Most small to mid-sized business leaders assume the first step in recruiting is posting a job. The problem is, recruiting doesn’t really work that way.
Posting a job without upfront preparation is a bit like trying to run a race you haven’t trained for. You might start fast, but you often stall or have to start over, which usually takes more time than slowing down at the beginning.
We see this often. Leaders aren’t doing anything “wrong,” but they’re reacting to urgency. When a role isn’t clearly scoped, expectations don’t match the market, or the story of the role isn’t thought through, job posts tend to attract the wrong people, turn off the right ones, and stretch the process longer than necessary.
Recruiting works best when a few basic pieces are in place before you ever hit publish. That’s something many hiring solutions for small businesses overlook, but it’s also where the biggest gains come from. The five steps below are the same ones we walk through with clients before launching a search, and even small improvements here can save weeks of time and frustration.
1. Pressure-Test the Job Title Before Anything Else
One of the most common mistakes businesses make is posting a role under the wrong job title.
Internally, the title might make perfect sense. It’s what you’ve always called the role or how it fits inside your org chart. But candidates don’t search for jobs the same way companies name them.
Before you post, take a few minutes to see how similar roles are titled in the market. Look at job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn, along with competitor career pages. What titles keep showing up? What language is actually being used for the kind of work you need done?
If your title doesn’t match what candidates are searching for, the role can sit there unnoticed no matter how strong the rest of the posting is. Getting this right upfront is one of the simplest ways to improve visibility, whether you’re recruiting on your own or evaluating hiring solutions for small businesses.
2. Make Sure Your Pay and Benefits Match the Market You’re Hiring In
A lot of hiring problems have nothing to do with candidate quality. They start with misaligned expectations.
Before you post, you need a realistic sense of what this role pays today. Not what you paid the last person, and not what you hope to pay. What roles with similar responsibilities are actually earning right now?
One thing many leaders overlook is assuming they’re only competing within their own industry. In reality, unless a role is highly specialized or brand-driven, candidates are comparing you to any company hiring for similar work. An experienced administrator, coordinator, or manager is usually looking across industries, not just yours.
That means thinking beyond base pay. Candidates are weighing the full package: schedule, time off, flexibility, benefits, growth opportunities, and work environment. Small differences can be enough to sway a decision.
You don’t have to be the highest-paying employer, but you do need to be clear about where you land. If your offer is below market, be intentional about what you’re offering instead and make sure that shows up clearly in the posting.
Taking the time to level-set this upfront can save you weeks of slow response and candidates dropping out late in the process due to mismatched expectations.
3. Write the Posting to Show What It’s Actually Like to Work There
When someone applies for a job, they’re deciding whether they want to spend a big part of their life at your company.
Your job posting is often the first place they go to answer that question, so it needs to give them a clear, honest picture of the role and the environment, not just a list of qualifications.
Before you publish, make sure your posting clearly communicates:
-
What your company does and why it exists. A short paragraph on your mission and the value you create. Candidates care about purpose and impact.
-
Why this role matters. What problem does this person help solve? How does their work contribute to the team, the company, or the people you serve?
-
What the day-to-day actually looks like. Include real work, real projects, and realistic expectations. Keep it positive, but avoid overstating responsibilities or showcasing projects that aren’t a true part of the role.
-
What someone will learn or grow into over time. Growth can mean deeper skills, broader exposure, or more ownership, not just promotions.
-
An honest picture of the environment. Share the pace, expectations, and what kind of person typically succeeds here.
This level of clarity helps prevent what many candidates now call “career catfishing,” where the job sounds great on paper but feels very different once they start. A recent Monster survey found that nearly 4 in 5 workers say they’ve accepted a job that didn’t match how it was described, often leading to early turnover and frustration on both sides.
Be honest, be specific, and paint the role in a positive light, but don’t oversell it. The right candidates will appreciate the transparency, and the wrong ones will opt out early. You can learn more about how to write a great job description in our past blog here.
4. Decide How You’ll Evaluate Candidates Before You Start Interviewing
A lot of hiring frustration shows up during interviews because there’s no shared way to evaluate candidates.
Different interviewers focus on different things, and expectations tend to shift as interviews go on. Candidates end up being compared to each other instead of being evaluated against what the role actually requires. Strong candidates can get stuck in limbo while teams keep wanting to “see one more,” stretching timelines and keeping the role open longer than it needs to be.
Before you schedule interviews, get clear on how decisions will be made.
At a minimum, define:
-
What is truly non-negotiable for this role
-
What skills or experience can realistically be learned on the job
-
What traits or behaviors matter most for success
Writing this down as a simple candidate scorecard helps ensure everyone is screening for the same things that are actually listed in the job description. It gives interviewers a common lens, keeps conversations focused, and makes decisions easier to explain.
It also helps prevent “wish-list hiring,” where expectations quietly inflate mid-process and no candidate ever quite feels good enough to move forward.
5. Be Intentional About Where and How You Promote the Role
Once the role is scoped correctly and expectations are clear, then it makes sense to think about job post promotion.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is assuming all candidates look for jobs in the same places. They don’t.
Where you promote the role should depend on the type of work, the level of experience, and how candidates in that role typically find opportunities. Professional roles often perform better through LinkedIn, referrals, and industry groups. Operational or high-volume roles may see better results on platforms like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Facebook, or local networks.
The goal isn’t to post everywhere and hope for the best. It’s to be thoughtful about where you invest time and money based on who you’re trying to reach.
Pay attention to what’s working once applications start coming in. If one channel is producing qualified candidates and another isn’t, adjust quickly. Continuing to invest in channels that aren’t delivering only slows the process down and wastes budget.
Bringing It All Together
If there’s one takeaway from these five steps, it’s this. Good hiring usually has less to do with speed and more to do with preparation.
Most hiring problems don’t start with sourcing. They start with unclear roles, assumptions that don’t match the market, job postings that don’t reflect the real work, or interview processes that aren’t aligned internally.
When those pieces are in place, recruiting becomes more straightforward. You attract better-fit candidates, conversations move faster, and decisions feel more confident. Even if you don’t hire often, having a repeatable way to think through these steps makes a meaningful difference.
That’s also where Hoops can be helpful.
Many small and mid-sized businesses work with us not because they want someone else to take over hiring, but because they want support making these decisions well. We help validate job titles using real market data, understand how roles perform across different channels, and align teams around clear expectations so interviews stay focused and fair.
Through the Hoops Hiring Concierge, businesses get that support in a flexible way. You’re not locked into a traditional recruiting model. You get strategic guidance and hands-on help when you need it, while staying in control of the hiring decision.
If you’re preparing for an upcoming hire and want a second set of experienced eyes on how you’re approaching it, we’re happy to talk through whether the Hiring Concierge is a fit.
Connect with us to learn more about our Hoops Hiring Concierge program →
Build Your Winning Team. Hire and Scale Talent.
