Originally published in September 2021. Last updated on December 23, 2024.
If you want to grow your service business, enter a new service area, or expand your service offerings, you’ll need a team of talented employees to help get you there. But finding high-quality workers can be difficult, especially if there are lots of competitors in your area or the work requires a specialized skill set.
Use these tips to learn how to attract employees so you can benefit from a bigger hiring pool and set your business up to appeal to top talent.
Here’s how to attract top talent:
1. Offer competitive compensation
The salary and employee benefits you offer are one of the most common reasons potential hires choose one employer over another. The better the compensation package, the more you position your business as a competitive workplace.
But compensation isn’t just made up of the hourly rate or salary you pay your workers. A well-rounded and robust compensation package also includes:
Raises
Beyond the baseline you pay your employees, offering consistent raises to reflect the job market and offset inflation is also helpful. For example, many companies offer annual raises based on employee performance reviews.
Benefits
Health benefits offer employees medical coverage, helping them to stay healthy and improving their quality of life. Plus, the costs are split between you, making it more affordable for everyone involved.
Training opportunities
A set training budget helps prospective employees to develop their skills. Providing an annual training budget that employees can use to take courses, attend workshops, or pursue certifications shows you’re committed to their professional growth.
You can also provide in-house training by making your own employee training program.
Not only does this bulk up your compensation package, but it also trains up your employees so you can offer new services or move them through a career development path to grow your business.
Promotions
Consider how you want your company to grow in the future and what roles you would need to make it happen like managers, team leaders, or supervisors. Then make a plan for how employees can move up the career ladder to fill these roles by taking on new responsibilities and learning new skills. This will help keep them motivated and give them something to work towards.
Knowing that you have a plan in place for career growth will attract great employees who are looking for an employer who can help support their professional goals.
We’re running a leadership development company that happens to clean gutters. We want to grow our people.
Vacation and personal time
If you don’t have a ton of wiggle room for raises or bonuses, offering additional vacation time is another option since it doesn’t cost you extra money.
Aside from providing time off for major holidays, consider offering a handful of personal days workers can use when they’re under the weather or have an appointment. That way, you’ll reduce last-minute call-ins and no-shows.
It also shows you don’t expect your employees to be workaholics and that you promote healthy work/life balance, making you more attractive to potential employees who value their personal time.
Every business that is really successful offers paid time off.
When people come in and interview for a job, they are stunned that we give paid time off for holidays.
Bonuses
Incentives like bonuses are a great way to encourage potential employees to work for you and help keep new hires engaged and motivated.
For example, here’s how David Moerman of Revive Services uses bonuses to fuel high-quality work and boost employee satisfaction:
Every time there’s a Google Review, the office manager screenshots it, tags our two technicians, and they both get a bonus and we even pay double when the names get dropped for our technicians.
Bonuses look especially attractive to new hires who want to increase the amount of money they can earn.
READ MORE: How to start an employee bonus program
2. Build an employer brand
Your employer brand isn’t just meant to draw in customers. It can also be used to attract and retain talent. But it goes beyond creating a logo and website.
Solid employer branding speaks to how professional, reliable, and trustworthy your business is. It’s made up of your company’s values, your reputation, and the experience you provide to your customers and employees.
By collecting positive reviews, showcasing your company culture, and highlighting team achievements on social media, you create a strong employer brand that makes your business more appealing to prospective team members.
Being affirmed is huge.
So having a system of reward, of encouragement when our team does something really well, especially our top performers, we stop and we celebrate it, whether it’s something big or something small.
This shows potential hires you care about your employees and value their contributions to your business—and it lets them know they can expect to be recognized for their hard work if you hire them.
Pro Tip: Pay attention to employer review sites like Glassdoor to see what current and past employees are saying about your company. Respond positively to any good reviews, and use any negative feedback as a starting point to improve the way you do business.
3. Create a workplace culture
Workplace culture plays a huge role in how many employees you attract. The best employers build a company culture promoting learning and growth and employee recognition for a well-done job.
Build a culture of recognition.
People want to be recognized for the work they do. It means it matters and it means that other people are seeing it.
As a business owner, it’s your job to decide what your workplace culture will look like and how you plan to develop it, but you can start by doing things like:
- Scheduling time to check in with employees to see how they’re doing
- Giving continuous feedback to your workers to help them improve
- Providing opportunities for workers to take on new responsibilities or learn new skills
- Offering ways for employees to give back to the community
- Encouraging employees to come to you with feedback (and listening when they do)
- Empowering employees to tackle challenges on their own
- Planning regular team-building activities
- Approaching problems as learning opportunities
Take it from Raquel Lindsay of Sparkle & Shine Cleaning Services of West MI, LLC. She shares, “I think people just want to know that what they do matters and that we aren’t just coming to them when something goes wrong, but that we are making those deposits into them over time and building those relationships so that when something does go wrong, we can talk to them and they receive it well.”
During interviews, when potential hires ask you what your workplace culture looks like, use these practices to paint a picture of what it looks like to work for you.
4. Market your business to potential employees
Attracting talented employees isn’t that much different than generating leads. Just as you wouldn’t rely on a single social media ad to bring in all your business, the same applies to spreading the word about your job openings.
