How SMBs Can Leverage HR Tech to Recruit Like Big Businesses

Gone are the days when small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) could passively wait for ideal candidates to stumble upon their job postings. Today’s talent demands a tech-driven approach to recruiting them.

By utilizing HR technology and adopting a sales and marketing mindset, SMBs can level the playing field in the war for talent and secure high-performing candidates necessary for business growth and success.

Thad Price, the CEO of Talroo, a data-driven job advertising platform, discussed this SMB strategic shift during an episode of the HRMorning podcast “Voices of HR.”

The Talent Battlefield

First, SMBs must acknowledge that they’re competing directly with app-based gig economy marketplace employers when it comes to recruiting skilled workers. “The opportunity is to [say], ‘I’m an employer of choice where you can go, where you can grow and take your career to the next level.’ And I think that’s really important for a lot of small businesses to think about … you’re creating opportunity for a candidate, a job seeker. And this opportunity [with our company] is more than [the gig economy’s] transactional nature of employment,” he said.

“For job seekers and candidates [who] want more, they want a career path. … It requires you to rethink how you attract the candidates that want to grow with you. And that’s marketing, right? That’s buying into the brand, focusing your energy on the right audience that’s looking for an opportunity.”

Price recommended utilizing generative AI to create job descriptions that are more likely to attract qualified candidates. “If you can leverage [descriptions from] millions of jobs and use gen AI to actually suggest a more interesting [employee] experience, or leverage the best of all of those jobs in a certain industry, to be more effective and understand, [for example,] what pay ranges you need to pay to be effective, all of that is really important,” he said.

“Once we build a job ad, we make it engaging based on skills. Because every business today needs to really focus on skill-based hiring versus experience. It’s really important. Skills are what, in many cases, drive the economy and drive successful hires.”

HR Tech and Building Relationships

HR tech can enhance the candidate experience, a critical factor in attracting top talent. Price emphasized the importance of both speed and quality in the recruitment process.

“Our candidates are our customers. People [who] want to work for us also probably buy from us because they believe they know our product, they know our brand, they believe in what we’re doing, they probably would use our product. And so a negative experience that’s based on this quantity of connection, and not quality of connection, will have some bottom-line impact,” he said.

One HR tech tool that can speed the process up is a scheduling platform that eliminates time-consuming, back-and-forth conversations with candidates. This frees up time for HR teams to focus on preparing for interviews and building rapport with the candidates.

Additionally, integrating chatbots with your Outlook or Google calendar can streamline the application and interview scheduling process, ensuring a positive candidate experience.

There are also candidate relationship management systems on the market that centralize candidate data and communication, allowing HR pros to nurture relationships with potential hires even if they’re not currently the perfect fit.

Measure of Success: Quality of Hire

Another reason to enhance your recruiting process with HR tech, such as applicant tracking software, is to improve the quality of hire. “You post a job and get a lot of applicants. People don’t realize the time that it takes to review those applicants is huge for organizations … already spread thin,” Price noted.

By leveraging HR tech, SMBs can attract candidates who not only have the necessary skills for the job, but also align with your company’s culture and values. Due to the automation of time-consuming tasks, your HR team is able to spend adequate one-on-one time with them. Embracing HR tech can give SMBs a competitive edge in the war for talent: a recruiting strategy to rival those practiced by large businesses.