Member Article

Preparation the key to tackling recruitment for rural SMEs

Recruitment can be a minefield for any business and East Lancs companies keen to capitalise on the economic recovery must strike the balance between recruiting enough staff to manage growth and ensuring they have the right staff to do so effectively.

For companies in rural locations, however the challenges are even greater. They must tackle the added pressures of attracting candidates for roles in business premises that may be difficult to reach by public transport or too off the beaten track for access to facilities such as shops or gyms at lunchtime or after work.

It’s a challenge that Linda Barrowclough from specialist adhesive tape manufacturer, Innova solutions, understands only too well.

She said: “We are a small team of nine people based on a farm outside the village of Trawden in Pendle. Our site is perfect for the business and gives us plenty of scope for expansion but it does mean that candidates that don’t have their own transport, or want a role in a more urban setting, may think twice about joining us.

“However, we do need to recruit to manage continuing growth. We also need to ensure that we attract the right candidates and only employ people that are both right for the role and a good fit with the team. To do that, we have to avoid ‘panic buying’ of candidates that are available but are not quite right for us…and that takes HR skill and knowledge.”

To tackle the need to take a structured approach to HR, Innova carried out a full HR review, including revisions to contracts and job specifications, and Linda also attended a ‘How to Hire & Keep Good People’ training course, devised and delivered by MLP Training.

Mike Le Put, director at MLP training, said: “Few SMEs have HR departments and the recruitment challenges they face are often greater than those experienced by larger companies as they don’t have the same structures, pool of employees for internal promotion or HR knowledge.

“Recruitment skills are business critical, however, because employing the right person within the required time frame underpins growth. Even a one-day training course like the one that Linda attended can make the difference between successful recruitment and the risk of stilted growth due to staffing challenges.”

One of the key outcomes of the course for Linda was a greater understanding of the need to define the role clearly to ensure the candidates are aware of the duties involved and also of the expectations of a small company – people need to be more dynamic and flexible.

Linda continues: “With a small team like ours, it’s important that we recruit people we like that will fit into the existing team dynamic; attitude sometimes is more important than skills. Skills can be taught, attitude is a state of mind.

“Unless we clearly define the essential attributes and values required for the role we cannot establish whether a candidate has them or not and the interview process must be based around asking the questions that will evidence their attitude and skills base.”

The MLP training course focuses on enabling SMEs to base the interview process around ‘buying’ the candidate rather than ‘selling the role’ by asking the right questions and defining essential competencies.

Mike continues: “Few SME directors have been trained in interviewing candidates and they often fall into the trap of doing all the talking rather than asking the right questions.

“For rural businesses, directors often assume they need to offer a package that will entice candidates to move out of town. Often, however, defining the role more clearly and enabling the candidate to see how closely their skills match the job requirements is a much more effective way of finding the right fit.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .