Small business recruiting can often be more challenging than running an HR department in a big corporation. This is mainly due to the fact that a small business owner in the UK has to handle all aspects of HR and recruiting personally. Technology and recruitment software for small business can alleviate the drain on your time and even save you money in your recruitment efforts.

Learning how to recruit effectively means that you need to be able to screen potential candidates before they even get to the interview process. Just learning how to read a CV quickly and being able to extrapolate information from it can be a difficult process.

3 Top Screening Techniques to help your Small Business Recruitment

1. Check references.This is an important part of screening candidates before they are interviewed. It is vital that you check references provided by the candidate on their CV. Making a reference check early on in the hiring process is a sure fire way of saving time and effort later on. You don’t want to spend time interviewing and then only check references. As a potential employer you have the right to ask candidates for extra references. A good mix is to request references from a supervisor, a co-worker and from someone who has worked under the candidate. It provides an excellent all round picture of the person you are considering recruiting.
2. Check the CV carefully for examples of job-hopping. While it is not completely indicative of bad performance, it will give you an overall picture of the stability of a candidate. This is a red flag that should occur at the very beginning of the recruitment process, when you are just starting to screen candidates. Be aware that you are not excluding a candidate based on a small period of job changes. The economy at present has meant that many more people are changing jobs than before.
3. Evaluate the Social Ability of Candidates.This is where it becomes so important to have a pre-screening questionnaire that potential candidates can complete online. It can be used to evaluate the integration potential of a candidate, which is very important if you run a small business with a close knit team. You can also screen candidates using social mediaand business networks.

The biggest aspect of screening candidates is that you are checking that what they say on paperIS in fact who they are and gives a good indication of what they can offer your business.

TalentPack provides small business recruitment softwarewith in-built screening options and intuitive software that you can use to find the best new recruits for your growing business.

While you do have to invest money to be able to make money, when you’re a small business, you don’t want to over capitalise on any resource and that means Human Resources as well. For a small business, recruitment and hiring could be one of the most important and valuable investments that you make.

If you are running an owner-managed business, the time you take doing admin, office work and running the back-end of your business can take you away from the time you should be spending concentrating on business growth. It’s a common complaint from small business owners around the world.

Save Time and Money on Recruitment

Small business owners tend to shy away from the HR side of the business. Not only is payroll and HR a drain on your time, it can also cost quite a bit of money. Technology has provided phenomenal solutions with HR software for payroll and staffing admin and data. Recruitment solutions are now available to small businesses in the UK which not only automate, but ensure the best hire.

The process of recruitment is time and labour intensive. The first step is to establish and define your job description and find a suitable and cost effective platform to advertise on. The days of being able to place an advert in the classified section of your local paper are being swept away on the wave of online recruitment. Not everyone has the time to load job vacancies onto a variety of different online portals. Knowing how to place a job advert is as important as where.

Searching for the Right Candidate

After you have managed to advertise your vacancy, you will start receiving responses. Traditional HR means that you have to go through each response manually. Some people may have a fantastic CV but not be suitable for your business. Other people may not have the right qualifications but have great work experience and talent to grow your business. The trick is filtering all of the applications and making a short list.

You will have to communicate with all applicants; it’s good for your image and brand and possibly even filter your short list again with a questionnaire or phone interview.

It’s time consuming, and in a small business, time IS money.

TalentPack provides small business recruitment software that handles every aspect outlined above with a couple of clicks from any PC anywhere in the world. It is web based so you can access it wherever you are. It is intuitive software that has been designed for owner managed businesses in the UK.

TalentPack believe that you should have the full value of our recruitment software to experience recruitment solutions for your small business. All our clients can now enjoy a ten day free trial of TalentPack recruitment software.

As a small business owner you want to get as much growth for your business without having to break the bank. Merely surviving is not good enough for small business owners, especially in a shaky economy. SME’s in the UK need to continually look for ways of growing their businesses.

