Recruitment in a Small Town

There is so much charm living in a small town, from the older infrastructure to the cozy, quaint atmosphere – it has its beauty. However, like anything, there is also a downside to living with so few people around you – it’s more common for people to know everything about you, whether truthful or not. We’ve all been caught in gossip about another person and find ourselves forming an opinion about them without even knowing who they are. Think about how many times this has happened to you. In a large city, it would be unlikely you meet the person who’s being gossiped about – no harm, no foul. However, that is not the case in a small town, where either you know someone first hand or know someone who knows them.

Small towns are depicted as tight-knit. However, it’s often difficult to keep your business and personal life separate, which can’t make it easy for a business owner to put aside their bias from gossip and rumours when it comes to recruitment. It’s also a liability to allow the tight-knit community to influence your business decisions. The question is, how do you prevent your bias from impacting your choices – whether conscious or unconscious? Furthermore, how do you prove that you didn’t make a decision based on this information?

Since bias and perception are so quickly ingrained in us from childhood, it’s not easy to put aside when recruiting. The single best way to prevent judging candidates by your standards, whether religious beliefs, culture, or ethnicity, is to bring multiple people into the recruitment process – better yet, hiring an external recruiter who your predisposed prejudice has not influenced.

An external recruiter can also be beneficial to eliminate gossip, of which you may be the main topic. If a candidate feels as though you denied them a position with your company due to discrimination and choose to bring you to court, you will need to prove the process you used for hiring and that the same standard was used for everyone. Having more than one person involved in the interview will provide you with more than one account of the process – and multiple statements are always better than one. Hiring an external recruiter will ensure that you follow the laws and protect your organization from possible discrimination charges.

Fortunately for you, recruitment is one of the many services we provide.