It takes many months to find
the right, skilled, reliable and determined talent and bring them on board your
hot new startup idea or company. And it’s not going to get any easier. The
competition for good talent is so fierce right now and attracting great talent
to a startup can be a nightmare. You want specific candidates who care about
your startup, your products, your customers, and most important your job.
People who understand the industry you operate in and the requirements of the
job.
Besides the great idea you
have, the big market you’re after, if you’re going to hack it huge you need to
focus on the people you hire or attract to your startup.
1. Character over skill set
So for example how do you hire
a good developer if you're not a programmer? Find a good programmer to help you
hire a developer. Right? But if you can't recognize good programmers, how would
you even do that? This illustrates a common challenge in recruitment in
startups. How can a CS guy pick a smart marketing guy in a batch of smooth
talkers and liars? Referrals? Share the vacancy on job boards? Should you hire
character then train skill? Or pick skill, education and experience over
character and culture?
Don't hire or work with someone
you dislike because they have some skill you need and worry you won't find
anyone else to get the product ready on time. Look out for people who show some
focus, the discipline to complete projects on time, the determination to see
things through and resilience. Smart guys are also bad procrastinators,
creative designers are perfectionists they critique their work thus take longer
at it, great developers new tech superstars are a little weird there’s also ego
to massage there J
Talk to the candidates about
what they’ve done. Ask them about their most impressive projects and biggest
wins. Specifically, ask them about how they spend their time during an average
day, and what they got done in the last month. Evaluate guys on work they’ve
done in the past, review their skills based on what they’re working on/at the
moment and pick them based on the work they can do in future.
2. Your Culture
Culture is your competitive
advantage while attracting talent. It’s about you, your people, culture,
leadership, core values and vision and basically what people external to the
organization think of you. The culture of a startup really matters a lot to the
success of the entity. Great people attract other great people in just about
any company startup, SME or Multinational; as soon as you get a mediocre person
or a few in, this entire phenomenon can unwind. In the grind of a startup, it
is very easy to hire someone that is not quite smart enough or a culture fit
because you really need a specific job done. Hire people who are a natural fit
to your culture.
3. The Friends and Relatives
Blackspot
The friends and family help a
lot in getting the work done at no cost especially in the early days. If most
of your employees are from one tribe, family, race then this may hinder your
chances of attracting new talent or retaining great personnel. You need to have
a balanced multi talented team for the greater good of the startup, so don't
include your wingman because he'd feel left out. The people are the most
important ingredient in a startup, so don't compromise there not even with
friends & relatives.
4. Be firm but not horrible
People will soon forget what
you did, but will never forget how you make them feel especially when they are
on the receiving end. Be firm with your judgment; let your team know what is
acceptable and what isn’t. Be a cool but ensure work is done, timelines met and
work is never compromised because people feel they can get away with anything!
Disputes can be avoided if you’re more careful about who you go into business
with and whom you work with. Most disputes are not due to the situation but the
people. It's much easier to firmly fix issues early. Let your employees
understand the black and white of most processes, procedures and approach to
issues. Don’t be a jerk or a control freak though.
5. Have Job Descriptions
It’s advisable to have job
descriptions to ensure people understand their scope of work and what is
expected of them. JD’s are important for funded startups or those that have
been in existence for over six months and have over five employees.
However if having JDs is too
boring for your cool startup then at least have ‘deliverables’ for everyone,
call them targets, timelines, expectations, clear assignments and tasks. This
helps identify who to recognize, reward, promote, fire, demote or transfer or
rotate. As you implement this in an early stage company encourage collaboration
and teamwork to ensure employees assist others in areas of their interest, have
skills or knowledge in.Remember that in a growing startup, anyone you hire is
likely to be doing a new job in three to six months. Hire guys who are
adaptable. People who have great appetite for bigger challenges, excited about
learning new things, people who are willing to do one more thing for the team.
Do check out this interesting Infographic by Deloitte too.
Side Note:
“A programmer is most
productive with a quiet private office, a great computer, unlimited beverages,
an ambient temperature between 68 and 72 degrees (F), no glare on the screen, a
chair that’s so comfortable you don’t feel it, an administrator that brings
them their mail and orders manuals and books, a system administrator who makes
the Internet as available as oxygen, a tester to find the bugs they just can’t
see, a graphic designer to make their screens beautiful, a team of marketing
people to make the masses want their products, a team of sales people to make
sure the masses can get these products, some patient tech support saints who
help customers get the product working and help the programmers understand what
problems are generating the tech support calls, and about a dozen other support
and administrative functions...” (Source)