Five Growth Opportunities On A Shoestring

·         Don’t rely on success.Many small business owners come up with one or two excellent ideas that prove successful. True entrepreneurs know that diversity is the key to growth. Look at your business model and see where you can expand within your market. Can you offer you clients something a little different? Growth in a new direction may even have a spin-off effect on your existing business. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

·         PR for Free.If you’re looking for the cheapest form of advertising, have a look at your PR. Publicity about your business will always help cement your paid marketing efforts. Is there anything newsworthy about your business or about yourself as an entrepreneur? Encourage other people to carry your message for free. PR can be time consuming, but if you have something exciting happening in your business, let the world know.

·         Marketing Madness.You do NOT have to spend a massive amount of money to reap the rewards of an effective marketing strategy. The use of social media, online networking and web marketing can be handled in-house. You could consider using ‘Pay-per-click’ advertising if you’re looking for targeted traffic to your site. It’s a manageable expense for many businesses.

·         Recruit Right.If you’re looking for growth within your business, especially after a recession, you need to hire the right people to boost your bottom line. Invest in a good recruitment software package to save you a huge amount of time and admin during your hiring process. If you really want to expand, but cannot afford to hire a salaried employee right now, then consider hiring a sales person who works on commission only.

·         Client Consolidation.You won’t grow by doing the same amount of work for your existing clients. You need to actively seek new clients to promote growth. More importantly, you need to look for bigger clients, with greater needs and larger budgets.

If you’re looking for great advice on how to manage your small business and take advantage of growth opportunities, read our blog Prepare Yourself for the Challenge of Growing Your Business.

Many small business owners in the UK have weathered a financial and economic storm over the past few years. While the pundits still warn against overspending, small businesses need to forge ahead to cement their growth and encourage productivity.

There are a number of things that you can do to capitalize on post-recessionary growth and position your business for a successful future:

•        Pay Your Debt.If you are able to make payments towards any debts, this is the perfect opportunity. Many small businesses in the UK borrowed money during the recession. Don’t take a chance by adding more to it now that finances are better.

•          Keep Up To Date.Follow the trade in your particular industry. Read up on the economy and watch for trends that you can use within your business model.

•          Education.Find the time and money to invest in new skills that will help your business to grow. Invest in the employees that have weathered the storm with you. Your ‘human resources’ are one of your most important assets. While much spending on training and skills development grinds to a halt during financial belt-tightening, you need to always look to the future.

•       Recruitment.Look at your business and assess the need for new employees to promote growth. Consider investing in small business recruitment software to help you develop a pool of talent for future hiring.

•   Develop Customer Contracts.Now is the time to sign new clients to long-term contracts and to renew contracts with existing customers. In a recession people are not as likely to sign a commitment for a long-term contract. Post recession, they will be more amenable to the idea. Get out and sell. Now!

Managing your small business well becomes even more important when the economy is doing well. In a recession, everyone tightens up and holds tight. When the economy is booming, it is all too easy to spend without careful planning and invest where it is not necessary. SME’s in the UK need to take the lessons learned from recent years and apply them to the future. Invest in technology and employees; reward your staff carefully. Grow steadily and surely to face the future and whatever that brings.

Every part of your business should be geared towards creating an effective presence on the World Wide Web. It is not possible to escape the importance of networking and social media, so why not harness the power of social media and use it as part of your recruitment and online brand identity.

As more people turn to the social networks and spend more time online than ever before, the line between professional and personal networking continues to blur. It is vital for any business to pay attention to their online reputation and how they are perceived in the marketplace and on the internet. This is especially important when it comes to recruitment and hiring of new employees. Traditional recruitment and the placing of job vacancies in the print media is slowly fading away to be replaced by the high powered and high tech world of online recruitment.

Even small businesses have found that they are able to use recruitment software and social media to advertise to a wider audience of potential candidates. TalentPack recruitment software has been developed with small business owners in mind. It is a specialised HR software package that allows small business owners to manage their hiring and recruitment without having to use a big business budget.

Using the power of online recruitment software is a new development that does not require the purchase of any hardware or a professional software installation. User costs are kept to a minimum because the recruitment software is entirely web based. That means that you can log on and access your account from any connection to the internet anywhere in the world. For a small business that is going places, you need to be able to get online, anywhere and at any time.

