If you run a small business in Sussex, whether that's a café in Worthing, a garage in Crawley, or a small agency in Brighton, you've probably had to figure out recruitment as you go. There's rarely a dedicated HR person to lean on, which means every hire matters more, and getting it wrong costs more too, in time, in disruption, and often in money.
The good news is that good recruitment doesn't actually require an HR department. It requires a reasonably consistent process, and most small businesses can put one together in an afternoon.
Start with what the role actually needs, not a generic job title
It's tempting to write "Sales Assistant" or "Office Administrator" and move on, but the most useful thing you can do before advertising is write down, honestly, what a good week in this role looks like. What tasks come up daily? What personality traits make someone succeed in your specific business, not just any business with that job title? This becomes the backbone of a much stronger advert, and it also gives you a genuine yardstick for judging applicants later.
Keep your process short and predictable
Without dedicated HR support, it's easy for recruitment to become inconsistent, one candidate gets a quick chat, another waits three weeks for a decision. Candidates notice this, and a slow or disorganised process quietly costs you good people who accept another offer while you're still deciding. A simple structure works well for most small businesses:
- A short application (CV, or even just a form with a few key questions)
- One conversation, in person or by phone, to check for genuine fit
- A decision within a few days, communicated either way
You don't need multiple interview rounds for most small business roles. A longer process doesn't necessarily lead to a better hire, and it does lead to losing candidates to whoever moves faster.
Write the advert like you're describing the job to a friend
Job adverts written by committee tend to read like nobody in particular wrote them, full of phrases like "dynamic self-starter" that say very little. As a small business owner, you have an advantage here: you can write plainly, in your own voice, about what the role actually involves and why someone might enjoy working for you specifically. That honesty tends to attract better-suited candidates than a more polished but generic advert.
Be upfront about pay
Adverts that omit salary entirely tend to get fewer, and often lower-quality, applications, since many strong candidates simply skip past listings where they can't judge whether it's worth their time to apply. Giving a realistic range, even a wide one, filters in the right people and filters out a lot of wasted back-and-forth.
Advertise where local candidates are actually looking
Large national job boards are built for high-volume national searches. For most small, local roles, a platform focused specifically on your area puts your advert in front of people who have already decided they want to work locally, which tends to mean fewer applications overall, but a noticeably higher proportion of genuinely relevant ones.
The main thing to get right
Without an HR team, the biggest risk isn't a lack of process, it's inconsistency. Decide roughly how you'll handle applications, interviews and decisions before you start, and stick to it for every candidate. That consistency alone puts most small businesses ahead of larger, slower competitors when it comes to actually landing the person they want.