National Signing Day in college football came and went with few surprises. The sport’s big-time behemoth, the University of Alabama, brought in the highest-rated class of recruits, followed by perennial powers LSU, Ohio State and recent national champion Florida State.
In other words, the rich get richer.
The same concept can be found in the business world. Small businesses can find it hard to recruit top young performers when larger companies can sweep them off their feet. An example: Those who work for such tech giants as Google get perks far beyond a normal business setting, including fitness centers, yoga classes, on-site child care and free food.
That’s tough to top. The Washington Post reported last year that 60 percent of small business owners say their biggest management challenge is finding skilled workers.
As Allison Hemming, CEO of consulting group The Hired Guns, says in a recent Forbes story that it might be time to look for a different kind of candidate.
“Seriously, if someone wants the safety net of a big company, it’s likely that they’re never going to be happy with you,” she said. “Instead, work hard to attract like-minded talent that gets a thrill out of being in the entrepreneurial universe.”
Here’s a look at how small businesses can attract top talent.
Use the talent already on hand
Here’s another connection to college football. When a highly sought-after recruit commits to a university, he may help to bring his most skilled teammates or even players from rival schools on board, in hopes of creating a young dream team at the next level. For small businesses, excellent young employees will often know of others from their college days or previous jobs. Tap into that resource. “If they love where they work, they are unlikely to bring in people who will mess with a solid gene pool,” Hemming says in the Forbes piece.
“Small” has its advantages
As the Post story by Josh Howarth (of staffing firm Robert Half in Washington, D.C.) explores, small businesses can offer a wide variety of tasks and learning opportunities, which can help establish a solid skills foundation. That could also translate to higher visibility within the company, which would be harder to accomplish at a larger operation. A young professional with that well-rounded experience arguably has the upper hand over one who gets stuck with menial tasks at a corporate giant.
The big-fish-in-a-little-pond scenario
Think of it like Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire, who gets dismissed from a big sports-management corporation after voicing his opinion to scale down and offer more personal attention to clients. Maguire — all Hollywood stumbles aside — finds professional happiness in building a relationship with his lone remaining client, rather than having a slew of superficial connections with a legion of athletes. And the athlete — Cuba Gooding Jr.’s showy character Rod Tidwell — becomes a well-paid star, partly because of Maguire’s added attention.
Learn from leaders
As pointed out in the Post, having access to company leadership can provide additional opportunities. “When the head of the company is just down the hall rather than on the 30th floor or in a faraway city, talking to him or her is a simple matter,” Howarth writes. “The management structure usually isn’t as layered as at larger firms, so employees can interact with and learn from a small-business owner or president on a more regular basis.”
Be unique
Bloomberg Businessweek shared the story of an interesting pitch by video game company Red 5 Studios in 2008. The company identified 100 “dream candidates” by studying social media and blogs, and then sent each of them a personalized iPod, which included a message from CEO Mark Kern. That’s a pricey recruiting gesture, but it worked. “More than 90 recipients responded to the pitch,” the story says, “three left their jobs to come on board, and many more potential hires discovered the company through word-of-mouth buzz generated by the search.”