The unique and valuable aspect of the TalentPack recruitment software is the intuitive ability to post jobs on a range of different networking sites as well as your website. You can upload job listings directly from your PC and use the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to track candidates, CV’s and match skills and talents to your job description.

Budget is a big concern for any small business. At TalentPack we offer all our users the chance to experience the true value of our recruitment software package for ten days – absolutely free. 

All businesses, regardless of size, understand the value of using technology to improve their work flow and business functions. Recruitment software has revolutionised the process of attracting, recruiting and retaining new employees around the world. Used successfully by large corporations for over a decade this type of software has saved time and money in HR.

The latest development is recruitment software that has been designed and developed for small business owners. It offers a big business solution for a small business budget. Many small businesses do not need the full scale version of a recruitment software package and are reluctant to invest in a recruitment software solution with features that they do not need.

The features of TalentPack Recruitment Software for SME’s

Manage Job Posting

With TalentPack recruitment software for small business you can post your jobs to a wide variety of platforms directly from your PC. The software is entirely web based so you do not have to install any new hardware or software to run the package. All you need is a connection to the internet and you can access your HR software online. In just one easy step you can post your jobs to all major social and business networks as well as websites.

Screen Applicants

You can devise questions that will allow the software to intuitively ‘score’ potential applicants before you read their CV’s to make sure your getting a perfect ‘match’ for your job listing. TalentPack recruitment software has an easy-to-use applicant portal to capture details so that you know that you are getting only quality candidates applying for your job vacancies. You can check, rank and shortlist applicants through the hiring process and correspond with potential applicants through an integrated email facility.

Try Before You Buy

TalentPack recruitment software offers all clients a ten day free trial of the software so that you are able to experience the value to your business before you purchase anything. The costs are kept to a minimum through the user-based price model and the informative help tutorials available online.

Try TalentPack Recruitment Software for the small business owner today.

Many small businesses in the UK have been able to weather the storm of the recession and are experiencing growth in 2011. Keeping that growth means that you have to start hiring employees who are able to fit in with your existing team and who can provide opportunities for the future of your business.

There are a great many articles written about big business recruitment and the value of technology in recruitment. What about SME’s and owner managed businesses? How do you go about finding the best new staff and using recruitment software for your business?

Recruitment Tips for Small Business Owners

·         Develop a Recruitment Plan.Start planning for increased employees now, even if you are not intending on hiring for a few months. Use the growth figures that you have already to plan for the future. Your business will evolve and expand in different directions and having a sound Recruitment Plan will allow you to seize opportunity and develop your brand to offer more value to your clients and customers. You can only expect your current staff to ‘handle more’ for a short period of time without damaging your business.

·         Invest in Recruitment Software.You do not have to make a large investment in HR software to show an excellent return on investment. Look for recruitment software providers who have developed software especially for small business owners. You may not need a complete solution at the present time, and you should only be paying for what you need.

·         Recruit Wide and Wise.The use of recruitment software for small businesses has shown to provide more opportunity and a wider platform for recruitment. Being able to advertise online, using business and social networking is of the most valuable features of small business recruitment software.

·         Value Your Time. Recruitment takes time. Set aside your time to interview people and make sure you’re getting the best fit for your growing business. Recruitment software can take the guesswork out of finding potential candidates with the use of online matching.

·         Prepare for Change.Introducing new people into your business will bring about change. Prepare your existing employees for change in the business. If you have a small, close-knit team, engage your employees during the recruitment process.

Planning ahead is the foundation for small business growth. When you know you need to increase your employees to grow your business take the time to make it worthwhile.

Despite the doom and gloom recession scenario, many people are exploring the value and benefits of becoming self employed. Owning a small business in the UK can be a rewarding and challenging enterprise. Many small businesses are experiencing a huge amount of growth as we head into the 4^th quarter of 2011. The flipside of growth though is that when your business starts growing you need to start employing more people who share your vision and can help you achieve your organisational goals.

Recruitment and hiring is always going to be a challenge if you are a small business owner. Not only are you searching for people with the right skills and talents for your business, but you will also be looking for the right type of personality to fit into a small team. A mistake in hiring can be one of the most costly mistakes that a small business can make, but it is often hard to find the perfect person for your team.

