2015 monster small business hiring guide

2015

SMALL BUSINESSGUIDE TO HIRING

Small Business Hiring 2

How do you measure the success of your small business? Is it increased revenue, expanded product inventory or growing your customer base?

All of these achievements are important. But none of them are possible without a great team of employees.

Having the right people on board is critical for business success and growth. And for small businesses like yours, every new hire plays a crucial role in your company’s future success.

Finding and recruiting new hires can be a challenge when you’re busy running a business. But it doesn’t have to be.

At Monster, we help small businesses find the right people to help grow business.

Our Small Business Guide to Hiring provides guidance and tips to help you engage, recruit and hire the talent you need when you need them.

Use this guide to make every new hire count. We know your business depends on it.

SMALL BUSINESS Guide to Hiring

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Find the Right Talent.......................3

How Job Seekers Find Your Job...........4

Create an Effective Job Ad................5

Social Media Best Practices...............7

Mastering the Interview Process.........9

Onboarding Your New Hire...............11

Hiring Checklist.............................12


As the world has moved online, many industries, including recruitment, have followed suit. Your small business can take advantage of this trend when you’re looking to find and hire top talent.

Here are some of the tactics you can use:

Online Job Ads• Provides a tried and true method to fill a job

• Puts your open position in front of active seekers who are looking for your type of opportunity

• Allows you to promote your company to potential new hires and customers

• Reaches a large audience quickly and efficiently

• Allows you to paint a precise picture of your job, your company and the qualifications you are seeking in an applicant

• Makes it easy for job seekers to access opportunities, particularly on mobile platforms

FIND THE RIGHT TALENT

NEARLY HALF OF ALL JOB SEEKERS use a mobile device to search for jobs on Monster.*

Resume Search• Finds qualified candidates by searching

a resume database. By using advanced search technology, you can define your ideal candidate and search only on those attributes.

• Finds active candidates who are looking for a new position as well as passive candidates who could be interested in your opportunities.

Social Media • Job seekers are exploring information online

as part of their job search. Often, they will research your company online after seeing your job description.

• Social media can help level the playing field by providing your small business with the platforms and tools you need to reach more talent.

Whether you choose Online Job Ads, Resume Search or Social Media to find your perfect candidate, the following best practices will help ensure your recruiting success.

*Monster Q1 2015 Internal Data


#2: Keywords or Company Name FieldKeywords provide more details to your job title so that your job ad is more easily found in search. For example:

• If you’re a medical device company looking to hire a sales representative, include the keyword “medical devices” in your job description.

• If you’re looking to hire a customer service representative for your auto dealership, include the keyword “auto dealership.”

At Monster, we know how job seekers search for jobs.

Our research shows that many job seekers search for jobs while at work. That means your job ad should be easy to find and easy to apply to. Let’s start by looking at how job seekers search for jobs.

Job seekers primarily use three fields in their job search: Job Title, Keywords, and Location. Follow these guidelines when posting your Monster Job Ad:

HOW JOB SEEKERS FIND YOUR JOB

#3: Location Field

The location field is important to job seekers who want to work in their area.

• Be sure to complete this field when posting your job to ensure that candidates targeting your area will find your position.

- Remember, most seekers use the default radius of 20 miles.

#1: The Job Title Field Research indicates that simple and straightforward job titles generate a higher response than gimmicky titles.

Use straightforward titles:• “Sales Representative” instead of

“Experienced and Proven Salesperson”

• “Manager Trainee” instead of “Become a Star in 2015!”

• “Retail Representative” instead of “Are You a Retail Rock Star?”

When appropriate, add more detail:• “Wedding Photographer” instead of

“Photographer”

• “Retail Salesperson” instead of “Salesperson”

No abbreviations:• “Senior Manager” instead of “Sr. Mgr”

• “Customer Service Representative” instead of “Customer Service Rep”

70% OF MONSTER’S JOB SEEKERS ARE EMPLOYED* To make posting easy, Monster provides you with recommended job titles that will help optimize your Monster Job Ad in candidate search.

60% OF MONSTER SITE VISITORS SEARCH FOR JOBS BETWEEN 8AM AND 6PM* Be sure your job description is formatted so it’s easy to find and easy to read.

*Comscore, 2014

*Monster Q1 2015 Internal Data

When done right, the job title, keywords and location will enable qualified job seekers to find your job.


CREATE AN EFFECTIVE JOB AD

Use the following format to structure your Job Ad:

Job Description Summary:

Be clear, concise and compelling in your job description. Your opening paragraph should spark job seekers’ interest. This will encourage them to learn more about your company and apply to the job.

As you write, think about how you can inform, engage and inspire your candidates to pursue next step(s).

Job Qualifications:

Include specific skills and credentials that are required for the role. List your job qualifications in order of importance.

Keep in mind the candidate you most covet for the role as you create your list of qualifications.

Job Requirements:

Your requirements should reflect the job title. For example, a senior title should align with the required level of experience.

Include some level of detail about the duties that your candidate will carry out, as well as any required education, certification(s) and experience.

