Hiring a new employee or possibly your first employee is a great sign of growth to a small business. Its a sign that your business has attained that first level of success that justifies bringing on additional staff. However, many small business owners and entrepreneurs dont anticipate how much the actual hiring process can cost them in both cash and time. It can really suck them dry of their resources!

It shouldnt be that difficult, right? You just pick up the phone and call your local papers classifieds department. However, with the job market today, most small business owners have no way of predicting the onslaught of calls, e-mails and letters that will soon follow.

While its nice to have a large prospect pool for a newly created position, do you really have time to sort through the piles of resumes and follow up with each applicant to determine the best match for your business. Most large companies have an entire department dedicated to this process.

As a small business owner, you simply cant afford to spend a significant amount of your precious time sifting through papers and seeing whos for real. Along the same times, as an entrepreneur, its critical that you hire the best match for you and your business. Not only must this person have the correct skill set, youve got to be able to get along with them, even enjoy doing so as youll presumably be working closely together.

So, weve determined the importance of your recruitment efforts. And weve also deducted that you cant afford to spend much of your otherwise sales-focused time on the time-consuming processes involved in hiring. So, whats the solution?

While larger companies often use employment agencies, they are often too costly for the smaller business to consider.

One increasingly viable option to the small business owner is using a virtual assistance hr provider. Many virtual assistants now offer human resources services in one form or another.

Most virtual assistants that focus on hr have different packages that allow you to decide how involved you are in the process. Also, as opposed to employment agencies, you are usually charged on a per position basis, not by a percentage of the new employees salary.

Due to the uniquely close working relationship of a small business owner and their employees, they tend to want to be more involved in the hiring process than larger corporations. Because with a virtual recruiter you choose your level of involvement in the process, you can rest assured that each candidate will be considered. Yet, you will not be sacrificing any more time than absolutely necessary for you to find the perfect employee.

As a small business owner, your most valuable commodity is your time. Even when youve reached a level of success that allows you to expand, you can not afford to part with that time unnecessarily. You must constantly strive for efficiency, and outsourcing your recruitment can be one key to success!