[Question] Where do you find employees?

[Greig Whitton]

Per the title, I'm curious about any recruitment tactics that TFA users have employed to good (or bad) effect.

Obvious tactics include recruitment agencies and hiring people within your personal / professional network. However, I am particularly curious to hear about any experiences involving Gumtree and similar channels.

Success and horror stories are equally welcome!

[Blurock]

Ads in mass media such as Gumtree or newspapers may give you an unwanted response. Do you want 300 applicants on your doorstep?

A recruitment agency can do that for you, but at a price. For a small, startup that may be too costly.

The third option is to headhunt someone with specific skills. It all depends on what you are looking for.

[Dave A]

Nowadays we use Gumtree and the professional and personal network route.
I also have a small pool of CV's from people knocking on the door that sometimes produces a fair prospect.

Gumtree certainly produces responses for anything mainstream - lots of responses. Finding the right candidate becomes a question of how good your sifting process is.
Networking is a bit hit and miss.


I used to advertise all vacancies in the daily papers, but haven't done that for quite a few years now. It certainly used to work well enough, though.

[HR Solutions]

Recruitment agencies such as ourselves are a bit of a cost for a small company starting up, but for an established company we take all the grind and sweat out of it for you. We sift thro all the candidates, interview them, ITC, Crim check them if you require and send you the top 5 that would be qualified and suitable for the position.

[Terry Hopper]

Your success of your startup depends on working hard and a little bit of likelihood. Through experimentation business owners locate and great the enterprise model, only to become dejected if they are not able to find a staff to help carry out the thoughts. Picking out the great stuff brings about locating the great harmony. The balance many of us business owners seek out is frequently simply just mouse clicks away… buried in a very planet regarding spammers and unreliable, inexperienced staff. This is the directory 10 sites that will help you on your quest to find the great harmony.

Marketplaces

1. Elance
2. oDesk
3. Guru

Classified Sites

4. Craigslist

Social Sites

5. Facebook
6. LinkedIn
7. Twitter

Job Boards

8. Monster
9. Jobs.Mashable

Recruitment Services

10. Zirtual.

[IanF]

Just for clarity Terry Hopper's IP address shows he is from India. So read South Africa shown as his location with a pinch of salt.

@ Terry I would suggest you be honest with us and tell us where you are from and why you joined the Forum, BTW I am not trying to chase you away.

[HR Solutions]

Lol @ Terry Hopper ..........

[Terry Hopper]

Just for clarity Terry Hopper's IP address shows he is from India. So read South Africa shown as his location with a pinch of salt.

@ Terry I would suggest you be honest with us and tell us where you are from and why you joined the Forum, BTW I am not trying to chase you away.

I would like to interact people regarding business for sale. That's why, I am here.

[IanF]

I would like to interact people regarding business for sale. That's why, I am here.

What is the business you are trying to sell?

[pmbguy]

I knew he was from India because of the lameness of his posts, grammar and of course his proper English name

[HR Solutions]

I would like to interact people regarding business for sale. That's why, I am here.

Oh that is cool ................ would you like to buy my business ?

[Dave A]

would you like to buy my business ?

I was quietly wondering what Terry's budget might be

[Houses4Rent]

Question: What does it typically cost to use a recruitment agent? What if none of the shortlisted candicates are found suitable/if the end result is no person is hired? What is the typical process?

I have an employee (my only one) I am getting tired off. I am now fedup enough to start some action as I realise the situation wont change unless I change it. I am looking to find a manager who can run my small business and manage that employee and free up more of my time. If he does not like it to become second fiddle he is free to leave. Hopefully that will happen anyway if the new man is better as I doubt I can afford both anyway. I am quite happy though to put a new junior admin erson to the side of the new manager. I offered this to my current employee and we have many CV's, but he is just to tardy to get results. He complains about too many things and does not come up with solutions. Everybody must change but him. I reserve that right for me as I am the owner who built this business from scratch 7 years ago. Heck if I find the right manager this business can fly even higher as its modell is unique and remains uncopied so far.

I am pretty certain my employee does not lurk on this site. Me thinks I can advertise myself under an anonymous umbrella (like a new neutral email address without any telephone number), but I want to look at options too. I even have an old cell number whod enuimber nobody has, but someone would have to answer it and he knows my and my wife's voice. Email only will be just fine.

Actually Terry, do you want to buy my business too?

[HR Solutions]

H4H - the cost varies between 12-15 percent of annual cost to company. There is no charge to u if u don't like one of the 5 candidates we send u, therefore we try to make sure that we do our job correctly, interview all of them first, vet them check them out thou rally to ensure a good match to your company after meeting with you as well.

[Houses4Rent]

Thanks for the guideline. That sounds like an awful lot of money though. What if a hired person does not survive the probation/the first year or runs away before the probation/year is up?