Hiring Tips for Long Island’s Small Businesses: How to Build a Reliable Team in a Tough Labor Market

Hiring reliable staff has become one of the biggest challenges for small businesses on Long Island, especially for service-based industries such as restaurants, retail, salon and spa services, cleaning services, and home repair companies. With high turnover, shifting employee expectations, and a competitive labor market, many business owners are left wondering how to find the right people and build a dependable team.

If you’re a small business owner struggling to hire or retain staff, you’re not alone. This article provides actionable hiring tips and highlights local resources to help you find and keep great employees, even in a challenging market.

Why Hiring Is So Challenging Right Now

Several factors have made hiring more difficult for small businesses in recent years:

• Labor shortages, especially in hospitality and service industries
• Wage competition from large chains and franchises
• Changing employee expectations around flexibility, work-life balance, and benefits
• Housing and transportation costs on Long Island, which can limit the available labor pool

Despite these challenges, small business owners can still succeed in building great teams, especially when they tap into local resources and implement smart hiring strategies.

7 Hiring Tips for Small Business Owners

1. Define the Job Clearly and Sell the Opportunity

Start with a clear, honest job description. Be specific about job duties, schedule, pay range (which is now required due to New York State’s Pay Transparency & Equity Laws, which passed in 2025), and any other requirements (such as a driver’s license or ability to lift a certain weight). Highlight any perks or flexibility you offer to make your job posting more attractive to potential employees.

Tip: Emphasize what makes your business unique or a great place to work, such as family atmosphere, regular hours, tips, career growth, etc.

2. Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill

In service industries, personality and reliability often matter more than experience. Look for candidates who are enthusiastic, customer-focused, and dependable. You can teach certain skills, but you can’t teach someone to have a strong work ethic.

3. Ask the Right Interview Questions

Go beyond yes/no questions. Ask open-ended questions that reveal how candidates think and behave, such as:

• “Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult customer.”
• “What do you like most about working with people?”
• “How do you stay motivated when things get tough or when business is slow?”

4. Use Local Hiring Resources

There are several free or low-cost resources on Long Island that can help small businesses connect with job seekers.

Local Workforce Development Resources:

• HempsteadWorks – Offers job postings, candidate screenings, and on-the-job training (OJT) subsidies.
• Suffolk County One-Stop Employment Center – Provides hiring events, job listings, and training resources.
• Nassau County Career Center – Free recruitment assistance and job fairs.
• BOCES Long Island (Eastern Suffolk BOCES and Western Suffolk BOCES) – Connect with vocational students and grads trained in culinary, cosmetology, trades, and health services.

Local Colleges for Part-Time Help:

• Stony Brook University, Farmingdale State College, LIU Post, SUNY Old Westbury – Post jobs on student job boards or contact career centers for interns or part-time workers.

Job Posting Websites (Beyond Indeed, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, etc.)

• Long Island Job Finder 
• Facebook Groups – Try searching for “Jobs on Long Island,” “Long Island Hospitality Jobs,” or “Long Island Bartenders/Servers.”
• Craigslist Long Island 
• NY.gov Jobs – Post through local workforce boards to appear in statewide listings

5. Offer Flexibility Where You Can

Small businesses may not be able to match corporate salaries, but offering flexible scheduling can give you a competitive edge. Consider:

• Shorter shifts for students or parents
• Regular and predictable schedules
• Allowing workers to swap shifts

6. Make Referrals Worthwhile

Your current team is one of your best recruiting tools. Offer referral bonuses to employees who bring in reliable hires (e.g., $100 after 30 days of successful work).

7. Keep Communication and Onboarding Simple

Once you make a hire, make sure to set the employee up for success:

• Provide a comprehensive new hire orientation and onboarding training experience
• Create an employee handbook with basic expectations and company policies
• Check in regularly to build a relationship and identify issues early

Final Thoughts

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or frustrated by the hiring process, you’re not alone. Hiring talented and reliable employees isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to feel impossible. With a clear plan, local support, and help from trusted partners like TruWorkforce Solutions LLC, a Long Island-based HR consulting firm that specializes in supporting small businesses like yours succeed, you can build the team you need to keep your business thriving on Long Island.

About the Author

Nicole Truscello is the founder of TruWorkforce Solutions LLC, a Long Island-based company that provides customized workforce training programs and HR services to help small businesses thrive.