CareerBuilder CEO Irina Novoselsky on how technology can help small businesses compete for talent
Big businesses with large recruiting budgets seem to have a clear advantage when it comes to attracting talent. Not only can they usually offer higher salaries and impressive benefits packages, but they can also afford to invest more in workforce training and skills development. Facing competition like that, what can small businesses do to stand out?
In a word: Technology.
Technology can help level the playing field in many ways. To better compete for talent, small businesses must embrace and fully utilize the HR tech available to them. Here are three of the most important to highlight:
1. Automating routine tasks
For lean HR teams, efficiency is the name of the game. In order to compete with bigger budgets, you have to do more with less. Yet many HR teams are still using a tangled web of spreadsheets and manual processes to manage critical HR functions like sourcing new talent, tracking applicants and more. There is a new world out there. With the right tools, HR teams can automate many mundane tasks, opening their time up to focus on more growth-oriented work.
2. Knowledge is power
Competing head-to-head with a larger competitor for the same talent pool is rarely a winning strategy. Instead, smaller businesses need to be smarter and more creative when developing their recruiting strategies. But how?
Services like CareerBuilder’s Talent Discovery Platform provide you with detailed and accurate labor market insights that can help you identify the most effective ways to use your limited recruiting resources. When you know how relatively easy or difficult sourcing for a given role will be in your region, which geographic areas will deliver the most candidates and what competitors in the area are offering, you can expand your talent pool without stretching your staff too thin.
3. Fully using or expanding current technology applications
Even if your business has invested in HR technology, there’s a good chance you’re not fully using every feature you’re paying for. This is often the result of a change in HR staff after the initial implementation. This disconnect isn’t just inefficient – it could also be costing you quality candidates. HR teams in small businesses should be aware of everything offered with their investment and how to utilize it to the fullest. HR employees should be encouraged to regularly touch base with their technology providers to get updates regarding new features and take part in advanced training sessions, if available.
Many small businesses also don’t realize that for just a few dollars more, their current technology could be expanded to meet an even bigger need. A few bucks might get you a feature that can greatly reduce the amount of manual work your team is doing, making its value far exceed the investment.
Consider the above three methods as a starting point, and then scale from there.