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Make sure the requirements are easy to understand by someone who does not already work for your company.

Remember that less is often more. Experts recommend including must-have skills at the top and the nice-to-have skills below these.

Benefits/About the Company:

Think about what sets your small company apart from your competitors, such as a flexible work schedule, employee training and the opportunity to learn new skills.

Be brief, but tell a story about who your company is and why people enjoy working there. Include some tangible reasons why people should choose your company.

Also, be sure to include your company benefits, both traditional and non-traditional. Traditional benefits include healthcare, pay raises and vacation time; non-traditional benefits include gym memberships, commuting assistance or corporate deals on cell phone plans or local day care centers.

Think of your Job Ad as marketing collateral. It should explain your company’s unique characteristics and value proposition.

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How to Apply/Call to Action:Close your ad with a well-defined call to action. Include clear instructions on how to apply to your position, including what information is required, such as a resume, cover letter or references.

Include only one apply method in your job application to avoid confusing candidates. Here’s why:

• A single apply method will help encouragecandidates to apply and to easily complete theapply process

• One apply method will make it easier for you totrack job applies and your applicant pool

• Accurately tracking your job applies will enableyou to get the most from your recruiting budget

Questions that Will Help Clarify your Company Brand:

Your Company Values:• What do we as an organization believe?

• How do we treat customers?

• How do we treat our employees?

• What values guide us every day?

Your Company Culture:• What makes our company unique?

• Why would a customer do business with us?

• What is our role in the community?

• What defines our workplace environment?

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At Monster, we have seen a shift in how job seekers find and consume career opportunities — and that shift is driving social media recruiting into the forefront.

As a small business owner, you can use social media touch points to connect with customers and possible new employees. No matter what social media platform you use, your goal is to create engagement. The following tips will help get you started.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING

Broadcast your Company’s Unique BrandSocial media gives voice to your company brand and tells stories that help clarify your employer brand. Your company website should demonstrate what makes your company unique to potential new hires.

On your company website’s career page, highlight your company culture, work environment and company mission. Community philanthropy and mission-driven projects are of particular interest to Millennials.

If you’re looking to hire this demographic, you’ll want to post images from company events or community activities on your company’s career page; always get approval from people featured in these photos beforehand.

Through social media, your company can generate content that provides candidates with insight into your company, its culture and values.

Engage your Workforce as Social AdvocatesJob seekers want more visibility and transparency into the people who work at your company and social media is a great way to tell that story.

Many companies encourage employees to be “brand ambassadors.” These employees write about company events and promote job opportunities at the company.

To grow your own ambassadors, focus first on employees who are active on social media. Be sure to give them clear parameters on how they should and should not communicate about your employer brand. Put together some social media guidelines that all employees can reference when writing about your company online.

As an employer, be clear about your company brand and give your employees the needed guidance to accurately portray it in their online communications.


Use Twitter to Expand your Company’s Reach

With 23% of online adults using Twitter*, this platform is a great place to promote your company’s job ads as well as your company brand and culture to potential job candidates.

Your company’s Twitter feed is also a great way to share links about interesting developments within your industry as well as highlight news about your company.

How can you best measure success on Twitter? Track your retweets, favorites and replies. Those are the things that you want to be looking at in comparison to your total number of followers and fans.

At Monster, we have developed two social recruiting tools specific to Twitter—Twitter Cards and Social Job Ads. These products can help you maximize the effectiveness of your recruiting on Twitter.

Use Facebook for Engagement

With 71 percent of online adults using Facebook*, the platform is a great way to build your company’s social media presence.

Your company Facebook page can engage potential customers or current customers and serve as a meet up for your workers. A dynamic Facebook page can also demonstrate your company culture to potential job candidates.

Use your Facebook page to highlight company events and gatherings, employee initiatives and achievements, as well as philanthropic activities at your company.

Assign a social media-savvy employee to regularly publish new posts to your company page to keep it current and engaging. Two or three posts per week are sufficient.

The Facebook Audience Insights tool provides demographic data that can help you determine whether or not you’re reaching your target audience as well as the reach and level of your engagement. This is the number of times that your post has come up on a scanned page, as well as the number of comments, shares or likes that your content receives.

* Pew Internet Research, September 2014


Ask a Mix of Questions: When you first reach out to a candidate, your goal should be to build a rapport before asking any technical or in-depth questions about the candidate’s experience.

Then, ask a few questions to help you determine if the candidate meets the job’s requirements, such as a college degree or required level of experience.

If the candidate meets these expectations, you can introduce a few behavioral questions that will allow you to hear how they handled challenging situations at work.

If there is mutual interest between yourself and the candidate after this initial conversation, go ahead and suggest a time when you can conduct a more in-depth interview, either over the phone or in person. Keep in mind that candidates who don’t qualify now may be of interest in the future.

Hiring the right talent is one of the most important decisions that you will make for your business. That makes your candidate interviews especially important.

The following tips will help you get the most from your interviews and ultimately make the best hire for your company.

