I talk daily with the leaders of small businesses about the challenges in attracting the ‘right’ talent and there’s a recurring theme: ‘we can’t compete with corporates for the best people.’
Typical comments I hear include:
- ‘Big companies can afford to pay more’
- ‘They offer a career path that we can’t’
- ‘People feel more secure working for big business’
- ‘They have budgets for training that we can’t match’
- ‘We don’t have the marketing budget to support our sales team that corporates do’
- ‘Our systems aren’t as advanced as those in bigger companies’
- ‘We don’t have the branding that corporates do – we don’t look as good on someone’s CV.’
There are ways to appeal to top talent and have them seriously consider SMEs as employers of choice. I base that on practical experience in helping people move from corporates to SME clients for 13 years and make positive impacts on the businesses they’ve joined, and on their own careers. Let’s explode a few myths:
‘Big companies can afford to pay more’
It’s common for a corporate to use the logic that ‘if someone wants to work for us, they’ll accept less because of our brand.’ Then there’s salary banding, whereby a company will only pay within a certain salary range for a given position, regardless of the calibre of an individual candidate and won’t deviate from that policy for fear of potentially creating inequity.
‘They offer a career path we can’t’
The career ladder that is ‘sold’ at interviews has a lot less rungs on it post-GFC, with organisations flattening their structures. That means fewer opportunities for promotion and more bodies to climb over to get there.
‘People feel more secure working for them because of their size’
When I ask people why they want to move, security is often at the top of the list. What security actually means, size rarely features in their conversations.
What is important? Clear vision and strategy, well-established market presence, reputable products/services and experienced leadership making commercially-sound decisions are the most common desires. All of which are within the capacity for an SME.
‘They have budgets for training and development that we can’t match’
They did, because many of those budgets were slashed with the onset of the GFC and have never come back.
‘We don’t have the marketing budget to support our sales team that corporates do’
Except that, in many cases, the marketing budget went the same way as the L&D budget when the GFC hit. Along with most of the marketing team.
‘Our systems and processes aren’t as advanced as those in bigger companies’
Plenty of corporates struggle to successfully implement IT system roll-outs, which causes their staff no end of heartburn. SMEs can implement a CRM system, for example, as effectively as any corporate. Robust systems are about mindset, not size.
‘We don’t have the employer branding that corporates do – we don’t look as good on someone’s CV’
When I read a CV, I want to see performance against key deliverables. Who the employer was is typically much less important. It’s fair to assume that a salesperson from, say, a large FMCG business, should have received a solid grounding in sales disciplines, but the fact that someone has worked predominantly in corporate can also be a negative.
Think about your own business – will someone who’s only worked in corporate environments successfully transition to yours? I’m sure you’ve seen people fail to do so – I know I have.
Giving real thought to just what it is that your business offers will go a long way to securing the talent you’re really seeking.
Michael Simonyi, Senior Consultant, Davidson Corporate
