How to recruit for a startup
Recruitment is a hard gamble for any business. Recruiting for a startup is even more challenging. But finding and hiring the right first hires is important for the startup’s growth, because they play a critical role of shaping the company’s future.
Unlike big businesses with their resources and larger-than-life profiles, that have the advanced technology and the applicants lining up for jobs, startups have a much more challenging time. The average cost of hiring an employee is $4,129. With a limited budget and the need for better cost management, this makes the hiring process for startups difficult.
Hiring for startups can be the toughest task for its founders. In addition to the budget crunch, they have to toil to get the right people. And they can also make mistakes along the way.
Let’s understand why recruiting for startups is difficult and some recruitment strategies that startups can adopt to hire the right talent.
Why is it difficult to hire for a startup?
- It may lack job security
When an employee isn’t really working, there is no job security either at a startup or at an enterprise. The difference lies in the moderation process, where the moderation process in an enterprise is annual, hence giving employees a chance to cover-up in a year, the moderation time for startups differs from one company to another.
Startups depend on investors’ money to run their operations and grow. But they tend to have tight cash-flows. A drop in cash-flows could lead to lay-offs, otherwise the firm wouldn’t be able to survive.
- It takes one to do a job of two
Working for a startup means donning multiple hats and covering a lot of ground. Employees get a chance to learn and experiment with new technologies, but it also means that they will be rushed out of their comfort zone and work with things they didn’t before.
- Startups don’t pay as well
A majority of the Gen Z and Millennial working population consider salary as their biggest motivator while selecting a job. For startups, strict budget restraints make it difficult to sustain high salaries. The common perception is the startups may not pay the best salaries.
What are the strategies to recruit right for a startup?
Here are some strategies and tips that will make a startup stand out to potential hires.
- Learn how to recruit top talent
Knowing how to find employees is the first step to hiring them. Your startup may lack the resources and brand awareness, but you don’t have to juts rely on traditional job boards to recruit top talent.
Use your personal network of friends and acquaintances for referrals to find great hires. Apart from this, networking and recruitment events al also a great place to start your search and also enables you to get spread your brand awareness. One also can’t deny the advantage provided by social media to spread the message. You can also work with recruiters that work specifically with startups to get you in touch with qualified candidates.
- Sell your company’s mission
During the stages of its infancy, when a startup may not have the reputation or the financial resources to outbid the industrial giants, it can make up for it with more creative ways. A great way to practice it is by selling your company’s vision. A clear company vision can get prospective employees excited. Share a vision for your startup which paints a picture of the future; What the company stands for, its mission statement, and its core values.
But simply conveying your vision, values, and culture isn’t sufficient. You need to be transparent and also show that there is real potential for the startup to be successful. Be honest about the company’s position and clear about the plan of action to to take the company where it needs to be in the future. By showing high-quality candidates your company’s progress, projections, and taking them through business growth plans, you can show them that the startup has potential to grow into something bigger.
- Present unique incentives
Startups are new and free from the governance of legacy establishments and red-tapism. They have the power to establish their own culture and employment benefits. With this freedom as your best opportunity, you can offer unique incentives to attract and hire the best talent.
Startups today have broken away form the old of traditional 9-5 workdays by offering employees more flexibility for remote working or hybrid working. Remote working is a no-cost perk, and widens the pool of candidates to help you find top talent.
Startups can also provide another mode of financial incentives, since they aren’t always in a position to provide a big salary or bonus – employee equity or partial ownership. This offers a different element of financial compensation to the equation, and incentivizes employees with the chance of a big financial return when the company starts running successfully.
Finally, continually improve your startup recruitment process. As the business grows, its requirements will also expand. It’s necessary to keep your recruitment process well-oiled, as this is an employee’s first line of contact with the company. Discuss pertinent questions about the recruitment process with the team, such as the methods that secured the most qualified candidates, candidates’ feedback to the recruitment process, and gaps that were identified within the process.
You can also leverage modern recruitment software that are available for low costs in the recruitment software market. Recruitment management software helps automate the recruitment process to simplify employee and candidate workflow, cuts down on costs and saves time. All to help you find people that are right for your startup.
peopleHum is an end-to-end, one-view, integrated Human Capital Management automation platform, the winner of the 2019 global Codie Award for HCM that is specifically built for crafted employee experiences and the future of work.