Learn the Details about the Job: If you’re not aware of the duties of the job to be filled, ask someone who is currently in the role about their daily schedule, challenges and duties.

Know the Candidate: Before you shake hands, research the candidate. Carefully review their resume. As you review their online profile avoid using personal information to influence your hiring decisions.

Screen Candidates with Phone Interviews: As a business owner or manager, time is always a precious resource. Phone interviews can help weed out candidates who don’t meet your basic job requirements.

Have your thoughts and questions organized in advance — and on paper. This will enable you to ask the same questions of every candidate and track their responses. This process will help you select your top 2-3 candidates to schedule for a face-to-face interview.

MASTERING THE INTERVIEW PROCESS

In today’s media-rich world, JOB SEEKERS ARE LIKELY TO HAVE AN IMPRESSION OF YOUR COMPANY well before their interview. Every interaction they have with you should reinforce a positive impression about your business.

Sample Behavioral Interview Questions: • Tell me about a time that you needed to

solve a particularly thorny problem and no one was available to assist you. What did you do?

• Have you ever worked on a team that had disagreements? How did the team resolve those differences? What part did you play?

• What did you learn from your recent work or academic experience that will help you in this role?


Broad Questions Can Help Assess Overall Character:

Asking open-ended questions will give the candidate a chance to reveal how they think and who they are. While specific skills may be a necessity for your position, it’s the candidate’s attitude that will matter most in their day-to-day duties.

Detailed Questions Can Assess Expertise: Once you’ve confirmed that the candidate qualifies for the position, drill down to assess subject-matter expertise and analytical skills.

Observe their Style of Communication: Have the candidate join a staff discussion in which they contribute their thoughts in a group setting. This will help you assess if they’re a team player. Carefully observe the candidate’s body language, temper and congeniality. Are they comfortable with others? Do they know how to present themselves in a professional manner?

Knowledge about your Business: Ask the candidate if they have any questions. A candidate who comes prepared with questions — and who knows something about your company — is a good indication of their genuine interest in your trade and an ability to think strategically.

Keep the Interview Legal: Keep the discussion professional at all times. If a question feels too invasive or personal, most likely it is. Make sure that every person involved in the process is familiar with the “do’s and don’ts” of a legal interview.


Onboarding, or orientation, is the last crucial step of the hiring process — one that can have a long-term impact, positive or negative, on your recruiting success.

Help your new hire succeed and deliver value to your company with these pointers:

Get organized. Create a reference guide that includes company information and resources that you’ll want to share with all new hires. The guide should include a staff directory, emergency phone numbers, as well as information about your company culture, dress code, social media policy and other essentials.

If possible, assign a trusted employee the task of overseeing the onboarding of new hires. This trusted source can help schedule their first day at work and provide new hires with needed resources.

Give your new hire a sense of control. Provide your new employee with the information they’ll need to succeed on their first day. Give them clear directions on how to get to the office, where they should park, who they should ask for when they arrive.

ONBOARDING YOUR NEW HIRE Encourage note-taking. Avoid giving your new hire information overload. Provide a pen and notebook and encourage them to take notes throughout the day for their own reference — or they can use an electronic device.

Organize their first day. First impressions count, so plan your new hire’s first day. Introduce them to the team, take them out to lunch and schedule some employee training. If appropriate, have them shadow some tasks or listen in to customer calls to help get their feet wet.

Have needed resources in place. If your new hire requires a desk, office cubicle, phone and computer, make sure these resources are in place for their first day of work. Provide needed pens, paper and other supplies.

Clarify their role and expectations. On their first day of work take time to sit down with your new hire to review their responsibilities, tasks and goals. Share your own expectations with your new hire and how you will measure their success. Create a written document of these tasks and expectations for future reference.

Map out their first 3 months. Help your new hire succeed by scheduling regular meetings throughout the first few months. These meetings can be as brief as fifteen minutes. Ask the new employee’s manager to weigh in with their perspective on how things are going. Address any issues before they escalate or become habitual. If needed, provide additional training.


1. Create job ads that are clearly formatted and easy to scan. For reference, search similar jobs on Monster.com or check out the sample job descriptions in the Monster Resource Center.

2. All job descriptions should include a brief section that describes what makes your small business culture and benefits unique. Ask current employees for their input. Incorporate this information on your career page, company Facebook page and on other social media platforms.

3. Encourage your social media-savvy employees to be company brand ambassadors. Provide them with social media guidelines in how to communicate about your company and its brand.

4. Take adequate time to prepare for candidate interviews. Consider creating an interview guide that includes proper protocol and interview questions to ask, particularly for recurring jobs. This guide can serve as a reference for others who conduct interviews in your organization.

5. Create a good impression for your new hire by planning out their first day and beyond. Give them the orientation they need to succeed. During their first few months, schedule regular check-ins with your new hire and their manager to see how things are going.

YOUR HIRING CHECKLIST:

Visit the Monster Resource Center for additional help with your recruiting, hiring and management needs.

2015 monster small business hiring guide

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