You’ve Hit a Hiring Rut; Now What?

Worker shortages have affected many companies over the past year. If you’re one of them and find yourself needing additional workers to keep up with your growing business, we’ve outlined a few jumping-off points that might help your hiring process.

Where to Look for Workers

You may think of workers as only being employees. Though, especially in today’s job market, you may find you have an easier time securing talent through more unconventional methods or platforms. Consider some of the following hiring alternatives: 

• Recruiters
• Employment agencies
• Online job portals, such as Indeed, SimplyHired, and ZipRecruiter
• Social media, including LinkedIn Jobs
• Your own website, email list, or employee referrals
• Temp agencies
• Specialized online job portals that cater to your industry and business type
• Virtual assistant organizations
• Day labor online sites and pickup areas
• Job matching sites such as Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.
• Colleges, when you need interns and entry-level workers
• Your local unemployment office
• Small business development centers
• Virtual assistant agencies or businesses
• Chambers of Commerce and other business organizations
• Professional organization directories where a license is required, such as hairstylists, dentists, or CPAs
• Friends, colleagues, competitors, and neighbors; your own personal or business network
• Craigslist and local classified ads
• High school guidance counselors if you want to hire straight out of high school
• Outsourcing to a company that provides the labor that does what you need
• Volunteer matching sites

Options for Adding Workers/Labor

There are many ways you can increase labor in your business. Of course, the obvious is hiring employees. But, beyond employees, there are many more options than you might first consider:

• Contractors, where you have a contract for a particular job and meet all of the IRS and other compliance requirements
• Temp workers, where you “lease” an employee who stays on the temp agency payroll or hire them outright with a limited term of employment.
• Part-time workers on your payroll
• Companies that you outsource the work to and contract with as vendors to provide a particular service. They may outsource your labor needs or have labor as a component of the product or service you have hired them to supply.
• PEO, or professional employer organizations, act as a customer’s employer, hiring their employees and managing payroll and other HR compliance tasks.
• Interns, which are unpaid positions. Check your state and local rules for laws regarding hiring interns.
• Volunteers, a common source of labor if you operate a nonprofit organization.

With all of these options available, you should be able to take advantage of less mainstream ways to add labor and grow your business.