Small and midsized businesses face steep hiring challenges. But with the right strategies in recruitment and onboarding, they can stand out to candidates and win top talent.
Blaise Radley
Editorial Strategist
Workday
Every hire carries a significant weight for small and midsized businesses. Without the layers of redundancy large enterprises can rely on, each employee fills a unique gap, and the cost of getting it wrong is much higher.
At the same time, small business owners and managers often wear more hats and juggle more responsibilities than their counterparts in larger organizations. That pressure can make hiring rushed or reactive.
Smart hiring sets thriving SMBs apart. The most successful treat it as a business-critical function, using lean but intentional practices that strengthen quality and retention from the start. In this guide, you’ll find the best hiring strategies for small businesses and practical steps for putting them into action.
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Over half of companies are shifting to skills-based approaches, and another 23% will by next year.
A recent Robert Half survey of 1700+ SMB hiring managers found hiring is one of the top challenges for small businesses, with 40% citing issues with talent shortages, winning top candidates over larger competitors, and finding candidates who align with company culture.
These are the top six hiring strategies for SMBs:
The world of work moves too quickly today for job qualifications to stay rooted in resume checkboxes. Instead, they should be based around the actual skills someone needs to execute job duties effectively and adapt and change as these demands evolve over time.
Hiring leaders are increasingly recognizing the imperative to make skills a priority. Workday research found more than half (55%) of organizations have already shifted to skills-based approaches for greater adaptability and resilience, and another 23% plan to do the same in the next twelve months.
Ten years ago, for example, a data scientist was mainly valued for their statistical modeling skills and expertise with tools like R or SAS. Today, AI has become central to the role and demands fluency in Python, machine learning frameworks, cloud platforms, and applying AI and automation to business problems.
For SMBs, skills-based hiring is a powerful lever for finding top talent. The best candidates won't always be the most experienced, and hiring someone committed to continuous learning and development is a more powerful investment than simply going with the most seasoned candidate.
To put this into practice, start by mapping the business outcomes you need to achieve over the next 12–18 months. Ask: What skills directly support those goals? Then translate those skills into clear, outcome-focused job descriptions.
Be intentional in interviews by probing for important soft skills like adaptability and emotional intelligence rather than past titles alone. These are the human-centered skills that, according to Workday research, will continue to be irreplaceable even as AI and technology continue to evolve.
It can be easy for SMBs to fall into the trap of ad-hoc hiring—in other words, only looking for talent when you need to make an immediate hire. But attracting top talent can't happen in a scramble to fill a single role. Instead, aim to build a high-quality talent pipeline that can supply candidates over time.
A pipeline approach means always having visibility into who might be ready for your next opening and the best places to recruit from. To build your pipeline, start by identifying evergreen roles—those you hire most often or that are most critical to growth.
Next, identify where potential candidates for these roles naturally exist: industry events, professional associations, employee networks, universities, training programs, or even past applicant pools. Stay actively engaged with these groups and use a talent management system to track the prospects they yield.
When a new role opens, you can immediately tap into a well-organized database of prequalified candidates rather than starting the search from scratch.
An exceptional candidate experience makes employees 2.7x more likely to say their job is as good as or better than expected.
3. Optimize the Candidate Experience
Screening and interviews are often where SMBs lose great candidates. Long waits, unclear steps, or inconsistent evaluations frustrate applicants and waste time. Forbes reports that 42% of all job candidates say they’ve declined an offer due to a negative experience during the hiring process. To compete for top talent, small businesses need processes that are both disciplined and efficient.
Start by mapping each step of your selection process and eliminating unnecessary layers of approval. Avoid excessive rounds of interviews. Use structured interviews and standardized scoring rubrics so every candidate is evaluated on the same criteria and biases are removed.
Leverage automation and emerging capabilities like AI-powered talent sourcing and assessment to cut down on administrative work, but pair it with human touches—timely communication, clear expectations, and honest feedback. Candidates should be respected and informed throughout, even when they're not selected.
A positive candidate experience ultimately translates to a better employee experience and higher retention: According to Gallup, employees who report their candidate experience was “exceptional” are 2.7x as likely to say their job is “as good as” or “better” than they expected.
Employer brands aren't just for big corporations. For SMBs, it can be a way to make limited recruiting budgets go further by standing out to candidates who value meaning and culture as much as pay. A strong brand communicates what it’s like to work at your business and why people should want to join. For candidates, this matters significantly in their decisions.
A Deloitte survey of Gen Z and millennial professionals shows a clear trend: candidates are increasingly willing to reject roles or employers whose values conflict with their own. For organizations, that makes it critical to demonstrate transparency around culture and values throughout the hiring process, helping attract talent that’s aligned and more likely to thrive long term.
To build your brand, start with clarity on your mission and values. That means investing in your people and creating an environment where employees can grow. Then showcase those values across channels where candidates interact with you: your careers page, social media pages, and job descriptions.
Hiring doesn’t end with the offer, and employee retention starts at onboarding. For SMBs, the first days and weeks set the tone for how quickly new hires become productive and whether they feel connected to the team. Because SMBs have less margin for turnover, getting onboarding right pays dividends.
Design a structured but simple process to cover both practical setup and cultural integration. Provide a clear day-one checklist so employees know what to expect. Assign a mentor or buddy to answer questions and model how work gets done. Create touchpoints at 30, 60, and 90 days to get feedback and reinforce learning.
Onboarding doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should be intentional. A framework with defined touchpoints, and consistent communication accelerates ramp‑up and strengthens engagement from day one.
For SMBs, the first days and weeks set the tone for how quickly new hires become productive.
Fragmented data and manual processes make hiring harder for SMBs. A human resource information system (HRIS) brings everything—applicant details, interview feedback, and onboarding progress—into one place.
By reducing handoffs and administrative tasks, managers gain back more time to focus on candidate quality and meaningful engagement. Like with AI, that greater focus on the work that matters can enable improvements across a huge range of different disciplines.
An HRIS also delivers insights that go beyond efficiency. With built-in analytics, leaders can better identify bottlenecks and anticipate future talent needs. The result is a hiring process that’s not only more efficient but also smarter and more strategic.
For small and midsize businesses, every hire shapes growth. Bringing the right people on board quickly not only keeps the business moving but also creates the capacity to seize new opportunities.
SMBs that excel at this are not lucky—they’re disciplined. They treat recruiting with the same focus as other core functions like sales or finance, and that consistency turns hiring from a hurdle to an advantage.
Over time, that discipline compounds. A steady pipeline of strong hires frees leaders from constant firefighting and allows them to focus on strategy, whether it’s scaling operations, strengthening customer relationships, or charting the next stage of growth.
The number 1 priority for SMBs globally is increasing technology investments—but why? Explore this SMB Group report for key insights.
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