Build Up Your Pirates Team: Startup Recruitment Tips

A startup needs a pirate team. You are going on a mission to defy the odds. It is really a battle out there. You need to put together a team that compliment your skills sets, gets along and is supercharged. You have to make decisions. These “who” decisions tend to be more difficult and more important than “what” decisions. So how do you go about building your pirate team? I say pirate team because your team needs to be highly skilled, versatile and agile. They have to able to sail the ship smoothly and weather the storms. A startup has its ups and downs. One moment you are sailing high with tons of excitement, the next moment you’re not sure if you will operate tomorrow. But that’s what entrepreneurs live for – the excitement and thrill. The fact that you get up on Monday and say yes let’s launch this thing. Here are some tips to prepare you for your next rock star recruit and retain:

1. Assess the required skills sets and budget (if any). Before go about hiring figure out what area do you need help and where can that individual add value to the bottom line? Founders must be aware of their skills sets. Find people that compliment your skill sets, not duplicate your skill sets. When it comes to budget think about how this role will play based on the volume of work. Is it a part-time role? Is it full-time? Can you hire a freelancer? One good rule of thumb is if the company does not make a dollar for three months can it still pay that employee? Full-time hire requires serious commitment and budget.

2. Job fit and culture fit is needed both for a successful hire. One without the other won’t work. When it comes to job fit, in a start-up you need highly skilled employees. This partly because a) you might not have those skills sets b) No time or resources to train. Equally important is culture fit. People that have values and characteristics aligned with the organization. A candidate may be job fit but not organization fit and vice versa. Look for both and do not comprise these two elements. Compromising these elements can result in turn-over and you will be back at square one in no time.

3. Focus on portfolio and side projects, NOT the resume. When it comes to start-up hiring resume is as useless as it gets. Resumes are not a good predictor of candidate success in the job. You need to zoom in on candidate’s portfolio, projects and skill sets. For example if your hiring a developer take a look at their previous websites and how to do they represent themselves online.

4. Look for startup characteristic. Start-ups require people with certain characteristics and values. It’s not a fit for everyone. Look out for these characteristic:

a) Someone who gets the vision – During the interview you have to not only paint the big picture, but see if the candidate gets it. Ask them for their opinion on certain processes or how they would approach the problem? While you need opinionated and voiced employees, you also need people that will execute the vision and can hold a healthy argument. Healthy arguments are needed in startups.

b) Can switch gears – Startups need people that are not afraid to explore other areas than their expertise.

c) Takes ownership – This is absolutely critical. Look for candidates that take initiative and ownership in their project. They take care of it, polish it and execute it.

d) Represent the brand well – Personal branding speaks volume about the candidate. As a team, you want to have individuals who care about this.

e) In it to win it – Let’s add competitiveness here. Your mission matters. You need employees that are in it to win it! We need competitiveness to push ourselves beyond what’s achievable.

5. Value Alignment – Employees need to believe in your mission, if they don’t they won’t pour their heart and soul into their work. It will just be another “job”. As entrepreneurs you need to figure the value of your organization and see if potential candidates have the same. What do you value most in organization? Integrity? Team work? Take a few minutes to come with top values for your organization and observe those in the candidate. As successful startups your decisions need to reflect on those values every single day.

6. Know and communicate your value preposition. Value preposition boils down to knowing what you offer that other places won’t. For example think about having flexible schedule, equity in the company or just the experience of the candidate being involved in all aspects of the business. The experience at a startup is second to none!

7. Integrate and retain new employees. Retention is as important as recruiting. From the get go start having a simple and effective on boarding process. This includes going over mission, vision and values. Additionally include guidelines and the business model. Some startups go as far as having new employees train on client care on the first week of job to appreciate more understanding of the business. It’s important to go beyond having on boarding process. Consider ideas such as team building activities, hack-days, or even industry events.

8. Always be recruiting. That meeting you just had. That employee of yours already quit before you know it. Yes, it does happen. Expect quits. People tend to be unpredictable. So you need to always be recruiting and not get down because one employee decided to make the next career move. Of course, by all means do your best of the best to provide an environment of excellence, great culture and strive to retain your employees.

Keep those tips in mind and cheers to your next rock star recruit and retain! If you’re looking for more tips on hiring and best practices follow Keyobi on Twitter! https://twitter.com/KeyobiTalent