Small Businesses Can Encourage Valued Employees to Join Them and Stay Put

Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers

Even at times of high unemployment, when a business may seem to be spoiled for choice when recruiting suitable candidates, it may be that there are only a few who are really appropriate for the vacancy.

Despite the current economic problems in the UK employers are still reporting a shortage of suitable candidates and have also recently flagged up both the burden of red tape they are required to comply with as well as the costs of recruitment.

It is a particular problem for small businesses who need every individual extra employee they consider employing to be as effective and as productive as possible as soon as possible.

EU business ministers have recently proposed reducing the red tape that small companies face. They have put forward the suggestion that small businesses should be classed within a new category of 'micro-entities' and exempted from certain accounting obligations. The move has been welcomed by UK Employment Relations Minister Ed Davey,

It has also been welcomed by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which has commented that such small companies can find it difficult to cope with the administrative and financial obligations of running a small company while at the same time trying to develop a viable business.

Complying with employment law is one regularly cited example of the burden of red tape but there are other employment issues that can make all the difference to a small business's ability to survive and prosper.

One of these, when trading conditions are tough is retaining employees that they value for when conditions improve. It may be that it will have to ask its staff to take a lower salary or wage when times are hard in the hope of keeping their jobs for when things improve.

They are more likely to agree if the company has mechanisms in place that will encourage them to stay.

Nobody likes to be made to feel that are not valued and a company can do much to prevent this, even when it is not able to pay top big company, city rates. Small companies have the the advantage that its employees can play a part in future growth and gain a wider variety of skills in the process.

In a small company people are less likely to feel anonymous and this can be reinforced by giving proper feedback and thanks or a small reward when they have achieved something outstanding and by not being publicly humiliating them when they make a mistake.

The part any employee can play in a small company, from the top executive's PA through to the administrative and clerical worker, is likely to be much more important and varied than it might be in a larger organisation. By offering training and development, positive feedback and making people feel valued a small business could compete more effectively in recruitment against the greater buying power of the big company.

These are the sorts of selling points that a recruitment agency can use when sourcing suitable candidates for a small organisation. Many agencies are small businesses themselves and can use their own experience to understand the needs of small business clients to find them the best possible candidates.

The outcome when economic conditions improve could be that providing a good service when small will be valued, remembered and will contribute to both companies' growth in the future.


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Ali Withers argues that small businesses can attract and keep the best staff if they treat them all, from the executive PA to the lowest skilled worker, as valued contributors.