In my role as a management consultant, I have the privilege of working with a lot of small businesses across sectors. The business owners are passionate and have been doing a good job by building businesses which are cashflow positive right from inception. Here, I am talking about traditional businesses and not the new age businesses which are on steroids racing to be the leader in their market.
There is one area where we face a serious challenge is talent acquisition. Most the recruitment agencies are focused on servicing the IT & ITES (BPO/KPO) sector, just focused on senior level hiring or catering to large companies. They are not to be blamed for it, since that is where the maximum number of people are needed and generate maximum revenues for them.
Small businesses do not have openings in bulk and most of their needs are being fulfilled through references. There are a few online portals which cater to them, but they are not cost efficient. They usually charge their fees on the interviews they line up and not on successful hiring of candidates.
The clients whom I am working with, operate in travel, forex, healthcare, art & financial services domain across Mumbai & Pune. They have openings ranging from counter sales, marketing, retail, operations, administration, etc.
So my question is,
Are there no good hiring agencies for small businesses which operate in the traditional business space?
Will be great if you can share connects with me of people who help in hiring for small businesses in Mumbai/Pune or suggest alternate ways of hiring.
(Sajid is a consultant & advisor to SMEs & startups. He tweets @sajidkhetani)