Recruiting top talent to your MSP is hard.
Doing so after a global pandemic that radically shifted the candidate pool, workplace norms, and employee expectations is even harder.
We hear from MSP owners all the time that they’re struggling to hire and retain talent, preventing them from getting out of the day-to-day operations and investing time in growing their business.
So, we sat down with Andrea Williams, our recruiter at Stride Talent, to answer a simple question: How can MSP owners hire the right people?
Andrea shared her top recruitment tips for MSP owners from 11+ years of experience in the field. Let’s dive in.
Beyond the Basics
The pandemic changed everything about work, including:
- Where we work
- The availability of jobs
- Employee values
Today, employees have options and they’re looking for more than just a paycheck.
They truly want to work where they’re aligned and excited about work. They want a job with growth opportunities and skill development. And they’ll keep job-searching until they find it.
So, to attract talent as an MSP owner, you need to stand out from the crowd.
To start, though, getting the basics right is important. As a baseline, you should have:
- Clear job descriptions for the role, skills, and experience you’re looking for.
- An easy-to-navigate website and application process.
- Deep knowledge of who you are as a company and who you’re looking to attract.
- Engagement with relevant job boards, industry networks, and online forums.
- A commitment to quick, professional, and timely communication with candidates.
But this is just the starting point. Andrea puts it like this, “It’s no longer just about throwing jobs up and praying they’ll come … Before it was easy to get away with taking the approach of, ‘this is the way we’ve always done it.’ But now there’s a shift where the candidates want to work at a place where they’ll be able to do the job they can do well, have room for growth, feel emotionally fulfilled and mentally supported.”
3 Effective Recruitment Strategies
The basics are good, but they’re not enough. Instead, level up your MSP recruitment strategy by focusing on these three areas:
1. Use Your Website to Share Your Company Culture
Andrea strongly urges all MSP owners to leverage their website to attract candidates. There needs to be a place where applicants can learn about you as a company, beyond what’s on the job description.
Here’s what Andrea’s seen be effective:
- Employee testimonials or feedback on the workplace.
- A video that shares about company culture and values.
- “Day-in-the-life” content sharing what candidates can expect in the role.
The point is to give applicants some real-life context for what it would be like to work at your company. You want team members to understand what working for your MSP is like on a real, practical level.
The job description tells them what the job is about, your website tells them why they’ll love it.
2. Respect the Process and Prioritize Recruitment
Too often, companies let a stack of applications just sit on a desk without any follow-up for weeks.
This is a big mistake. More than that, Andrea says, “It is as important to respond to applicants as it is to respond to clients.”
You need to respect the process of recruitment and make it a top priority for your MSP. That means:
- Communicate with candidates in a timely (quick) manner.
- Be courteous and let unsuccessful candidates know they didn’t receive the position; better yet—provide constructive feedback.
- Be strategic about the interview process (more on that below).
Remember that every candidate is a person. Complex, unique, and with different needs. So, treat them as such by respecting the recruitment and hiring process, making it a top priority in your schedule.
3. Hone Your Interview Process by Training Brand Ambassadors
In Andrea’s experience, the most effective interviews are ones where it’s conversational and engaging; where the candidate is comfortable to share their authentic self and they, in turn, get all their questions answered.
To have this type of interview, train the right staff for your hiring team. In Andrea’s words, “You want to find your people who are most comfortable and are natural brand ambassadors. They know how to sell the company, they know how to sell the role—it just comes second nature because they love where they are so much.”
Brand ambassadors will bring a natural sense of excitement and enthusiasm to the job interview, which makes it a much more compelling draw for prospective employees.
- Key takeaway: Invest time into your hiring team by training “brand ambassadors” who can engage prospective candidates in a conversational, engaging interview process.
We’ve heard from so many MSP owners how challenging recruitment is. These strategies that Andrea shared are proven to be effective because they move beyond the status quo.
A “set it and forget it” mindset to recruitment doesn’t work anymore. Instead, you need to be intentional about each phase of the recruitment and hiring process.
If you’re looking for a true partner in your MSP recruitment strategy, reach out to us and start a conversation. Stride Talent is your one-stop-shop for recruiting top candidates to your MSP. We know the industry and know the pain points—let’s work together to overcome them and build the best team possible.
