Startup recruiting can be an uphill battle. Many CEOs spend about 40% of their work hours on recruitment-related operations like hiring, HR chores, and payroll, according to the Society for Human Resources Management.
Nevertheless, studies reveal that the success rate of recruitment is just about 43%, even with all the efforts made.
To succeed or fail in today's fast-paced, innovative startup environment, one must know how to use the correct startup recruiting techniques when looking to hire.
In this article, we will give a detailed list of dos and don’ts for startup recruiting with facts to back up our claims.
What is startup recruiting?
Startup recruiting is the process of finding and employing people to work for new organisations. The process begins with a list of open positions, continues with detailed job descriptions, continues with advertising for qualified candidates, interviews, and finally, the selection and onboarding of new employees.
The recruiting process at startups is very different from that of big corporations because it's not just about hiring but about recruiting the best talent who can contribute to the growth and success of the company.
Startup recruiting Do’s
1. Do Away With Stereotypical Job Ads
Clearly communicate what you're looking for in a candidate, including the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications, in your job descriptions and ads.
Make sure the job title precisely describes the position and duties. An interesting introduction that describes your firm and its amazing features is a good place to start. To ensure that candidates are informed, specify all the necessary requirements for the position.
2. Invest In Your Employer Branding
A strong employer brand is more crucial than a competitive wage or a flexible work schedule when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. This is particularly important because it distinguishes startups from rivals and attracts market-leading talent.
According to a LinkedIn report, companies that invest in employer branding are three times more likely to make a quality hire.
Your employer branding can start with an impressive branded career page where candidates can learn more about your company culture and values. Also, use social media to share your authentic brand story and how you value meaningful work for your employees.
3. Streamline Your Hiring Process
An overly complex and cumbersome process can discourage candidates during recruitment. Find ways to simplify the process, from job posting to onboarding.
Consider implementing systems to streamline their hiring, which could involve outsourcing at critical points or adopting technology to track and manage the process. This ensures that your startup recruiting process remains effective regardless of the number of hires needed.
Additionally, it helps remove unconscious bias, enabling better assessment of candidates' skills and cultural fit for the business.
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4. Focus on Key Roles
It is important to have a team of people with varied backgrounds and areas of expertise. However, for a startup, the cost of employee maintenance is a factor.
In startup recruiting, it's important to focus on key roles and positions necessary to build a lean team. Whether the team consists of a large number of people or a small number doesn’t matter. As long as the team consists of competent individuals who can get the job done.
Steve Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple as a startup that they ran out of their garage, and they later grew it into a multimillion dollar company. This shows that the number of people in a team doesn’t matter when it’s small. But as long as the team members are competent and can get the job done, then your startup is good to go.
5. Prioritise Employee Experience
The goal of employee experience in startup hiring is to provide workers with an enjoyable workplace. Workplace elements that contribute to a positive work environment include a supportive company culture, opportunities for professional development, and flexible work arrangements.
Startups need to prioritise employee experience because it helps put the company on the right track.
For instance, employee experience doesn’t only start when you employ a talent; it starts right from the job application process, down to the interview stage, before the final employment stage. The employee experience says a lot about a startup to a potential employee.
Startup Recruiting Don’ts
1. Don’t Rush The Hiring Process
Taking time to carefully consider your options is important in ensuring you make the best hiring decision possible. Jumping into the hiring process without careful consideration can result in mistakes and potential problems in the future. According to Forbes,the cost of making a bad hire can result in recruitment debts.
Successful startup recruiting requires mapping out the steps of the hiring process and alotting time to complete each one. This will help you avoid making rash judgements that can result in hiring the wrong people. To make the process of evaluating candidates easier, use online tests and application tracking platforms like Tech1M.
2. Don’t Neglect Diversity And Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion must be considered when hiring new employees. Startups can gain strategic and competitive advantages while simultaneously aligning with social and ethical standards. Beginning with your startup recruiting process, work towards creating a culture that values diversity and inclusion.
