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Ensuring a happy working atmosphere and flexibility within a business could be enough for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to attract staff, according to one expert.
A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said today that SMEs could "trump" larger businesses by offering people who work for them a more personal and friendly environment.
Matthew Knowles from the FSB, said that often it can seem that larger companies have the advantage when recruiting staff but this is not always the case.
"The way that small businesses compete with larger ones to get staff, is by offering more flexible working," he said
He added: "They have better camaraderie within the workplace, so it might not necessarily be financial, although it would be wrong to say that all big businesses pay their staff better then small businesses."
According to a recent study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development 83 per cent of companies in the private sector said that they had experienced difficulties retaining staff.
