Using hiring platforms to find small business employees

The Top 23 Hiring Platforms for Small Businesses

Revised and updated Nov. 17, 2019

Decades ago, businesses found their employees through classified newspaper ads and mailed-in resumes. As the digital age progresses, employers now have a seemingly endless selection of platforms to help them hire their next employees. But how do you know which ones will produce the right pool of applicants for your business? To find out more, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council to weigh in on the following question:

Q. What is your preferred website, job board, or other means for finding qualified candidates for your business? Why do you use this site or approach?

1. LinkedIn

I like that LinkedIn is full of qualified candidates I can look to whenever we are hiring. But what I like more is what is happening when I am not hiring. I love that I can connect with people within my industry and learn more about them over time, so that when it does come time to bring in new talent, I potentially already have a pool of people whom I am interested in working with. —Rana Gujral, Behavioral Signals

2. FlexJobs.com

FlexJobs is specifically for telecommuting opportunities, but it's so popular that it gets tons of job seekers a day. It's easier to find the right fit when more people see your listing, and because it's a widely used platform, it's perfect for finding qualified candidates. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

3. We Work Remotely

As a remote company, one of our favorite sites is We Work Remotely. This job board is specifically for remote workers, which is what we're looking for, and it includes categories like programming, design, copywriting, customer support and more. —Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

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4. UpWork

We like using Upwork when we are looking for a designer or developer for our company. There are plenty of qualified candidates to choose from, and since we work remotely, location is not a problem. You can create multiple postings in easy-to-understand categories and filter potential candidates through pre-screening questions. —Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

5. Instant Teams

Instant Teams has helped me find the perfect candidates for my open roles. I like their hands-on approach because it saves me a ton of time trying to find the right person for the job, they help if any issues arise, and they have a fantastic talent pool. —Monica Snyder, Birdsong

6. DynamiteJobs

DynamiteJobs is the best platform out there for finding remote team members. What I like about them is that they don't treat their job applicants as "one-offs." Just because they're not cut out for one job, does not make them bad. Their team will keep them in mind and propose them in the future for roles they may be a better fit for. It's a great system and it's based on relationships. —Karl Kangur, Above House

7. Meetups

I've found that the best candidates aren't browsing job boards but instead staying involved in their work-related "communities." Meetup.com has been a great one for me. For example, if trying to find software engineers, find a technology-related meetup. Participate in that group and you'll be surprised to find the talent you want who maybe weren't otherwise looking for new opportunities. —Michael Averto, ChannelApe

8. Networking Events

Networking is vital for any entrepreneur to leverage, but it's especially useful when looking for new hires. Job fairs and conferences let you connect one-on-one with candidates and casually feel them out enough to determine if they're right for your company. It helps you skip a step of trying to figure out a person and helps push the process along faster. —Jared Atchison, WPForms

9. University Job Fairs

The University of Miami is close by and job fairs are a great source of talent. We hire interns and transition them carefully, directly supervised by our team leaders. Prior to hiring, we compile a list of core competencies, and then attend fairs with these in mind and look for talent with these skills. It is easier to train an eager mind than to retrain a hire that has undesirable habits. —Matthew Capala, Alphametic

10. Our Own Website

We've created a very informative "careers" page on our company website. It's a very effective way to find qualified candidates. It works really well because we have all the space we need to talk about the job's requirements. But we're also able to talk about our company's values and culture in depth. This makes it possible for us to find candidates who best align with our business. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

11. Sites With a Variety of Freelancers

I like using sites that have all types of freelancers. It's a great way to see their portfolios and work with them on projects before bringing them on board full time. —Serenity Gibbons, NAACP

12. The Local Startup Community

Our company is made up of people we met through our local startup community, local schools, and industry events. For our startup, culture is imperative when hiring. Knowledge of the role is key, but we are a family, thus we look for people who believe in our vision and fit into our office culture seamlessly. Skills can be learned and perfected. Personality is ingrained and therefore must mesh well. - Laura Fortey, REITIUM Technologies Ltd

13. Personal Referrals

While it's hard to build a whole company on referrals, you can find some pretty key hires that way. Job boards give you a large scale to attract candidates, but you have to filter through a lot of noise to maybe find what you are looking for. However, hiring through people that already work well within your organization makes for good potential hires. —Andy Karuza, FenSens

14. Spark Hire

A great deal of work done for my business is conducted remotely, both by myself and by the rest of my team. Because of this, I found Spark Hire to be invaluable for finding ideal candidates. Their video interviewing platform is easy to use and share which allows me to easily conduct informative interviews with individuals in any time zone to our mutual convenience. —Bryce Welker, Accounting Institute for Success

15. LaunchCode

There are more and more apprenticeship and job training programs popping up in cities across the United States. A great example is LaunchCode, which prescreens and trains candidates in the tech industry. Finding local organizations like LaunchCode and partnering with them has helped us reach great candidates that we might have otherwise overlooked. —Duran Inci, Optimum7

16. Internships.com

I prefer Internships.com because the college students are hungry and they are in the transformational point where they want to grow. This is the perfect way to mold someone to do exactly what you'd like them to do with your leadership and your time. If you want someone who could potentially stay with you long-term, then this website has the candidates you will want to reach out to. —Sweta Patel, Silicon Valley Startup Marketing

17. AngelList

As a rapidly expanding business, we're on the lookout for candidates with an entrepreneurial bent who are seeking to join a company they can contribute meaningfully to and grow alongside. AngelList empowers employers and job seekers who are looking to work in an exciting startup. We have found many talented, self-motivated candidates on AngelList who have gone on to become valuable team members. —Thomas Smale, FE International

18. Textbroker and FreelanceMyWay

Outsourcing content is one area that we spend a lot of time, money, and resources on. Professional freelance market sites like Textbroker have made it easy for us to find high-quality writers, while not having to deal with payment processors and setting up in-house writing applications. This has saved us a lot of time and allowed us to bring in some great new talent. —Zac Johnson, Blogging.org

19. ZipRecruiter and Indeed

ZipRecruiter and Indeed are probably the two best resources for sourcing candidates. Both function a bit differently but, generally speaking, they're both convenient and rather comprehensive as far as having a large pool of candidates to choose from. And there are free options for using each site. —Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

20. Toptal

Toptal was created by engineers. The founders of the platform are entrepreneurs, and all of them understand the need to have a network of high-quality freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, and project managers, so I appreciate that they're constantly working on expanding it. Also, nobody can become a Toptal freelancer without meeting strict criteria. —Cody McLain, SupportNinja

21. Handshake

We prefer using Handshake, a university platform for recruiting students. As a startup, we are looking for fresh talent right out of college. Handshake offers quick access to institutions, ranging from local colleges to large universities, and allows us to reach a much larger pool of students than we would otherwise have access to. It also provides us with tools to easily sort through applicants. —Amishi Takalkar, NAILBITER

22. Craigslist

Most new job seeker platforms like Indeed make it far too easy for applicants to mass apply for jobs, often applying without even knowing the company's name. This format has wasted a lot of my company's time, interviewing uninterested or unprepared applicants. Craigslist, on the other hand, actually forces applicants to actually read the job descriptions to which they're applying. —Nicholas Nadjarian, Industrial Motor Power Corp.

23. Referrals from employees

Though job sites can be helpful, we prefer to talk to our in-house employees first. They already know our mission, culture, and other details about our work environment. There is a good chance if you have a quality team, your members know others who would make a great fit for your business. —Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co.