Small Business Recruiting
Let’s face it, most small businesses start with hiring friends and family. But somewhere along the line you run out of friends and family or need a special skill that no one you know possesses. This is when you are forced into doing real recruitment. This means spending money on advertising, sorting through stacks of resumes and spending hours interviewing candidates. Meanwhile your business can falter because you are spending all of your time recruiting.
There has to be a better way...Luckily there is.
Continental provides small companies and start-ups with the same, state-of-the-art recruitment tools and processes utilized by large businesses. We make recruiting easy for you.
Personnel Searches
Large companies now rely on Internet Job Boards such as Careerbuilder or Monster to advertise for candidates. Unfortunately for small businesses the pricing on these sites favors companies that have large recruiting needs and thus can pay for large advertising packages, bringing the total cost per ad to an affordable rate. However, the cost for advertising for just one position is quite high - often over one thousand dollars!
Continental purchases access to top Job Boards, as part of the overall recruiting service, and utilizes them in our search for your candidates. There is no extra charge for the use of these boards as part of the recruiting service. You get Big Company access at a Small Company price!
Resume Screening
If you’ve ever done any recruiting, you know the old adage “You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince” definitely applies to recruiting. When the word gets out that you are looking for one or more employees, you often get stacks of resumes and applications from “Stan’s cousin who just got out of prison and needs a job” to “the Cleaning Lady who heard about the opening in the Cost Accounting Department.” Sorting through all of these can take days!
Continental provides this service as part of our overall recruiting services. We start with helping you develop a comprehensive job description. Utilizing this, we use our computerized HR tools to match applicants with your job requirements. We weed out the “frogs” and concentrate on the “princes”. We then check availability and verify that the candidate’s salary requirement fits within your salary range. The resulting short list of candidates is forwarded to you for your review and selection.
Skills Testing, IQ Testing and Personality Profiles
Some clients have specific skills required for their position. Continental will administer any skills test you require and can help you create one if needed. In addition, Continental has a battery of tests to give you a better understanding of your candidate’s skills and personality. These include IQ, personality profile, aptitude and mechanical skills testing. This testing is usually done after the candidate has been placed on your “short list” and before the interviewing process. However some clients prefer to test after the first interview.
Interviewing and Hiring
Interviewing
It’s both a skill and an art to uncover a person’s true character in an hour’s interview. You need to understand their skills as they relate to the job and then you must determine if the candidate would fit in with your organization. The last is often the most difficult. Continental’s Recruiting Professionals guide you through this process and will even conduct the interview if you desire. We will help you employ cutting edge recruiting techniques to ensure you really have found your prince!
Salary Negotiations
Once you have selected your candidate, you need to come to an agreement with him or her as to salary and benefits. This can be a tense process. Continental smoothes this process by acting as the go-between, much as a Real Estate Agent does in selling property. This back and forth process may take several days and involves give-and-take.
Key to this process is understanding the going rates of salaries in the area. If your competitors are paying a payroll clerk $30,000/year, you will be hard pressed to hire and retain a payroll clerk for much less than that amount. Conversely, if you pay much higher than the going rate, you are wasting your financial resources. Continental does regular salary surveys and can help guide you in negotiating a fair salary.
One hurdle to overcome in the negotiating process is the counter-offer from the candidate’s existing employer. For a really good candidate, this is to be expected and is actually an indication that you have selected a quality individual. If you are inexperienced in hiring, this counter-offer can take that candidate out of the running. However, there are tried and true techniques to mitigate this situation and neutralize the counter. Continental is trained in these techniques and can assist you in overcoming this hurdle.
Background Screening and Drug Testing
Once you have selected your candidate and negotiated a salary and benefits package, you still need to make sure he or she has honestly represented themselves. This is verified with background screening. In today’s world, we recommend that you include Drug Testing with your Screening process.
Continental has a menu of screening services to fit your needs. Each customer has different needs and each position has different responsibilities. We suggest that you minimally do a local criminal check and a simple saliva drug test on every candidate, even for general labor positions. For executive positions we recommend a Credit Check, Motor Vehicle Record Check, and Criminal Background Check in any area they have lived in during the last five years. Additionally a verification of employment and education is standard for most positions.
However, there are fees for these checks and the more extensive the check, the more expensive the fee. Continental’s recruiting professionals will assist you in choosing the appropriate level of background screening for your position. We order and administer these screens and give you the results.
Our menu of Screening Services include:
- Criminal Background Check
- County Level
- State Level
- National Level
- Credit Check
- Motor Vehicle Record Check (driving record)
- Drug Screening
- Saliva Test
- Urinalysis (done at a Medical Center)
- Hair Analysis (this is the most comprehensive test)
- Prior Employment Verification
- Education Verification
- Reference Checks
- Skills Testing (often done earlier in the hiring process)
Hiring
If you have selected Continental’s “Zero Hassle” Contract Staffing Services. We will handle the employee sign-up process for you. This includes the tax forms, Health Insurance forms and all employee benefits. We will give the employee a brief orientation to our services as well as to your company.
The employee is introduced to the Continental employees he or she will interface with and if they will be traveling, they are signed up for a Continental Credit Card. The employee is instructed when and where to show up for their first day of work. You take it from there!
“Muhlen Sohn Inc. is a small company but we have been growing rapidly since we were incorporated two years ago. We operate with a lean workforce causing everyone to wear many different hats. As a result, we have little time to devote to finding the new personnel we desperately need. We have relied on Continental Inc. to understand our needs and find the right people with the right education, experience and personality for each position. Continental has always provided a viable candidate and never wasted our time with a dead end interview.” --Dick Wohlberg, General Manager, Muhlen Sohn Inc.
The US Department of Labor estimates that drug use in the workplace costs employers $75 to $100 billion dollars annually in lost time, accidents, health care and workers compensation costs. 65% of all accidents on the job are related to drug or alcohol, and substance abusers utilize 16 times as many health care benefits and are six times more likely to file workers compensation claims then non-abusers.