As Danielle Rossi of The Tree Lady Company says, “Understand the role that you’re looking to fill and market it to potential employees in a way that they can see the benefit and the positive aspects of working for you before they ever speak to you.”
You can do this by:
- Updating your website. Create a careers page that includes testimonials from past or current employees, talk about what makes your business a good place to work, and use photos of interesting or impressive jobs. Include a web form or links to your current openings with instructions about how to apply to make it easy for potential hires to send in an application. That positions you as a professional workplace with experience in hiring, training, and managing employees.
- Posting on social media. Don’t just paste a link to the job posting. Talk about what you’re hiring for, what kind of person would be a good fit for the role, and what your company brings to the table. Ask your followers to share with their friends and family members to generate even more interest. Even better, provide your contact information so potential applicants can reach out with questions if they need to.
- Networking. Attend job fairs, ask around at local trade schools or training programs, and participate in community organizations to expand your reach and grow your hiring pool even more.
5. Develop a hiring process
Hiring an employee isn’t as simple as simply deciding you need another pair of hands and making a social media post about it. To boost your chances of hiring the right person for the job, you need to have a solid hiring process in place that includes:
- Writing a clear job description: What will the person do? What skills or certifications does the role require? And what does your company offer in return? Be upfront about what you need and what you bring to the table to ensure your job posting attracts the right qualified candidates.
- Screening potential candidates: Before you interview anyone, you need to review the applications you receive to determine which ones meet the job requirements. Before you start the screening process, outline your must-haves for the role and evaluate each application based on the same criteria. Focus on their skills, experience, and fit for the role to ensure a fair process.
- Conducting interviews: Once you screen the applications you received, you can start the interview process. But don’t wing it—come up with your interview questions beforehand and keep them centered around the role in question and the candidate’s qualifications.
- Checking references: When a potential hire passes the interview process, use reference checks from previous employers to verify their experience and identify any red or green flags. For example, they may be able to tell you that the candidate always showed up on time, worked well within a team, and enjoyed learning new skills. Or they may share the candidate’s potential areas of improvement, like how they respond to constructive feedback.
- Onboarding new hires: Lastly, you need an onboarding process that helps new hires learn the ropes, feel welcome, and set themselves up for success. Provide training materials like SOPs, introduce them to the team, and outline their responsibilities from day one. You should also make a point of checking in regularly over their first few weeks to answer any questions they have or offer support.
Keep in mind that if you expect to hire top talent, you need to be a top-tier employer. During the hiring process, showcase your workplace culture, professionalism, and values. Set a strong example through clear communication, organization, and a genuine commitment to employee development and well-being.
What kind of a leader are you going to be as a business owner?
Because you can never attract talent that is already at a higher echelon than you are as a leader.
6. Celebrate diversity and inclusion
Highlighting diversity and inclusion shows potential hires that your business is welcoming to everyone. Make a point of positioning yourself as an equitable employer by mentioning your commitment to diversity and inclusion in your job postings and as part of your workplace culture.
That way, you’ll appeal to a larger hiring pool of job seekers and attract even more potential hires.
7. Provide stability
Potential employees want to know whether they can expect job stability and security from you. Especially if your business is seasonal.
Explain whether you can offer stable employment and the steps you take to ensure your employees are kept busy all year round. For example, if you offer lawn care in the spring and summer, do you provide snow removal or holiday light installation during the winter?
The more consistent your work, the more your business will appeal to job seekers looking for an employer they can stay with long-term.
8. Be realistic about your expectations
Ever seen a job posting that was multiple pages long or that expected candidates to have an unrealistic amount of experience? While it’s good to be descriptive and to understand the role you’re hiring for, those types of postings only scare away potential applicants.
When planning for the job you want to hire for, be realistic about what experience and qualifications the candidate needs.
Even better, be open to hiring and training entry-level employees with little experience but who are passionate about the work you do.
We do often prefer to hire people who are green and bring them in and teach them, and that is why my entry-level ad is so focused on growth.
It’s a great strategy for expanding your hiring pool and bringing on employees who will be grateful for an opportunity to learn.
9. Make an employee referral program
Developing an employee referral program encourages existing employees to help recruit new talent from their circles by incentivizing them to refer potential candidates your way.
For example, you could offer a reward or cash bonus for every hire they refer that passes a probationary period. This will get your workers on board with spreading the word and help you generate interest from trusted and reliable sources.
10. Use software
Potential employees want to work for companies that are with the times. Software like Jobber makes managing customers, creating quotes, sending invoices, and accepting credit card payments easy. More automation appeals to potential employees who appreciate a streamlined process that reduces their administrative responsibilities.
Highlight the processes and workflows you use in job ads and during interviews to demonstrate you’re a modern business that uses technology to support your team members.
Think like a prospective employee
To attract a potential employee, you need to think like one.
Ask yourself whether you’d want to work for your company and consider what factors would make the role more appealing to you. You can also reach out to current employees to get feedback about specifics, like your hiring and recruitment process, onboarding and training, and compensation package.
This will give you a starting point for attracting top talent by expanding your hiring pool and positioning your business as a competitive employer.