Member Article

Finding the right people for your growing SME

More than half of the UK workforce is looking to secure a new job in 2017, according to research by Investors in People. Given that in 2016, 99% of the 5.5 million businesses in the UK were classified as SMEs, it therefore stands to reason that many of those who are keen for a change of scenery will find themselves working, or at least applying to work, for a smaller business.

This is good news for SME owners, as our Brighter Business Report found that 15 per cent expect to increase their head count by up to 10 per cent this year and another 10 per cent are looking to grow their staff headcount by up to a fifth.

However, when running a smaller company, knowing which direction to take a recruitment strategy can be challenging. Your business could be just a couple of years old and you’re looking at hiring your first employees as the company starts taking on more work than you can handle alone. On the other hand, your business might already be two hundred strong and you are keen to bring on a few extra hands to pad out a newly formed department.

Either way, in a SME, your recruitment decisions carry serious weight. Each team member has real responsibility and the impact of the work that they deliver will be felt throughout the company. We’ve therefore reflected on what suggestions we would offer our customers in a conversation about recruitment for a SME, and would recommend considering the following factors.

What skills does your business need?

As the successes and failures of each employee will be felt acutely by the rest of your team, it’s vital to know exactly what skills you need a new employee to be able to deliver and to plan your recruitment strategy accordingly. A graduate, for example, is unlikely to be a suitable candidate if your existing team is made up of just three people and you’re looking for someone who can handle a large amount of responsibility from day one, because the company has recently had a surge of new business. That said, I recently read that millennials are remarkably loyal to their employers, with many staying with companies for longer than previous generations would tend to. Therefore, in a SME that is large enough to be able to offer formal training programs and won’t suffer as a new team member gets up to speed, taking on and putting time into developing a graduate is likely to be a wise investment.

What sort of personality do you need?

Thinking about the sort of personality that you should be bringing into your business is just as important as knowing what skills you need a new employee to have. This is especially true in a smaller business, where the members of your team are more likely to be in close contact on a daily basis and you will find the office can quickly become an unpleasant environment if there are personality clashes.

It’s also important to gauge whether a candidate is comfortable with the culture of working in a small business. Daily responsibilities can fluctuate more so than they might in a larger company, with each team member having a large amount of responsibility and often finding themselves working across multiple roles. If you’re speaking to a candidate who is less open to the idea of being a little flexible in their work, it’s possible that they might be better suited to working in a larger business. Likewise, if you’re looking for a candidate to take what might be seen as quite a formulated role in a larger SME, whereby daily tasks involved are fairly routine, you may find that a young executive who is keen for every day to be an exciting new challenge will quickly become bored.

Recruitment is a two way street - can you offer what candidates are looking for?

Due to the difficulty in securing the right people for a smaller business, having a team that is not only strong, but also loyal, is vital. Our research showed that this is an area of key importance for SME decision makers, with 20% identifying staff retention as their biggest HR concern. One way to go about improving this is to choose candidates that you know you can offer the progression they are looking for.

If a candidate is looking for a detailed training plan, with defined steps and an end goal in sight, a larger and more established company is likely to be in a better position to offer this. That said, if a candidate is less interested in working towards a clearly structured progression and has more of an entrepreneurial flair that drives them to be an active part of a new company’s development, then a smaller business will provide a much more stimulating environment. With today’s widespread outlook of ‘Me Ltd.’, SMEs have to be mindful of the fact that if workers, particularly those in the millennial bracket, don’t feel they are getting enough out of their employment on a personal level, they won’t stick around for long.

Whether it be for the purpose of growing a smaller business or to replace a staff member who has recently left, SME decision makers will find that their recruitment decisions have an immediate impact. My advice, rather than immediately reaching for the phone to speak to an eager recruiter, is to step back and take a moment to consider exactly what it is that you are looking for in a new hire. This might mean turning down the first few applicants to come your way, but by being honest with yourself about the skills and attitude that your company needs in its staff, you will see your business reap the rewards in the long run.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Andy Nash, Operations Director, Opus Energy .