Small businesses are creative in hiring hard-to-find labor.

As some corporations slow their hiring pace due to economic concerns, small business owners are lagging behind when it comes to recruiting.

Two-thirds of small businesses were hiring or trying to hire in September, according to a report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NIBB), but 46% were unable to fill those vacancies, compared to a 48-year historical average of 23%.

The difficulty in hiring has prompted some small business owners to look for more creative solutions to ground labor, so they can grow their businesses or – in the worst case scenario – stay afloat.

John Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Homebase, said: “Small businesses in 2018 are actually so bad that we’ve seen small businesses close because they can’t hire… This is a real challenge for small businesses and if we’re going to solve it, it’s going to take a lot of different things — making these jobs more attractive. Including.

Attracting, hiring and retaining quality employees is a challenge for companies of all sizes. In today’s low unemployment, high competition and red-hot job market, making out-of-the-box ideas more critical is not easy.

For Diana Manalang, owner of Little Chef’s Little Cafe in Queens, New York, that means hiring high school students to deal with staff shortages.

“It’s working, they show up, they mostly come to work,” Manalang said. “We feed them two to three times a day. We buy them groceries, uniforms and shoes. We also order takeaways and encourage them in any way we can, such as free movie tickets or anything like that; [we] And pass it on to them.

Executive Home Care, a national franchise of home care providers, is addressing the workforce shortage by transforming their onboarding, recruiting and hiring technology.

Executive Home Care CEO Tim Hadley said: “One of the things that has helped us the most is being able to connect with each candidate so quickly.

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Another incentive that worked: offering flexible work schedules.

“It’s not a typical 9-to-5 or 8-to-4 job,” Hadley said. “People can work the hours they want to work flexibly as well as a significant amount of on-the-job training and ongoing training for caregivers.”

One benefit, though, that many small businesses can’t afford — even though it’s grown in popularity since the pandemic — is remote work options.

“We’ve talked to a lot of people who are looking for a job, but they want to work from home,” said Larry Sutton, CEO and founder of RNR Tire Express, a national franchise retailer of quality tires and custom tires. And unfortunately, the type of business we’re in, we can’t work from home.

It’s been tried and true for a long time that many business owners have been doing it: making more money. Just under half of owners report rising compensation, according to the NIB survey, while more than a quarter plan to in the next three months.

But that may not be enough in this area, says Alan Jones, CEO of Bambee, which specializes in solving complex workforce problems for small businesses.

“Small business owners—unfortunately or fortunately—have to think about the overall incentive packages of Fortune 500 companies in a very long-term way. So I’m not only making $2 more at minimum wage, but working at this company has other incentives and benefits beyond just salary and compensation.” What are the benefits?” Jones said.[Small businesses] Don’t think of generic com as a recruiting principle. They only care about money, but workers are looking for that now. “

Danny Romero is a Yahoo Finance reporter. Follow her on Twitter. @daniromerotv

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