Chapter 5: The Hiring Challenge: Recruitment in Small Firms

Although small business owners suggest that hiring qualified workers is one of the greatest difficulties they face, the scholarly management literature has paid little attention to small firms’ recruitment. This chapter reviews existing research describing the recruitment practices of small firms and concludes that, rather than mimic the practices of larger, well-established firms, small firms engage in different practices. However, it is unclear whether this distinctiveness leads to more effective recruitment. Studies of the impact of small firm recruitment practices, as well as investigations of the characteristics of job seekers who prefer small firms, are needed before we can make confident prescriptions for this important sector of the economy.