How To Attract Talent Like A Startup
Let’s just dive into what matters: how to attract talent like a startup — regardless of company size. We’ll cover what’s happening in the talent acquistion ecosystem, startup talent attraction examples, and key takeaways on how to shift into a startup recruiting mentality.
What really matters when building great teams? Craig Fisher (a high-growth team building expert & change agent) powerfully reminds us what matters most when scaling teams. It’s simple. BE HUMAN. He also re-termed Employer Branding to THE EMPLOYEE BRAND. These profound statements are fundamental to attracting talent as we blaze new trails.
LET’S REVIEW THE FACTS
1. All companies compete for talent. Startups, Fortune 500, mid-sized companies, etc. No company in the world has employees magically appear.
2. Newer generations entering — and already in — the workforce behave and think different. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t try to understand the psyche of people they don’t get — which frankly seems contradictory to what we should do instinctively as people leaders.
2. HRTech, Human Resources, Recruiting, and Talent Acquisition aren’t transforming fast enough to keep up with other industries — because it’s easier to stick with comfortable and the known.
4. Pattern shifts. The resume is dying. Every year, people creating LinkedIn profiles decrease at the alarming rate of >18%. Job boards are nearly useless. Yet, 5 years ago, these channels were baseline to building teams.
5. True HRTech innovation isn’t being adopted. There are amazing technologies and products, but the adoption curve is brutally slow because they’re different.
6. Leadership, entrepreneurs, and many practitioners are getting tired of the rat race so they’re jumping ship from traditional and diving into the unchartered waters of innovation to attract talent. *high five*
Let’s change the tone of “this isn’t fun to read” to how to be awesome — and check out some successful startup talent attraction methods that are simply cool, different, cost effective, and successful.
Conjur
Conjur’s engineering leadership wanted to cater to each engineering persona, so they created an authentic microsite with a little help from friends at Digital Muse, plus microsites for each engineering position. They use transparency to attract the people they want and who want them. And it works.
Next, Conjur threw out the typical application process, replacing it with a cool, custom puzzle. Engineers have solved the puzzle even if they weren’t ready for a move. How about building a relationship and being memorable?! Can’t beat that. Cost-per-hire: let’s just say 1/20 of an agency fee.
Datawire.io
Datawire has a few dimensions for attracting talent. They didn’t want to stick with the status quo, so built new programs to attract each employee persona. They started by understanding their users, then moved to who it was they wanted, and built multiple programs based on that intell. It all wrapped up nicely in a full-on attraction program resulting in a 15 day average time-to-hire. I can’t give away all their secrets, but will show you two successful examples. One went viral, and one was specific for a high-demand profile. Instead of viral, they delivered an exclusive message to attract the desired persona.
LET’S GO VIRAL
When the need for a UI/UX Architect arose, they tested a simple and free thing — that which we know of as a gif. Well, that gif & video combined went viral.
Time-to-hire: 1 week.
Cost: interview time.
That was a success if I’ve ever seen one. And so simple.
EXCLUSIVITY PLAY
They switched gears when trying to find a very specific set of skills. If you seek specific, then be specific and targeted. They did just that and created a video FOR that profile.
Wouldn’t you respond to that? Cost: interview/video creation time.
The possibilities are endless. Find 7 more authentic talent attraction/branding ideas here — all c/o startup brain power. If you have any questions about how these were created, I’ll happily give you the info.
And finally…
ACTION ITEMS FOR SUCCESS
1. If you take one point away from this article, consider trying to understand people through a lens other than your own. Try seeing through theirs. From there, connect the dots to what aligns with your company.
2. Simplify everything. Less is more — for all involved.
3. Build new programs specific to people you want to attract. Don’t research other companies — build YOUR OWN. Differentiation is key.
4. Use inbound marketing for branding and constant attraction. The yield of being reactionary isn’t quite as high as it used to be. See what Hubspot or CoSchedule could do for you.
5. Focus on candidate experience and a simple workflow.
6. Consider new HRTech products. They help and decrease cost. There are new things out there that are efficient and cost effective like: Hiretual (see Steven), Wade & Wendy (see Drew), Talera, MailDB to name just a few.
7. Consider re-organizing your team into a multi-dimensional structure so you can cover sourcing, branding, experience, marketing, and the process.
That’s it. Hope it helps your company grow faster than ever. That was the entire purpose of writing this.
*Next article in que — what motivates an Engineer to work with a company.
