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Home » Business And Finance Articles » How To Hire Like The Fortune 500s A Guide For Small Businesses

How To Hire Like The Fortune 500's: A Guide For Small Businesses

A recent iLogos Research study revealed 94% of Fortune 500 companies now hire employees online, a stark contrast from 1998, when only 29% of them were doing the same. If you own or manage a small business, that means the vast majority of your fiercest competitors are now spending less time and less effort on recruitment. And that leaves them with more time to, simply put, get a leg up on you.

Sure, it sounds like a threat. But isn't lack of technology an inevitable drawback for most small businesses? Absolutely not. Maybe 10, even 5 years ago. But not today.

Every time we do market research with small businesses, we hear three top reasons why the business has not yet implemented an online hiring solution, in which job candidates apply online:

1. The cost is too high

2. They lack the technological know-how

3. They believe setting up a recruitment software would take longer than just doing it the old-fashioned way

Those are all valid concerns, considering most small businesses operate on a tight budget and without an in-house IT department.

The good news is small businesses are fundamental to the North-American economy. In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses drive the U.S. economy, representing 99.7 percent of all employer firms. In Canada, according to Statistics Canada, businesses with less that 100 employees account for 98% of all employer businesses.

Business software developers are now recognizing the importance of SMBs and designing employee recruitment software that caters to the specific budgetary and technological needs of small business.

It's important to do your research and find the technology that's the best fit for your company. When shopping around for a recruitment manager program, make sure to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Cost: Is the advertised price of this product the actual price my company is going to pay?

Beware of offers that are full of limitations. For example, will you have to pay more if a lot of people apply for your job? Is there a hosting charge for filing all the applicants' resumes? Is there a time-limit for your job posting, after which you have to pay extra charges?

2. Ease of technology: Is the technology really easy-to-use, even if I'm a computer novice?

The best way to find this out is by trying the product yourself. Most companies offer free trials of their products, which are a great idea, as long they are risk free. Keeping in mind question 1, make sure the trial has no hidden charges. Also try out the front-end application process to make sure it's really going to be easy when your job candidates apply online.

3. Setup: How long will it take to get up and running?

You don't want to get stuck with a product that takes so long to setup, that by the time you're done, you could have done everything the old-fashioned way. It's a good idea to talk to a sales representative and ask him/her to explain to you the exact steps you'll need to take to setup for a job.

4. The product: What's included?

What does this product do? What doesn't it do? Some programs offer only the online job posting functionality. Others focus on the back-end, like collecting resumes, organizing, filtering and searching employees, scheduling interviews, etc. When looking for a program that takes care of the back-end, make sure the company will also be able to help you with the posting functionality, whether you're putting up a poster on your store window, running an ad in the local paper or posting on job websites.

5. Service: Will I get a helping hand?

Since most small businesses do not have an IT department, one of the most important questions to ask here is what kind of service will you get. Will you get email support? Phone support? Online Live Help? Will you be speaking to a real business person who knows about the specific challenges you're facing, or to someone who only knows the tech aspects of the program?

Remember it's your company's efficiency that's at stake here, so don't be afraid to ask questions or request a free trial. Hiring online may sound like something only fit for the big guys, but remember this is the 21st century, which means technology and small business are the most important aspects of our economy.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk

To develop and deliver a great Leadership Talk, you must understand that every Talk has three important parts. (1) Audience Needs. (2) Strong Belief. (3) Action.

(1) Audience needs: The first step in putting together a Leadership Talk is to understand the needs of your audience. As I explained in Part Two, they cannot be ordered to be your cause leaders. Their commitment is one of free choice. They will not make that choice unless they believe that their being your cause leaders will in some way help solve the problems of their (not your) needs.

All needs are problems. All problems are crying out for solutions. When you are helping them with those solutions, you are a long way down the road of motivating them to make the choice to be your cause leaders.

When you answer these questions, you have a good idea what their needs are. (1) What is changing for them? (2) Who would they rather have leading them besides you? (3) What action do they want to take? (4) What do they feel? (5) What do they fear? (6) What's their major problem? (7) What makes them angry? (8) What do they dream?

(2) Strong belief: Knowing your audience's needs is important, but it's only the first step in developing a Leadership Talk. The next step involves strong belief, not just your belief but theirs. Clearly, you must believe in the cause. But your belief is irrelevant. After all, if you didn't believe in the cause, you shouldn't be leading it. The key question is can you transfer your belief to them so that they believe in it as strongly as you do and will commit to becoming your cause leaders?

As I explained in Part Two, you are asking people to take leadership for your cause. Taking leadership is a special undertaking, calling for a special commitment. People will not undertake leadership lightly. It is not your choice for them to take leadership. It is their choice. And to weigh the pros and cons of that choice, they want to know two things: who you are and why you are there.

You must tell them or they will tell you. And if they tell you, you may not like what they say.

As to who you are: In their eyes, who you are involves your knowledge/skills as to meeting the challenges of the cause and your commitment to that cause. If they perceive that you have weak knowledge/skills and/or weak commitment, they'll peg you as unworthy and maybe worse, untrustworthy.

As to you why you are there. There is only one answer to why you are there: They must know that you are there to help them solve the problems of their needs.

Without communicating strong belief on both counts, who you are and why you are there, you cannot give a Leadership Talk to motivate them to be your cause leader.

(3) Action. It's not so much what you say that's important when giving a Leadership Talk, it's what the audience does after you have had your say. The function of The Leadership Talk is to have people take action that gets results -- and more results than simply average results, more results faster, and "more faster" on a continual basis.

Once you begin to see your leadership interactions in terms of physical action, you'll see your leadership, and the way you get results, in fresh ways. Challenge your cause leaders to take physical action by asking them, 'What three or four leadership actions, PHYSICAL ACTIONS, will you take to achieve the results we need?'

Having people move from simply saying they will do things to actually taking the physical action to do them will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your Talk.

I've been teaching the Leadership Talk to thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 21 years. Many of them have found that the difference between the Leadership Talk and presentations/speeches is the difference between typewriters and wordprocessors. I remember using a typewriter. I was happy using it. I had no idea that I needed a wordprocessor. But when I bought a wordprocessor and went through the trouble of learning how to use it, I saw how badly I had needed it all along. I saw that it was a quantum leap in terms of speed, efficiency, and productivity over a typewriter. So it is with the Leadership Talk and presentations/speeches. Once you go through the trouble of learning how to use Leadership Talks then applying them consistently on a daily basis, you will find they can transform your leadership effectiveness and boost your career in ways presentations and speeches could never do.

Such transformations won't happen immediately. It will take you awhile to learn the processes and be comfortable using them. Since you're not in one of my seminars, where the participants learn tested processes to create and deliver Leadership Talks in a relatively short period of time, you'll have to rely on putting them together piecemeal.

But in these initial stages of developing and delivering Leadership Talks, putting them together piecemeal is an effective way of beating the learning curve. After all, leadership is long and careers are short. You are not learning to give Leadership Talks as a short term endeavor. It should be a career-endeavor. Step by step, be constantly aware of the three triggers, Need, Belief, Action. Speak from and to those triggers. You may discover that giving Leadership Talks consistently is the best thing that ever happened to your career.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com