# Workplace Surgery Q2: Best recruitment tools for small businesses

- **Episode:** [216](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/216.md) (2025-07-22)
- **Type:** workplace-surgery
- **Tags:** recruitment-tools, small-business, hiring
- **Time:** 46:16–50:05 (start 2776s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/216?t=2776](https://truthliesandwork.com/216?t=2776)

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[46:16] Al Elliott: Okay, great. So question number 2, is there actually a good recruitment tool for small businesses or are we stuck with job boards? Interesting. Interesting. I run a small business team of 7. We're trying to hire a couple of roles. So far, job boards haven't brought in much, mostly underqualified or irrelevant applications. Not from Monster.com, that's gone bust. I'm wondering if it's better just to reach out to candidates directly. Are there any tools that actually help small businesses find good people, not just wait for them to apply?
[46:44] Leanne Elliott: I, of course, have my opinions on this, um, as somebody who also manages recruitment, but in terms of the actual tools, not my area of expertise. I wasn't sure, so I passed on your question to an expert. Please welcome Liam Read, who is Head of Recruitment Operations at The Curve Group
[46:59] Al Elliott: So yeah, I think before jumping into the tools or headhunting, the first question I tend to ask yourself is, are you using the right platform to attract the right kind of talent? So taking a step back is always a good start. Job boards can be hit or miss, especially for small businesses. So if you are seeing a lot of underqualified or irrelevant applications, it might not be about volume. It might be about targeting the right profile. Headhunting is a great option, but let's be honest, it is really time consuming. Finding a decent profile on LinkedIn is one thing, but then comes the hard part, actually engaging them, getting them interested, and then selling the opportunity. As mentioned, there are tools out there that can help, but it really does depend on the type of role. For example, if it's a senior or specialised hire, LinkedIn tends to be the go-to. But if you're looking for more an ops role or a junior role, platforms like Indeed and TotalJobs CV Library might give you better traction. And I think this tends to get overlooked, but have you really tapped into that referral market? Your own network, your team, even friends or family of the business. Sometimes candidates that are close by. Understand your culture and are right for the business. Really, just to recap, before you start looking at platforms or tools, get really clear on the role, who you're targeting, what good looks like. Once that's dialed in, you, you've got a much more effective approach in going to market. Referrals. Well, if you listen to Nick Huber's Sweaty Startup interview about 20 episodes ago, he was talking about, he says that's how he gets most of his great people is through referrals. Although I have read a couple of books that Sometimes you have to be a bit careful with how you get referrals, but, um, I mean, obviously Leanne knows what he's talking about
[48:36] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I've had huge success with referrals. Um, yeah, particularly once you've kind of nailed down, um, the roles that you need in your organization and how they will fit in together, and your culture's culturing, and, you know, your behaviors are vibing, and it can be really effective. I got to the point, I think, in the last 18 months of, of my job before I went self-employed, I think referrals was like 90% of our filled vacancies came from referrals. There is a slight danger, of course, because if you're asking people to refer friends or family, typically it's going to be people like them. You could then have some imbalance in terms of, depending on what your current organisation looks like, of course, in terms of demographics or indeed experience. Groupthink can start to creep in, stifles innovation, all that
[49:23] Becky Simms: Mm-hmm
[49:24] Leanne Elliott: In my experience, referrals have also worked out really, really well. So, I really like that advice from Liam. And I think the only other thing I'd find, I'd kind of add, is having something a bit more proactive in place in terms of ongoing recruitment. So, I think, do they call it quiet hiring or something now? I don't know. We just used to call it ongoing recruitment. We'd have talent pools of people who we thought were really cool, and when we had a vacancy, we'd pick up with them and see where they were at. So, you can actually be proactive in your recruitment whilst you're, um, you're not necessarily actively looking for vacancies can work out pretty well for a small business. Yeah, it needs to be managed, but also could be worth looking at. But I think Liam's right there, referrals could be a really good starting place