While having a solid employer brand is important when hiring, it takes time and resources to build one. But that doesn't mean that as a startup, you can't attract top talents while still working on your employer branding.
According to a LinkedIn report, as many as 70% of job searchers say that chances for professional growth are very important when considering a job offer. This further emphasises the fact that hiring top talent is possible even without employer branding.
This article focuses on how startups can hire top talent while still working on developing a strong employer brand and the steps to take to achieve this.
How to Hire Without a Strong Employer Brand
1. Spell Out Your Hiring Needs
Start by taking account of your company's present growth rate and long-term aspirations; this will give you a good idea of what skill sets and experience you'll need to fill open positions.
Give some thought to the teams you'll need to form, the roles that are required of them, the level of hierarchy, and the total number of people you'll need to recruit. In creating a hiring strategy, think of things like your budget, job description and requirements, recruiting software, and the hiring timeframe.
Budget
Your budget must account for salaries, compensation, and benefits. Think about agency fees, extra resources, and platforms and tools for sourcing candidates.
Creating a budget list would help you stay within your financial capability and also have an account of what every penny was spent on.
Job Description and Requirements
Properly stating the job description and requirements for available positions would help you attract the right candidates that tick every requirement necessary for the available job position.
Recruiting Software
If you want to speed up your expansion and startup hiring, you'll need the resources to recruit new employees quickly and effectively. Saving time and effort and automating the hiring process are two benefits of investing in recruiting software.
Hiring Timeframe
Due to the fast-paced nature of startups, it is important to have a clear picture of your hiring strategy for the next six to twelve months. The time required to find and hire new employees should also be considered.
2. Hire For Potential, Not Just Experience
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, once said, “We have gone to tremendous efforts to recruit the world's top talent, and it is the key to my success.” This is a testament to the fact that hiring for potential is an important factor to consider for startup hiring.
The tone, culture, and growth rate of startups are all significantly impacted by the contributions of every team member.
Hiring people who really represent the company's goal and who are passionate about what they do is more important than having specific qualifications. The ability to multitask is an important quality to look out for when hiring as a startup without a strong employer brand.
It is important to find early team members that can multitask, learn quickly, and prioritise the team's success over their own while building a successful startup.
3. Utilise Creative Strategies for Candidate Sourcing
You will need to be creative in your candidate sourcing strategies to make the most of your limited budget. One low-cost alternative is to ask current employees or people in your network for recommendations.
Another option is to use social media and professional sites like LinkedIn to contact prospects directly.
4. Work With Your Current Team During The Interview Stage
Participation from current employees in the hiring process increases your employer brand as a positive workplace.
Also, members of the team may detect synergies or conflicts that could be hard to spot in an interview, and they can also give fresh perspectives on how a candidate could fit into the existing structure.
5. Optimise Your Hiring Process To Ensure Timely Candidate Selection
Optimising your hiring process does not just create a seamless experience for applicants but also allows you to close potential hiring promptly in order to keep progress going and to onboard the talent promptly since competition for top talent is fierce in the startup industry.
Delaying the offer process can result in passing up a highly qualified candidate to other, financially stable competitors. Startups that make quick employment offers demonstrate to prospective employees that they are actionable, boosting their employer br
6. Give Mouth-Watering Offers
One way to stand out for startup firms, which generally have constraints on funds, is to offer unique incentives, bonuses, work flexibility, growth opportunities, and other benefits to applicants and employees.
Providing positions where an employee's work influences the company's future in a clear and tangible way can be extremely fulfilling and draw attention to potential hires
Startups can provide benefits in a more tailored manner that resonates with individuals. The benefits when incentives are identified and customised to meet the goals, requirements, or even lifestyle of an individual can be significant.
A startup's ability to retain employees throughout its early stages is directly correlated to its ability to attract and retain talented individuals. A welcoming and empathetic work environment goes a long way towards achieving this goal and also boosts your employer brand.
7. Leverage Branded Career Page Offers
In a highly competitive talent market or when your company is expanding rapidly, on-demand recruitment services like Tech1M can help you build an attractive branded career page. Branded career pages sell your company's vision, culture, and job opportunities, even without a compelling employer brand.
As an on-demand service provided by some recruitment softwares, you save time and cost by focusing on what matters while your career pages automatically reflect the current status of your job opportunities and professional identity.
Key Steps To Achieving A Successful Hiring Process Without A Strong Employer Brand
1. Planning and Strategy Development
Clearly identify the role you need to fill and the specific skills, experience, and qualifications required. Set a realistic budget to work with and timeline for the recruitment stage while considering factors like recruitment costs, salary range, and desired start date.
Develop a comprehensive job description that is clear, concise, and accurately reflects the role and responsibilities of the available position. Decide and plan how you will source candidates.
2. Sourcing and Recruitment
Actively source candidates by utilising various recruiting platforms to find candidates based on your target audience and budget. Screen resumes and only give priority benefits to candidates who meet the standard requirements, experience, and qualifications.
3. Selection and Assessment
Conduct in-depth interviews and make use of a structured interview format in order to have a structure that would guide you in asking the right questions that would give you an insight into the candidate.
Consider adding additional assessments like a skills test, an aptitude test, and a social interaction test to give further insight about a candidate. Ensure your hiring practices are fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory.
Keep candidates informed about the status of their application and provide timely feedback. Shortlist candidates with the highest score after collation has been done to proceed to the final stage.
4. Offer and Acceptance
Extend a competitive and mouth-watering offer that would include important details about salary, benefits, work type (whether remote or hybrid), and start date.
Address any concerns or questions the new hire may have and provide a smooth onboarding process to help the new employee integrate into the team and organisation.
5. Ongoing Evaluation and Improvement
Gather feedback from the new hire and the hiring team, this helps identify areas that need improvement and assess the effectiveness of the hiring process.
Continuously improve your hiring process based on the feedback you receive and make adjustments to your future hiring process.
Startup hiring is about more than just filling positions; it's also about making strategic decisions that might determine the company's future. Due to startups' limited resources, a hiring mistake is not one to make. Rather, they should go into the hiring process knowing exactly what they want, and they should put an emphasis on cultural fit, adaptability, and enthusiasm rather than on more conventional measures of success, regardless of whether they are still working on developing their employer brand image.
