Culture, Tech, And Flexibility: Keys To Talent Acquisition

Hiring and keeping the best employees is a big challenge in the current labor market, but SMBs have advantages they can leverage.

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With unemployment at record lows and job-hopping the new national pastime, the competition to hire and retain the best employees has never been more intense. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reports that job creation at small and midsize businesses (SMBs) broke a 45-year-old record earlier this year, but 49 percent of SMB employers were unable to fill some positions due to a lack of qualified candidates. Often, they are competing against much larger businesses for the same candidates, and that’s a real problem. Big companies are going to incredible lengths to boost their hiring and retention capabilities. IBM, for example, has built a tool that uses AI to predict (with what IBM says is 95 percent accuracy) which employees plan to quit within the next six months, so managers can take steps to keep them from leaving. Research firm Gartner says almost every Fortune 100 company now has a head of talent analytics and a team of data scientists embedded in the HR department. With resources like that available to larger employers, how are SMBs supposed to compete?

The answer is, by asking for help, leveraging the advantages inherent in their corporate culture, and tapping into the same kind of data- and technology-driven capabilities that big companies use.

Experienced recruiters can help