When you’re conducting the hiring process for an early-stage start-up your options can seem a bit tight. Especially when you consider the fact that you’re competing for a prime group of employees who will undoubtedly have an interest in the potentials corporate giants have to offer. When held up against the market salaries and impressive perks your competitors have to offer, you might fear that your ability to predict the future existence of your startup could come off as less alluring.
Still, despite your relative unknownness, there’s a giant pool of impressive contestants out there who are ready to work for your start-up and get it off of its feet. Like you, they’re eager to build a company from the ground up and see it flourish.
To assist your efforts in finding the best catch for your business, here are four tips to help you build a strong workforce for your startup:
Hire Employees Who Are Even Better Than You
You might be a track of all trades, but you’re probably not a master of them all. Get people on your team who are masters and experts of their trade. Remember, you want the cream of the crop in every brand of your business whether its marketing, sales or content writing. Most entrepreneurs make the mistake of hiring on friends with little expertise or potential to provide insight into particular fields in hopes that experience will make them a master. While there’s quite a bit of space for improvement and learning in the startup world, there isn’t much space for you to employ that as part of the basis of your company culture. Of course, you always want your team members learning, but you want experts who will learn as new updates about their area of expertise come about.
Build A Team That Feels Like a Family
There’s a lot to be learned from the phrase “don’t mix business with family.” It holds quite a bit of weight when it comes to blending your work and with your personal life. Still, when it comes to the people you hire at your office, don’t overlook the benefits of building a team that acts like a family.
Fostering a sense of kinship in your work environment can do a lot for your business as you work to build on team loyalty and morale. Keep this in mind as you hire on new members and develop your team. Start by including members of your team in interviews. Offer them a chance to meet with potential hires and give their input on how they will work within the company’s culture. Not only will this ensure a good fit for new hires, it will also display to your team members that you truly value their opinions and insight into how you operate your business.
Be A Clear Communicator
Having an open and clear sense of direction for your team will be paramount to your efforts to onboard new members of your team. From the outset, you should include new hires in your meetings and encourage them to participate in any brainstorming sessions. Sharing new developments and target goals with newcomers won’t just help them to assimilate to your group more easily it will also make them feel more valued. Use your assemblies as a chance to remind employees (new and old) that you’re a present leader. Remember, no matter how big or small your business is, you’ll want to establish yourself as an involved and communicative leader. Present directors are the ones that team members will view as the most reliable and will likely stick around for.
Say ‘No’
The only thing that could possibly be more important than hiring the right employee is making sure that you don’t hire the wrong one. This is especially important if you consider the time, money and efforts that can cost you if you hire the wrong one. Nothing can sink an entire operation like a team member who lacks interest, experience or doesn’t play well with others. As you pursue your mission to hire the right employee, learn who it is that you ought to say no to.
Your first step is fine-tuning your ability to assess the personality, work ethics and intentions of your potential hires. Avoid saying yes to interviews with the perfect skill sets if you have even the slightest inkling that they might not be enjoyable in the office. If you’d say no to going out to lunch with them, consider why you think it’s a good idea to spending years of your work life with them.
After you weed out potential hires who wouldn’t mix well with others at the office focus your efforts on dodging employees with managerial experiences. It might sound counterintuitive but remember most managers have skills that lie in project management and delegation. These qualities are typically all wrong for the startup environment. Mostly because startups require team members who can take up projects and responsibilities on their own and won’t be wary of getting their hands dirty.
Finally, don’t hire interviewers you suspect might solely be into the efforts of your startup because of the money. Anyone who might seem eager to join your team because of its Facebook, Airbnb and Uber equity potential will likely jump ship as soon as they can buy their stock options. For your first round of employees, make sure that you hire only those who are as close to being emotionally invested in your startup as you are.
