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Despite this chaotic prognosis, it’s not a bad time to be a SMB. The number of SMBs has increased by 12.2% from 2017 to 2022, and In 2022, 99.9% of businesses in the U.S. were SMBs—SMBs simply must be adaptable, agile, and willing to think outside the box to thrive.
Here at HiringThing, we’ve built our business around helping SMBs and companies that serve SMBs solve the number-one challenge they’ve faced over the past couple of years: hiring.
In this post, we’ll share our insights into solving SMBs’ 2023 hiring and retention challenges (if you’re not retaining employees, good hiring practices aren’t good hiring practices).
The Challenge: Hiring High-Quality Workers
According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting, 2022 ended with 10.5 million open jobs—1.7 vacancies per available worker with 6.1 million hires vs. 5.9 million job separations (comprising voluntary and involuntary terminations).
Job seekers still consider it a job-seeker’s (vs. employer’s) market—52% of job seekers believe they have the upper hand, and 78% feel they can make more money by switching jobs. SMBs aren’t just competing for talent, but top-quality talent. 52% of employers say the most significant problem facing SMBs is labor quality, and 76% of recruiters and hiring managers say attracting top candidates is their top challenge.
Solutions:
Get an Applicant Tracking System
The best advice we could give you is to obtain recruiting software (if you haven’t already). 76% of SMBs and 98.5% of Fortune 500 companies utilize applicant tracking systems (ATS)—recruiting software used to automate, optimize, and strengthen the hiring process—to ensure that they’re recruiting better candidates faster. The stats back up this investment—78.5% of ATS users say it’s resulted in better-quality candidates, 86.2% say it’s made their hiring faster, and 94% of ATS users say ATS use has generally improved their hiring.
While an ATS can help SMBs overhaul the way they hire, a white label applicant tracking system can help businesses that serve SMBs add proprietary recruiting software to their suite of solutions (white labeling is when a business brands another’s solutions as their own so they can use or resell without having to build themselves). Our specialty at HiringThing is a private label ATS. Private labeling is a form of white labeling that takes things beyond just branding, allowing our partners to add bespoke workflows and integrations that fit your industry and business goals. Learn more about a private label ATS below:
Many industries, and many of the SMBs in those industries (as well as the businesses that serve those industries’ SMBs), are still doing things “the old-fashioned way.” While many people (including potentially, your customers) are reticent to change, we live in a technologically driven world, and eschewing technological advances means that at some point, a business that hasn’t done so will take over—resisting transformative developments such as cloud migration, automation software, and digital marketing risks surrendering market share to competitors.
Evaluate Your Hiring Strategy
Research by the Brookings Institution finds that “systemic issues” impact the labor pool available to small businesses. The research cites issues ranging from lower immigration to rampant discrimination via bias. While this research suggests that policy changes will impact these systemic issues, it’s also worthwhile for SMBs to look inward and see what systemic issues they can fix on their own.
We’ve created two guides designed to help SMBs audit and reevaluate their hiring strategies. The HiringThing Guide to Increasing your Applicant Traffic helps you reflect on and, if necessary, rethink how you approach hiring from a bigger-picture perspective. The HiringThing Guide to DEI Recruiting challenges businesses to interrogate biases that may hold them back.
The Challenge: Retaining SMB Workers
No matter how far you may have tried to hide your head in the sand, there’s no way SMBs could escape the terms “The Great Resignation” or “Quiet Quitting” these past few years. While these terms and the phenomena they describe are down-trending, employee churn is still an issue. 42 million Americans quit their jobs in the first ten months of 2022, and research by Joblist reports that 2 out of 3 job seekers are still planning on quitting their jobs in 2023 (even if they don’t have another one lined up).
Solutions:
Create a Non-Toxic Workplace
The top reason for quitting a job in 2022 was escaping a toxic workplace. Creating a positive workplace is essential, but it’s helpful to know whether or not your workplace is toxic. Paychex has a great blog on the subject, with a checklist to help determine if your workplace needs retooling (with suggestions for how to do so).
“Fear-based leadership” is a top reason cited for what makes toxic workplaces. Unfortunately, fear-based leadership was the norm (and even suggested) for too long in the world of work. If you contend with this, check out our CEO Joshua Siler’s post on how to be a people-forward leader.
Combat Burnout
According to MetLIfe’s 2022 Employee Benefit Trends Study, “Malaise, burnout, depression, and stress” are considerably increasing. Burnout is real and can cause decreases in productivity and increased churn. Companies can help prevent burnout by:
- Using technology to streamline tasks and free up time for your employees.
- Celebrate big and small victories—especially the small victories.
- Cultivate a culture of transparency. Ask your employees to tell you when they’re feeling burnout, and don’t penalize them for doing so.
- Make it apparent that you prioritize mental health via breaks, conversations, and benefits.
Foster Your Employer Brand
Employer branding—what it’s like to interview for or work at your company—is not just integral for helping recruit better candidates (50% of employers and businesses with strong employer brands report more qualified job applicants) but fight churn: strong employer branding is associated with up to a 28% reduction in staff turnover.
Companies can foster employer branding by:
- Creating employer-branded content about what it’s like to work at your company (link to some of ours).
- Fostering a culture of respect.
- Providing all job applicants to your company a positive experience, regardless if they get the roles.
About HiringThing
HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the platform empowers anyone, anywhere to build their dream team.
