For many employers, finding talented people to fill roles is an ongoing headache. In fact, it’s a top concern for business leaders.¹ But it’s also one of the hardest.

According to research by consulting firm Korn Ferry, there could be a global talent shortage of 85 million skilled workers by 2030.² And hard as it is to attract talent, small businesses must work harder to compete, particularly without the budget to offer generous pay and benefits.

Unfilled roles could mean your business is missing out on opportunities or failing to maximise productivity. On the other hand, recruiting can be expensive and timeconsuming. However, many companies do not monitor whether their hiring practices lead to good employees, and finding talent is a top concern for business leaders.¹

Here, we’ll explore five ways you can boost hiring processes and attract the best talent for the long term.

A job advert could be the first place a prospective team member encounters your company and what you have to offer as an employer, so it’s worth taking the time to get right. Remember, it’s an advert, not a job description – this is your chance to make the role and your company sound as attractive as possible.

You may not be able to compete with big companies on salary and benefits packages, so consider what you can offer employees that they wouldn’t get at a larger organisation. For example, small businesses could offer employees the opportunity to gain experience across a wide variety of functions, or the chance to take ownership of projects. Once you’ve identified what makes the job you are offering attractive, be sure to feature these points prominently in the job ad.

Consider what other information might be most important to candidates, too. For example, around two thirds of employees rate salary as the most important part of a job description.³ Yet many companies avoid including one, which could put candidates off applying or mean a waste of time further down the line. Likewise, be sure to mention your home-working policy or any training opportunities.

Highlighting your business’s values mission could help you attract candidates who are looking for roles that match their values. According to Deloitte, almost half (46%) of Gen Z and Millennial employees in senior positions have rejected a job or work assignment because it didn’t fit their ethics.⁴

Questions in job interviews are often familiar: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” “Can you tell us about a project that you were particularly proud of?” “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Candidates are likely to respond to these common questions with well-rehearsed answers, which might not give you much information about their suitability for the role or how well they will fit into your team.

Instead, think of some unusual questions that will spark revealing answers. For instance, asking candidates to describe a conflict they have had and how they handled it could reveal a lot about their self-awareness and emotional intelligence.⁵ Open questions that allow candidates to choose the topic and lead the discussion could give you a sense of their creativity and confidence, and a better idea of what makes them tick.⁶

Rather than simply asking candidates about their skills, it could be more helpful to see them in action. Consider the most important skills or attributes for the role you’re hiring for, then create a task that allows interviewees to demonstrate their abilities in that area.

One option could be to ask them to complete a sample piece of work relevant to the role. You could also aim to get a sense of their soft skills. For instance, to test a candidate’s communication skills, you might ask them to prepare a short presentation. Or to test their ability to demonstrate clearly how to use software – for example, for a sales or customer service role – consider asking them to give a tutorial on a program of their choice.⁶

Some employers even invite candidates to play boardgames with existing team members, to see how they think on their feet and work in a team.⁶

Taking a job interview out of the interview room can be a good way to get a more rounded sense of a candidate’s attributes and characteristics. For instance, taking them on a tour of your workspace and introducing them to other members of your team can give you a sense of their interpersonal skills. The way they interact with other people in the business and the questions they ask could be a good indicator of curiosity and enthusiasm for the company, or of their people management skills.⁷ Plus, it could give you an opportunity to showcase your company’s culture, and appeal to candidates who will thrive in that environment.

To take the idea a step further, consider going for a meal with potential new hires. Everything from how they interact with restaurant staff to how well they maintain conversation could help to reveal how well they would fit into the role.⁷

As with any operational process, it’s important to review the changes made and track progress. The key indicator of the strength of your hiring process is the quality of the employees you hire; look to them for any patterns that could reveal strengths or weaknesses in your approach. For instance, if several of your recruits are technically competent but uninterested in the work or the business, that could be a sign that you need to spend more time evaluating their interests and passions.⁶