Consultants
If you are the owner or a start-up or run a small to medium enterprise, then hiring independent consultants could be the way to go. Trying to do all your business’s design and marketing yourself isn’t an easy task, and it takes up plenty of your time too. Consultants are perfect if you know you haven’t got the workload yet for a full-time member of marketing staff. They can also be great if you want help with a specific project. Once you have sourced your consultant, a meeting will typically occur where you lay down your current issues. The consultant will outline a strategy to help you pull your business back together. With their help, you can spend less time worrying about press releases or newsletters and actually start running your business again. Another reason why consultants could actually benefit your business is that they will hold you accountable. Now you have someone else working on your marketing, you have to actually pull through on certain tasks. This isn’t what you will typically be told by a consultant, but it really does help having someone in it with you.
Online
Known as ‘the professional Facebook’, LinkedIn is a website basically littered with potential employees. Of course, there are plenty of other recruitment websites which you can scour to find employees. But the beauty of LinkedIn is that it is so much more detailed. Not only can you find details of a person’s employment history, you can also read testimonials and recommendations. Previous colleagues, employers and clients can all endorse each LinkedIn profile for skills, so you can see where the individual excels. Plus, as it is still a social media website, you can typically tell a bit more about the person from their LinkedIn page than you would a plain CV. If social media isn’t your thing, why not consider creating a specialist employment page on your company’s website? If you are sick of being emailed the same generic CVs, create your own sections which applicants need to fill in. This way, you will only find out what you really need to know. Contact some web development companies about how a page like this can be integrated into your current website.
Networking Events
As much as they might make you cringe, networking events are a perfect place to source staff. Generally, the environment can be quite relaxed. Take advantage of that and speak to people casually about their business interests. If people think you are there to recruit, they will go into ‘interview mode’, trying to impress. You will get a much more organic reaction if you engage in broad conversation with a number of people at these types of events. Then, inviting them to connect on LinkedIn is a perfect way to consolidate their skills for yourself.