Talent Acquisition: #1 Concern of Small Business Leaders

The 2018 business cycle is shaping up to be an incredible year for U.S. Small Business, and we’ve seen this reported over and over during the past few months. For instance, Forbes (Jan 2018) reported that within the small business sector (firms with less than 500 employees), the Index of Small Business Optimism stood at 104.9 – the highest level ever recorded during the 45-year history of the Index. Dun & Bradstreet reported (Dec 2017) that 90% of small businesses expect to grow their companies during 2018. There are many more.

Let’s drill down a bit farther and look at small business in more detail. The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) surveyed 10,000 members in January 2018, and the findings show some impressive and informative numbers:

36% Annual Job Growth Rate: Job openings increased 3% in Jan 2018 over Dec 2017
31% of Companies: Pay increases have / will be used to attract and retain talent in the business
20% of Small Business: Will create new jobs in their company in 2018

The most important finding may be the following:

22% reported that Talent Acquisition is the #1 concern of small business leaders (finding/hiring workers)

The takeaways from the survey findings are that Talent Acquisition is the #1 concern of small business owners heading into this year, small businesses are adding more new jobs at an increasing rate, and that compensation levels will increase as firms battle for talented employees.

For small businesses, these issues can be much more difficult to handle than in large corporations, simply because the amount of available HR resources is typically lower in small firms. The overall HR team is typically smaller, the firm may not have a dedicated Talent Acquisition staff, and the HR team is probably already stretched to their maximum capacity, “doing everything for everyone.”

So, we have an HR team at full capacity already. How are they supposed to take on the additional demands of significant hiring initiatives and work to retain their existing workforce, while also doing everything that’s already on their to-do lists?

With business owners planning to grow the business this year, add 36% more jobs and increase compensation to attract top talent, HR teams in small businesses will be challenged relentlessly during 2018.

Outsourcing Talent Acquisition can be the solution.

Small business owners and their HR leaders will need to evaluate the best path to success for their individual business plans that relate to talent acquisition initiatives. The long-term solution may be to bring in some additional HR staff, but – as with other business functions – outsourcing all or part of the Talent Acquisition function is likely to be the most ideal solution for the short and intermediate terms.

By utilizing outsourced capability specifically dedicated to Talent Acquisition, such as Executive Search firms, small business owners and HR leaders can strive to retain the existing workforce and redesign the business to handle additional growth – while also quickly hiring top talent to drive business success.

That’s what we do at Becker Wright, and we’re great at it – our many accolades speak for themselves. Contact us today so that we can partner with you in hiring the additional top talent that your small business must have in order to achieve this year’s aggressive growth plans.