Where to find people?

Often, a small business owner does not have the time to devote to the recruitment process. An advert in a local newspaper or on your website is as far as it goes. Small business owners are also wary of employing recruiters to find potential candidates due to the cost involved.

Recruitment software has been used by large corporations for years, but recently there has been a rise in the use of recruitment software by owner managed businesses in the UK. Small business recruitment software is a complete HR and recruitment package that allows you the freedom of a big business solution without the cost.

Web Based Recruitment Software

Small business recruitment software can be used to post jobs to a variety of online platforms and networking sites, directly from your computer. This allows you to widen your job posting search and find people who will add value to your business. You don’t have to plough through hundreds of CV’s manually because the software will automatically search for the most likely matches from all the responses. You can access your recruitment software from any computer with a connection to the internet at your convenience.

TalentPack offers a free trial for small business owners in the UK, so that you can see the added value of recruitment software up front before you make a purchase.

There is no doubt that recruitment software adds value to a business. It reduces the amount of paperwork and frees up recruiters and HR managers, enabling them to focus on the business of HR. Just from an admin perspective, recruitment software is especially valuable for small business owners.

The added value of online recruitment software for small businesses

What else can HR software do for your business? The most recent developments in this type of software have been showing a marked increase in the application of recruitment software in branding, sales and marketing.

When you want to recruit the best people for your business, you need to make sure that your brand is perceived as an “employer of choice”. You need to make sure that you job adverts and vacancies are seen in the right places by the right people.

TalentPack recruitment softwarehas been designed and developed by listening to the requirements of owner managed businesses in the UK. We realised that having a cost effective solution that was easy to use was the key to the success of TalentPack.

No one wants to employ an IT expert when you’re looking for a way to manage your recruitment and HR. Small business owners do not want to have to learn a new computer language before they can manage their software. In a small business time is directly related to a savvy return on investment.

TalentPack is web based software which means that you do not have to download, upgrade or install any fancy hardware into your offices. All you need to access the full services of the online recruitment software is a good connection to the internet. All of the data is hosted offsite so you never run the risk of losing your valuable information.

You can post job ads across a variety of online platforms directly from your computer and use the intuitive applicant tracking software to sift through the responses according to your specifications. No more paper and hours spent sifting through hundreds of CV’s until you find three that you want to interview further. TalentPack recruitment software does it all for you.

There are a number of recruitment software providers that offer bespoke recruitment solutions that can be designed to fit your budget. The challenge over the last few years has been to develop recruitment software for small business in the UK. Despite a predicted double dip in the recession and uncertain economic times, there is always a need for cost effective recruitment software for the owner managed business.

The use of HR software makes the hiring process extremely simple to use and manageable. You are able to keep applicant data on file without having to use a paper based system. Recruitment software for the small business is about creating a consistent and continual pool of talent while establishing your brand as a premium employer across a variety of platforms.

In addition to storing data, recruitment software is able to manage the process of posting new jobs and handle the replies, CV’s and responses without having to invest your time and energy by doing it manually.

TalentPack has developed a cost effective recruitment solution that has been designed for the owner managed business in the UK. Instead of having a myriad of functions that may not be used, TalentPack delivers a per user model that gives you what you need, when you need it. The ROI with TalentPack is far greater and faster than investing in an expensive bespoke recruitment software solution.

• ·         TalentPack can be used to create and post job vacancies across all online platforms giving your business the maximum amount of exposure to ensure that you get the best response.
• ·         You can use TalentPack to automate the way to receive CV’s and resumes. Instead of sifting through responses to create an interview list, you can use the software to do it for you. This intuitive applicant tracking software saves you time and money.
• ·         TalentPack ensures that you are able to keep a pool of talent available for the future.
• ·         You do not have to install any hardware or software for your business when you purchase TalentPack software. Everything that you need is hosted online for your convenience. You can access the system whenever you need to from anywhere in the world.

To fully experience the value of TalentPack recruitment software for UK small business, use the ten-day free trial before you make your decision.