytea.
I’m Melissa Gauge, founder of SpareMyTime. I left my corporate role in 2016 to set up a City-based business with a couple of partners and another business by myself, an online platform.
Founded in 2006 by Amelia Peckham and Clare Braddel, Cool Crutches & Walking Sticks aims to empower those who need support to walk.
I’m Gerry Lianos - the co-founder of Raffolux, an online raffling platform that gives people the chance to win amazing prizes for a low cost and support charities close to their hearts.
Jason Tim is the CEO and co-founder of CloudSmiths and has been CEO for the past two years. Prior to this, he held previous roles at the company such as Managing Director and Sales Director.
My name is Lucy Bramley and I'm the founder of Ruched & Ready, one of the UK's leading size inclusive fashion labels helping women embrace their curves and feel confident.
KBF Enterprises was established in 2008 by Managing Director, Kieran Fisher and is the business behind two of the most recognised sports nutrition brands in the UK – Bodybuilding Warehouse® and Warrior®.
Matt Cater is co-founder of Clix Technologies, an innovative new company that offers the UK’s only mobile-first, fully customisable, Web App-based smart lockers.
Ben Maruthappu is a London-based doctor and CEO of Cera, a multi-award winning digital-first home healthcare company, which has grown 100-fold in the past three years, now delivering over 50,000 patient appointments a day.
The Natural Love Company was founded by friends and wedding photographers Ben Foster and Barney Walters. The Cornwall-based business was launched as a result of their previous careers being put on halt by the pandemic.
As the CEO of Botify, Adrien has had both a global and notable career, co-founding Botify back in 2012 and thereafter relocating to the United States from France. Adrien is passionate about shifting the organic search marketing landscape.
Sançar has spent years leading marketing teams at high-profile startups, including Typeform and Hotjar. Early in his career, he struggled to set work-life boundaries and lacked a clear understanding of his personal wellbeing needs and values.
Co-founded by Mike Robertson and Adrian Brown, AbbeyCross is the world’s first B2B trading and compliance marketplace, focused on improving underlying market infrastructure for Emerging Market (“EM”) currencies.
My name is Derk Roodhuyzen de Vries and I am the CEO and co-founder of Fixico. Alongside my business partner Mark van Laar, we created Fixico back in 2014 to revolutionise the car repair industry.
Linkup was founded by the two Manchester-based entrepreneurs, Jack Peagam and Ben Whatson, as they aim to step away from ‘traditional' career paths and combine their shared passion for creativity with business.
