The talent chase

Finding prospective employees is a marathon, not a sprint. How small businesses are evening out the playing field.

Alison Amoroso

November 14, 2007

Finding top talent in Atlanta is difficult enough, but the thought of recruiting against your competitor – or an intimidating Fortune 1,000 company – is a serious issue for small business owners.

Your company may be after the same talent pool as giants like UPS, Newell Rubbermaid and SunTrust Bank, as well as other up-and-coming companies. The competition will only get tougher since Atlanta ranks fourth in high-tech productivity and has the fourth fastest growing computer and software industry in the nation.

"Poaching is a terrible problem in our industry," says Stacy Williams, president of Prominent Placement, an Internet search marketing firm with customers in various parts of the country. Williams has never been poached – but not for a lack of trying. "My account managers say they are called constantly.

"Their skill set is so specialized that they are in demand from big companies and our competitors," explains Williams, who has never had an account manager quit since founding the company seven years ago.

Likewise, Rena Kilgannon, CEO of the integrated marketing agency, says poaching is so common in her business, it's causing inbreeding. "Recruiting top talent is really hard," says Kilgannon, who has also successfully retained talent in her agency that specializes in creating advertising for low-flying brands, some as many as 10 out of the 20 years since she founded her business.

Creating a Successful Culture

"Poaching is a growing trend in Atlanta," says Dan Campbell, founder and CEO of Hire Dynamics, a recruiting firm on the verge of growing out of the small-size stage. "We've been poached at my company as well; I see it as an opportunity to shore up holes in our culture."

What kind of culture are these successful companies creating in order to retain talent once they find them?

•    Offer flexibility. Williams generally accommodates staffs' requests to alter hours as best as possible, recently cutting back hours for an account manager who had a second child. Kilgannon responds to employees' personal situations with flexible hours and work-at-home solutions.
•    Plan for the long-term. Campbell, whose company has been named a "Best Place to Work" by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, has a goal to recruit a "decade-long employee," and rewards employees on their fifth anniversary with the quintessential Rolex watch.
•    Invest in training. Williams pays her staff to read books from their lending library and take online courses. Campbell provides 40 hours of outside training.
•    Create camaraderie. Kilgannon has a "town hall" for employees to gather and meet, and celebrates not only company successes but personal ones such as marriages and babies.
•    Reward entrepreneurship. Williams creates new positions for managers who express an interest in learning a new part of the business.
•    Keep it simple. Williams requires only one meeting a month, and that's by phone.

Compensation Matters

Keeping competitive with the 27 Fortune 1,000 companies in Atlanta means offering comparable compensation and benefits with the big guys and all area business, even though you might be on the low end.

Alternative compensation is an important recruiting tool. Williams offers quarterly performance bonuses to bolster compensation that is "mid-range" in her industry. While she doesn't offer typical benefits, her benefits are ones many people are looking for, such as operating a virtual office, which keeps costs and time associated with commuting down for her account managers.

Where do Successful Small Businesses Recruit?

"We mainly recruit by word of mouth," says Kilgannon, who rewards employees with $1,000 signing bonuses for bringing in talent. "I keep my ear to the ground and listen to see who is downsizing or changing businesses."

Williams has a wide network and doesn't hesitate to initiate an e-mail campaign to find the right candidate. She also targets parents through her personal networks. "Mothers are the ultimate multi-taskers," Williams says. She recently went outside her network and was surprised to find a great hire through Craigslist.

A good reputation doesn't hurt either. Kilgannon took an inquiry from someone who was a comedy writer for the likes of Jay Leno. Screening is one area small businesses have a leg up on big business. "Big businesses have a tighter screening process that automatically weeds out people who a hiring manager might otherwise see potential in interviewing," says Campbell, whose company has offices in Nevada and North Carolina as well as Atlanta.

Finding the Right Talent

Kilgannon hired the comedy writer. "Since he had some schooling but no real experience, we trained him." She says the industry needs fresh talent. Even though Atlanta ranks in the top five cities in the country for net new job growth, and, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, is forecasted to be the third job generator over the next decade, competitors often pass around the same people.

"We don't even actively recruit people with search engine marketing experience because there's not enough to hire," Williams says, "but we're very picky." Williams prefers to hire seasoned, experienced account managers from any marketing field and teach them Internet search marketing, thus circumventing the labor shortage.

Large organizations often don't bring in the hiring manager till the end of the process, a vastly different strategy than successful small businesses use. Williams herself handles every step of the process, including administering a hiring test. "The best practice is to include hiring managers from the beginning," Campbell says.

Closing the Deal

If you make it through to the end of the hiring process at a successful small business, you may hear a CEO like Kilgannon tell you how important you will be to her and the company.

"Up to this year, I interviewed every single new employee ¬¬¬– and we have 105 of them," Campbell says. "One has to sell a vision and also keep in mind that many candidates have the perception that there's more risk in a small company."

Small business CEOs are taking the lessons they learned along the way – such as making their customers happy – and applying them to their employees. "I try hard to keep them happy," Williams says, "by managing them they same way I want them to manage their accounts."

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The talent chase

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Finding prospective employees is a marathon, not a sprint. How small businesses are evening out the playing field.

Alison Amoroso

November 14, 2007