When I’m talking with small business owners about hiring employees, they tell me things like… “I can’t find good people,” and “When I hire someone, they won’t do the work.”
Yes, the labor market is tight. In fact, NFIB’s most recent jobs report says 33% of small business owners had openings they couldn’t fill. This is well above the historical average of 24%.
Wages are climbing, and competition for qualified candidates is fierce across industries and markets. It’s a tough time to need to hire someone.
There are a lot of jobs available right now, but the problem for most business owners is how they’re posting their openings in this market.
Why Aren’t the Right Candidates Responding to Your Job Posting?
Most job postings describe what the employer needs and say almost nothing about what the right candidate is looking for. This mismatch is why qualified people continue scrolling.
When you set out to hire employees, what goes in the posting? The responsibilities. The hours. The requirements. It’s all about what you need from the person walking through the door.
It seems logical, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, this approach is backwards.
A job posting is an ad. Its purpose is to ask someone to restructure their schedule, their income, and their time in exchange for filling your opening. And like any ad, how you write it determines who responds. And if it reads like a demand letter, good candidates won’t apply.
When you market your offerings to clients, you don’t start with what you need from them. You speak to their situation, their goals, what’s frustrating them, and what they want. You attract and keep the right clients only if you understand what they’re looking for.
Hiring works the same way. Think of your ideal employee as an ideal client.
It’s Easy to Push the Right Candidates Away
A business owner I know has been trying to hire for months. She’s in a specialized field, one where candidates must already have specific training before they can do the job. She’s reached out to colleagues for referrals. She’s posted online. Yet she’s had almost no response from qualified people.
Obviously, she’s frustrated because she needs someone now.
When we talked through it, the problem became obvious. The candidates she needs tend to be parents who stepped away from traditional full-time employment because they wanted flexibility to be home with their kids. That’s why they’re available. That’s what matters to them.
The problem is she’s been looking for someone to fill a full-time position. From the outside, the issue is obvious.
She’s not alone in this struggle to hire employees. It’s the same one I see many small business owners wrestle with.
What Should You Consider Before Writing a Single Word of Your Job Posting?
Before anything else, get really specific about the person you want to hire for this position. Almost everything else flows from there.
What does this role offer that matters to your ideal candidate? Is it proximity to their home? A schedule that works around their life? Meaningful rather than transactional work? A chance to be part of a small, tight-knit team?
According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions’ small business hiring research, candidates care about purpose and challenge, and not just compensation. The person who’s right for your role is looking for something specific. You must make sure your posting addresses it.
Defining your ideal candidate also means defining who’s a poor fit. A job posting that’s specific about what this role and culture demands will filter out the wrong candidates just as effectively as it draws in the right ones.
Vague postings may seem to expand your options, but what they really do is move your screening problem downstream, into your calendar, and they’ll also try your patience. A poor hire makes your life worse than having an unfilled opening.
Believe What Candidates Tell You
I know one candidate who was hired for a managerial position despite saying clearly in the interview that he wanted to be managed and do the work. He was hired because his skills were right. No one else who was qualified applied, and the owner hoped he would grow into the role. Several months later, the whole team is frustrated that this person can’t step into the leadership role.
When a candidate tells you who they are, believe them. The mismatch between what a role requires and what someone tells you they want to do won’t disappear just because you hired them.
Here’s what those headaches look like when you make the wrong hiring decision.
How Much Does Hiring the Wrong Employee Cost?
The headaches start as soon as the wrong person walks through your door. According to SHRM, the average cost to hire a new employee runs nearly $4,700, and that’s before the wrong fit multiplies it.
When the fit is off, everything compounds. Training drags. The attitude doesn’t match the culture. And if you’re already working too much in your business, a bad hire adds to the load you’re carrying, instead of lightening it.
You and your team end up redoing the wrong hire’s work and get stuck managing someone who’s checked out. It’s not unusual for your clients to begin noticing things aren’t working as well anymore, and that puts your revenue at risk.
Those are the headaches. And you can avoid them.
How the Right Candidate Can Increase Revenues
Good candidates have options. So, it’s unlikely that they’re scrolling through job boards hoping for an offer. Instead, they’re looking for the right fit. The business that speaks their language, in the posting, in the outreach, and in the conversation, is the one that will land them.
When you get the hire right, everything changes. I have a VA who is the exact right candidate for me. She took over one of my clients, manages the relationship, and does all the work. I step in occasionally for high-level strategy, but that’s it. What changed? I freed up my time to focus on revenue-generating work instead of client delivery. I still capture the margin because she costs less than I charge.
Getting here starts with seeing your opening the way a candidate does. That’s often the hardest part because you’re too close to your own business to see what a candidate sees. This is when an outside perspective makes all the difference.
