iCIMS Hire Expectations™

2012 is the year for small businesses (SBs) as hiring intentions are at a high percentage. Gallup.com recently published a study concerning small businesses and their hiring intentions, which is expected to be higher than the percentages from 2008 onward. 22% to 8% of small business is aiming to increase the total number of jobs within their companies. This is the first time since the economic crisis that the small business world is experiencing an increase in hires. Small business owners are more hopeful about hiring than in previous years. Now, the only two concerns for small business owners are creating job positions and finding people to fill them.

1. Adding Jobs: Even though small business wants to increase their hiring, there are only certain types of jobs they are able to hire. The job positions they prefer are temporary (72%), contract (36%), or part-time (36%). These preferences are a reason why there is an increase in hirers as well as workers who are taking part-time positions even though they want to work full-time.
2. Finding Employees: With the high percentage of hiring expected in the small business market, the fight for top talent is on. For now the percentage of businesses that find it difficult to find a qualified candidate is at 21%. This percentage is expected to go up in the following months if hiring initiatives keep increasing as such.

Do not worry too much about the small businesses of today. According to Gallup, they “have demonstrated their ability to adjust to the business cycle as needed to survive.” A majority of my work experience lies in this small business market. Before the recession as we know it, there were plenty of work opportunities and SB organizations were growing at a rapid speed. Things changed after the crisis and jobs were cut at a drastic rate. Thankfully 2012 is looking brighter for the unemployed and struggling SBs.  These businesses are functioning better than the last couple of years. Their newest issue is creating new positions, recruiting, and hiring efficiently.

If small businesses stick to their word and increase the employee count then the future is bright. Business owners are taking a great approach to hiring again by sticking with part-time and/or temporary workers. However, with so many different positions, candidates, and employees they have to be organized. They might have to change their HR system from paper to digital, using such items as an ATS to store candidates and resumes. Recently, social networks have been playing a big role in SB recruitment programs. These recruiters can post any open job positions out to the social media sites and see a jump in their talent pool. Today, some of the leading applicants tracking systems are taking on social networking capabilities allowing users to post jobs onto social network sites with a click of a button.

Well, only time will tell…but small business hiring is looking on the up and up!