Growing your team (and ours) in a pandemic

New skills have been acquired by all business owners during the past twelve months. Entrepreneurs are a resilient bunch and many have successfully been able to evolve their businesses and their skillsets during the pandemic. In many sectors, they are beginning to thrive again or at least, as the vaccine is being rolled out, starting to feel more positive about the future.

Therefore, the mindsets of many business owners have turned from ‘survival mode’ to ‘growth mode’ as they tentatively seek to expand their teams to enable them to thrive in the looming post-Covid business climate.

For most people, business growth is synonymous with hiring new people.

Recruiting in a pandemic certainly presents its challenges. We talk to many business owners who say the way they hire people will have to change if they are to attract the best staff not only during lockdown but afterwards too.

Remote-recruiting

On the one hand, it’s easier and more convenient than ever before to undertake interviews and assessments via tools like Zoom and Teams.

Attracting candidates digitally through social media and the ease of applying for jobs on platforms like Linked In means that, in theory, it should be simple to attract people to roles that need to be filled. Recruitment agencies can also play a positive role if they are fully tuned into the candidate you’re looking for and can articulate it well to the ‘marketplace’.

On the other hand, some people are reluctant to make the move from their existing employers in these times of uncertainty and competition is fiercer than ever before for the right candidate.

We’re hiring!

Alexander Knight & Co is a typical example of a business that is growing and hiring during 2021. We’re currently looking for a Newly Qualified Accountant to join our team (if you know somebody suitable please do feel free to send an email to alison@alexanderknightaccountants.co.uk).

It’s an attractive role -plenty of opportunity for the right candidate to succeed in a supportive environment, along with flexible working arrangements on a hybrid basis from our Grade A office space in Hale village. Despite us only just starting the search we’re in the fortunate position of having strong interest in the role already and we are happy to take our time in selecting the right candidate.

Take your time

Some businesses, however, aren’t as fortunate as us and don’t have the luxury of time and/or the magnet of being an ’employer of choice’ in their marketplace. It’s these types of business that will have to work harder than ever before in modernising their recruitment process in order to attract good candidates in 2021.

If there’s one piece of advice I’d offer, based on my experience of running a business and working with many successful entrepreneurs, it would be that it is far better to wait for the right person to add to your team than recruit in haste and regret it for a long time afterwards. Taking care to select the right person for the job will pay dividends further down the line as we emerge from lockdown.