Jorgen Sundberg - social recruiting & LinkedIn trainer, Link Humans
Work on your employer branding: The hiring market is very competitive for social enterprises and finding top talent can be hard. It's about 'pride in the badge' and employee engagement. The best thing a company can do is to share stories of real employees and what the company means to their lives, then use this to show prospective candidates.
Use social networks: There is a massive opportunity to recruit via social networks. Your Facebook page fans, Twitter followers or Linked-In contacts can be a great way of putting the word out there and finding the right candidate. You can get a recruitment campaign to go viral by simply being clever about it.
Jan Golding - chief executive, Roots Human Resources CIC
Be vigilant when hiring from co-operatives: You need to pay extra special attention to two areas: i) commitment from the worker and ii) values, which you'll want to make sure are a good fit with those of your organisation. This is always important but even more so when considering co-operatives.
Engage your workforce: Do not just employ people. You can engage your employees in a number of ways, through incentives, volunteering opportunities, apprenticeships, internships and rewards etc.
Always use merit-based recruitment: Even if you are recruiting volunteers or unpaid staff, use professional selection techniques - you still want to get the best person possible for the role so that you can deliver more and your business can grow.
Borge Andreassen - head of executive recruitment, Prospectus
Always seek top candidates: Any organisation needs talented and committed people to succeed. Finding the right leaders, and other staff, to deliver is absolutely crucial but unfortunately, many employers in social enterprise are still not ambitious enough when they recruit.
Manage candidate expectations: Key motivators for candidates moving from the commercial to the social sector are often about job satisfaction and a desire to have a positive social impact. Discover what the motivations of your ideal candidate are and translate them into the role requirements.
Incentives can aid retainment: We have used incentives to retain rather than to recruit. I have just offered my first employed consultant a directorship and a small stake in the company to retain her, not because she was planning to leave, but because she loves what we do and works even harder now than before.
Set up an induction program: If a small social enterprise doesn't have a very robust induction programme and no-one explains the code of conduct or the fact that there is a disciplinary procedure then sometimes a new recruit can get something quite badly wrong. When this is pointed out, they can often react adversely - having a properly managed scheme in place can go some way to avoiding this.
Elena Spiliotopoulou - freelance HR consultant
Don't put people into boxes: What does ex-corporate or ex-co-operative mean? If a person has a strong set of values, these will become apparent wherever the role is and we should not be distracted by their previous roles to understand what they represent and where they want to take their lives and careers.
Alasdair Inglis - managing director, Grow
Use your mission to your advantage: A social enterprise can make itself attractive to potential employees by being clear on its social benefits, mission, values and social impact. Having a great working environment, company image and message will definitely attract great candidates.
Be aware of the cultural fit: There could be a real cultural difference between the social enterprises and the employee previously organisation. It's very important to make sure that the new employee understands this.
Julia Khan - head of HR and facilities, The Social Investment Business
Explain the impact your staff have on the company: Ensure that each member of staff understands how the work they do contributes to the overall success of the organisation. The back office staff have the opportunity to become aware, through shadowing and/or team building, of what the organisation actually delivers. This helps to create a feeling of belonging. Employee engagement is key and likely to be more of an incentive to people who work for social enterprises than financial reward.
Create an empowering environment: This is relevant for staff retention. Avoid a hierarchical environment; if you create an empowering one, it allows people autonomy and creates a sense of belonging for all members of staff. In addition ensure all rewards are fair.
Sankalp Forum
Have a clear idea of the necessary skills set: Employers need to understand the skills set needed to support the mission of a social enterprise. Only then can the right people be sought; otherwise you will have mismatches.
Revise your business model: Look at your business model and see where it needs to be simplified. The right skill sets may be at your disposal, but if your model is too complex, it will be infinitely harder to find the right people and, subsequently, scale up.
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