When you start a startup, you will reach a point when you will find it necessary to add people to your team. As the workload increases and deadlines become tighter, startup hiring becomes essential in order to grow and scale your startup. However, you need to be really careful when you start the hiring process. Recruitment is a very important part of your startup, especially in the early stages. One casual mistake could damage your startup to a huge extent. In this article, we will be talking about how to hire effectively in a startup, and the mistakes you should definitely avoid while doing so.
Hiring too quickly
One of the biggest mistakes startup founders makes while hiring is that they hire too quickly. What they do not realize is that if startup hiring is done too quickly, it can work against them. Bottom line, avoid hiring quickly, and too many people at once. Why? Because of the following reasons:
1. Expenses:
When you start the recruitment process, remember that it will take a toll on your capital reserves. Good employees don’t come cheap. Be prepared to fork out a significant amount as their salary. Now, it is important that you analyze the situation of your startup. Are you financially stable enough to bear this hiring expense? Can you afford to hire one employee or more than that? You need to analyze all of this before you begin hiring. If you don’t do this, you might end up hiring more people than the startup can afford, and ultimately the company might go bankrupt.
2. Impact on Startup Culture
If you rapidly expand your team, you might not be able to retain the startup culture you established initially. This has a negative impact on the company, as a startup culture is one of the most crucial aspects of success. As your team grows, there is a high possibility of your values and norms being diluted if the expansions are not regulated properly. Bringing on too many people at once might cause your culture to fade away.
3. Toxicity
If you hire too quickly, you might end up hiring the wrong people. One toxic person is capable of taking the entire company down. Toxicity spreads rapidly, hence, it is important that you hire people very carefully, and not carelessly. The people that you hire should be qualified for the respective role and should fit well with the company’s culture as well.
Startup Hiring Strategies
Having a poor team is one of the top reasons why startups fail. Which is why you need to make sure that you hire the right people. People that are competent, as wells as fit in with company values at the same time. So, how do you ensure this? Well, by implementing a few strategies that enable you to hire efficiently and effectively. So let’s take a look at what these strategies are.
1. Conduct a thorough analysis
Before you take any step, you need to analyze the current situation of your startup. Yes, aiming for growth is essential, however, you really need to conduct your due diligence and not jump into it without research and a plan.
So, evaluate your roadmap, your timeline, and the expansion plan. Where do you want the startup to be in a certain amount of time? How do you want it to be scaled? How many people do you require to achieve that? Can your startup financially support this growth plan? And what is your current capital reserves? It is very important that you address and answer these questions before you being hiring. This will provide you with the basis of the recruitment framework required to scale, and one that your startup can sustain. You won’t really look like a smart founder if you run out of the startup funding that you acquired.
2. Be patient with the new recruits
Hiring new people does not mean that you throw them in to work the very next day. Instead, take your time with them and make it a gradual process. Train them guide them, and familiarize them with the startup culture and the values you have established. In order for your startup to be successful, you need to make sure that everyone is well equipped with the required skill set, and fit in with the company values. This holds the most importance for the new hires. Hiring them should improve the company’s performance, not bring it down. Be sure to conduct thorough screenings of employment history and administer any legal testing like drug test, criminal background check, and employee history verification.
3. Part time employees and contractors
The concept of hiring people part time, or as contractors, was an alien concept back in the days. However, now you will find more and more companies going for part time employees. Why? Because they cost less and do not a major drain on your capital reserves. Also, they are really great for long term situations due to their continuity, dependability, and flexibility. So try mixing in a few part-time candidates and contractors, with your full-time workforce.
Also Read: How to grow you startup
These were the 3 main strategies that you could use to do better startup hiring. A few other tips include focusing on one expansion plan at a time, not discriminate while hiring, making use of people working remotely, and establishing a healthy startup culture. Using these, and those mentioned above, you can scale and grow your startup effectively without putting a strain on your budget. Drop your questions in the comments section below, or reach out to us at PACE Business.
