Hiring strategies start-ups should implement

Hiring the right talent can have a transformative impact on the prospects of a start-up business and Google’s vice president for technical infrastructure, Urs Holzle, recently claimed a robust recruitment strategy is vital for laying the foundation for a successful future. Setting out this strategy before hiring staff is crucial if you want to make the right decisions and source people that can support the start-up and enable it to grow and flourish.

Recruitment is king

Start-ups often place a greater emphasis on business activities such as cash flows, sales, marketing and customer experience than recruitment. To secure high-quality candidates, start-ups need to move heaven and earth to accommodate and impress prospective employees. Building the right team is 90 percent of the job for a CEO so give it the attention it deserves.

To appeal to the best candidates, you will need to define your culture in terms that are in depth and relatable and ensure you interact and communicate with them via a variety of offline and digital touchpoints. You wouldn’t leave a high-quality sales lead waiting for days so take the same approach to recruitment. Make them feel wanted and valued at all times.

Hire a contractor

You should always analyse the potential costs and benefits of bringing in a new employee. Some of the cost factors include recruitment outlay covering advertising and interviewing, the salary for the job role, any taxes involved, space and training required and onboarding considerations, while benefits include the possible increase in revenue and sales, additional expertise and knowledge and contribution to expansion plans.

Contractors and other flexible workers are particularly useful for start-ups as you will be able to source the talent and skills you need for a set period without having to commit long term. It also allows you to scale your workforce as you see fit depending on demands and plans. Hiring a contractor registered to an umbrella company can streamline the process even further as their paperwork and expenses will be taken care of and they will already have access to full employment rights.

Start-up focused recruitment

The start-up work environment is fast paced and constantly in flux so you will need employees that can think for themselves quickly and be adaptable to a range of different situations. “Start-ups can often hire a good person but at the wrong stage of the company’s life. In the early days, you need to optimise for those comfortable with uncertainty, change, less structure and a flat hierarchy,” CloudPeeps founder and CEO, Kate Kendall says.

Cross talent

Recruitment expert Dean Da Costa believes “cross talented” professionals should also be a priority as jack of all trade types are much more useful when team building compared to bringing in employees that can only do one or two things. However, you must have an open mind to the skills you will need in the future. For example, advertising using Google AdWords may be central to growth so finding an expert in this niche is essential. Hiring employees for each stage of a start-up is the best strategy, and this again is where contractors and freelancers can excel.