How does your small business recruit? Recruiting can be filled with endless requirements that can eliminate some of the dynamic potential of the process.

Taking a look at advice from Johnny Laurent, vice president and general manager for the Sage Employer Solutions business unit, there are “six rules of wise recruiting” that can help small businesses manage such an important process:

1. Look back to go forward: Take a look at how your business used to hire talent. What did and didn’t work? These lessons can help you learn from the past, improve what’s broken, and move away from what needs to be forgotten.
2. Hire for attitude, train for skills: Laurent advises businesses to observe the dynamic potential of an interested employee. After all, you can always train an employee on the changes in software, but their attitude toward work probably won’t be so amenable.
3. Past performance does predict future behavior: Take a deep look at the prospect’s background and remember that “unclear answers from former employers shouldn’t be accepted.” Laurent also advises you to ask what the person was like in a particular situation.
4. Become the employer of choice: The “number one recruiting strategy,” according to Laurent – is a goal that your business should strive to be recognized for in recruitment. When resumes start coming to you, Laurent says, you know you’re on the right track.
5. Put them in the book – it’s important to keep a reference guide: Pay attention to who’s in your business right now. Keep tabs on your current employees and the directions they’re moving. You can keep tabs on your own organization as well as others.
6. Hire hard, manage easy: Laurent uses this quote from Alan Davis, chairman and co-founder of Alan Davis Strategic Recruiting. If the right amount of energy is put into the recruitment process, the rest “is a breeze,” in Laurent’s words.

Take these tips from Laurent and use them in your own recruitment process. Blending dynamic potential and conventional wisdom, the advice merges the best of both worlds for organizational success.

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