Where To Find New Hires?

• Job Title, Location, & Pay Structure

I personally hate job postings that don’t mention anything about the pay structure, so I put it in the first line. List the official title of the position, if the pay structure is salary, full or part-time, or commission based. On the second line I include the location for the position, or if the job is fully remote. These basic qualifications at the top of your description will help applicants know if they’re interested in the job without having to read a full page of promotional wording. 

• Company Information & Basic Job Description/Sales Pitch

Next, I like to launch into a short paragraph that opens with an outline of the type of person your company is looking for to fill this role, and what they’ll be contributing towards for the company. The second half of the paragraph should include a brief description of what your company is, what products or services you provide, and how the position you’re hiring for fits into the grand scheme of things.

• Responsibilities

Next, in clear bullet points, list the responsibilities and expectations of the position. Try to keep it between 4-8 main points. The last thing you want is an applicant that’s surprised in an interview about what they’ll be doing - so make it specific. If a remote job expects the worker to meet with management in a weekly zoom call, list it here. 

• Qualifications

Similar to the previous section, list out a handful of bullet points describing the prior qualifications of an ideal applicant. Things like prior experience or communication and interpersonal skills are some common examples. Also feel free to add things that aren’t necessarily required but would be an added bonus, just add a tag saying (Preferred) at the end of the bullet point. 

• Training and Compensation

This section can be bullet points as well. If there’s any training or onboarding for the position, briefly explain it here. Also, add some more detail on the pay structure compared to the first line of the position. If it’s commission based, is there a cap on earnings? Is there base pay? If it’s a salary position, don’t be afraid to just straight up list the salary. Lots of applicants like seeing how much they could potentially make up front. If the wage is hourly, mention it here as well. If the salary or hourly pay isn’t totally decided upfront yet, it’s also acceptable to list a pay range - although don’t make it too wide that mentioning it is too vague to mean anything. 

• Recap

To finish off your posting and get in a couple keywords, recap the important info and mention any benefits the worker will receive. Be sure to clarify if the worker will be a W-2 employee with tax withholding, or an independent contractor that receives a 1099. It’s also a good idea to link to your company website so applicants can do a little research on your business before a potential interview. 

You can also feel free to add a couple additional questions for applicants to answer when submitting an application, such as years of prior experience, or anything else you’d like to know. Check out this sample of an actual job posting I used to build out a commission-based sales team in 2019 for my digital marketing company:

My personal favorite (and some might disagree) has been LinkedIn promoted job listings. I’ve had tremendous luck with LinkedIn postings mostly due to the quantity and nature of applicants. I prefer applicants who are actively searching out positions, versus being offered them by a staffing company (more on them later), plus LinkedIn tends to attract a more professional crowd. Since there are so many jobs posted on LinkedIn, it’s important to put a little advertising budget behind your listing. $200 spent over a week could be the difference between 3-5 applications and over 100+. Check out the video above to see a step-by-step on creating a compelling job posting for LinkedIn (or Indeed or similar services) and how to set up promotion campaigns for your job.

There’s been a trend in recent years in regards to staffing companies popping up everywhere. Basically you tell the company what kind of applicant you’re looking for, and they set you up with some potential employees who fit the bill. I don’t have a lot of personal experience in this market, mostly because using staffing agencies can get quite expensive. Most require upfront retainers and/or additional commissions based on the salary of whoever you hire. Personally, I’d rather save the money and source applicants myself, but if you’re looking for a more hands off approach, there are literally hundreds of staffing companies to do the heavy lifting for you only a Google away. 

Another option for a small business is to hire family and friends. This can be a blessing and a curse, depending on your relationship with the person involved. As a general rule of thumb, don’t hire a family member or friend for a job unless you would already pick them out of a pool of resumes. Often an unqualified family member as an employee can mean bad news, with additional personal complications if or when you decide to get rid of them. However, if someone close to you is qualified for the job and legitimately interested in the position, they can be a strong asset provided you already get on well with each other. It can also be helpful if this person is personally invested in seeing your company succeed - there are many stories of small business owners hiring their mom to answer phones for them in the beginning, until they scale to having a proper office and secretary. 

For example, my cousin is the COO of my digital marketing company - we’ve been friends and even lived together for years, so he knows exactly how I like things done. He requires little to no oversight on my part, and didn’t require extensive training to get to that point - which is a distinct advantage. However, I’ve never had any other family or friends involved in any other project, simply because it just didn’t make sense from a qualification standpoint.