To ensure fairness Job descriptions should be written in a way that appeals to a wide range of candidates in order to encourage diversity and inclusion. It is important for job descriptions to be inclusive and free of bias, so that they do not exclude any particular group from consideration. Startup teams benefit from diverse perspectives and ideas.
3. Don’t Make Unrealistic Promises
Making unrealistic promises in startup hiring can lead to dissatisfaction, turnover, and a negative reputation for the company.
It's important to be transparent and honest with potential hires about the challenges and opportunities within the startup environment. The consequences of making unrealistic promises in startup recruiting include:
- High turnover rates
- Difficulty attracting and retaining top talent
- Damage to the company's reputation within the industry and among potential hires
It's important for startups to be honest about the challenges and uncertainties that come with working for a startup company while also highlighting the potential for growth and impact.
4. Don’t Overlook The Importance Of Skill Based Hiring
To a large extent, startups fail to recognise the value of "soft skills," such as the ability to communicate effectively, work well with others, and adapt to new situations.
When evaluating a candidate's skills, 92% of hiring managers, according to a LinkedIn survey, place soft talents on par with or above hard skills.
Incorporate questions that reveal candidates' soft skills and enhance your team's skills by investing in training and development programmes.
5. Don’t Neglect Your Company’s Culture, Values, And Vision
One notable rule in startup recruiting, is to choose people that share your culture, values, and vision.
Finding and hiring people whose beliefs and goals are compatible with those of the organisation is important and as a result, staff's attitude to work will be positive, workers will be happier, and the startup will have a better chance of succeeding.
There can be major repercussions if cultural fit is not considered while hiring. The majority of companies (88%) consider cultural fit to be very important when making hiring decisions, according to research by Jobvite. When hiring new employees, many startups look for candidates with specific sets of skills and expertise. Although these are crucial, they shouldn't be considered more important than cultural fit.
Strategies for Finding Best Hires from Successful Founders
It can be hard to find the right first hires, especially for a company in its early stages. You don't have to walk the road by yourself, though.
Most startup founders have adopted strategies to hire successfully, considering the peculiarity of their startup. Here are some strategies for finding best hires from successful founders.
1. Stay Lean- Keep hiring to a minimum
According to the co-founder of Poko, Geoffrey See, one startup recruiting strategy they employed was to keep hiring to a minimum until they figured out their product-market fit. Startups that have the tendency to pivot should hire in just a few key areas that need special expertise.
“Bring in people with more experience, don’t build very big teams, and make sure they’re comfortable that their roles will shift over time”, he said.
Experience here means experience in a startup. Candidates that have worked with a startup would likely have the tendency to adapt to the changing landscape of a startup and how to work with lean resources. As is the case of Poko, this minimality helped them when they pivoted their product.
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2. Hire for Flexibility
At the early stage, the ability to adapt fast matters more than expertise shares Cofounder of Coderschool, an edtech platform. Charles Lee explains that flexibility is one successful tip for finding best hires.
The most important skill they sought in their first hires was passion. Passionate and flexible candidates make for a thriving and growing startup.
Startups can evaluate candidates flexibility through structured interviews, custom and video assessments and project trials.
Passionate candidates can easily adapt to and buy into the company's vision. Hiring for flexibility over skills seems to have been a successful strategy for a company that has grown over the past few years.
3. Define Culture First, before Hiring
For Logan Tan and Eezee Team, defining company culture first before scaling is one of their hiring strategies.
Subsequently, instilling cultural value before mass hiring solidifies the culture, avoiding corruption. Communicating extensively what your culture is to potential candidates helps you sieve through uninterested candidates.
According to him, "bringing on specialised talent prematurely before having a clear direction, he adds, comes with the risk of pigeonholing your startup too early. If you hire a rockstar Google Ads marketer, you’ll likely wind up trying to find ways to make your product perform well on Google. But perhaps the real customers for your product lie elsewhere.”
There are no hard and fast rules to scaling your startup, but applying any of these strategies that work within your startup, you'll be on your way to finding your best hire.
For startups to thrive and expand, it is crucial to have a strategy for recruiting top talent. Using these strategies , companies are able to entice highly skilled individuals, who then contribute their extensive knowledge and experience to the company.
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