How to Hire in the Digital Age
In a panel discussion at the recent Intel Capital Global Summit, a range of executives discussed hiring tactics and ultimately ended up on the question every executive seems to be asking: How do you get millennials to want to work at your company?
Why would millennials ever want to work for your company?
Not interested in formal training or climbing the career ladder, what exactly are millennials looking for?
How do you identify up-and-comers?
Okay, good. Now that you have talent, what’s the best way to retain talent?
Why would anyone ever want to work for your company? It’s a fair question, especially if it’s a company few people have heard of. No doubt, hiring can be tough if you’re are a startup that can’t offer the same base salary as a more established company. But maybe that’s to your advantage.
In the potential hire’s eyes, you are the winning company they want to be a part of. The reason why the potential talent is interested in joining is because of your mission and the possibility of getting to work on really interesting projects with people (a.k.a. you!) they can learn from. Once you hire the right people, you have to make sure they fit into your culture, make sure they like their work, and are happy several months after they begin. With so many stages of the hiring process to navigate and nurture, I pulled together the top 10 take aways from the panel Quest for the Best at the Intel Capital Global Summit to help you build your growing team.
1. Word-of-Mouth
“How you present your company matters. It’s your company’s talent brand, not just your product brand. People will want to work for companies they perceive as innovative. Google is the most sought after company by top graduates. The culture at Google is legendary. Word gets around that it’s a fun place to work.” -Nancy Albertini, chairman of Kingsley Gate
2. Know The Local Hiring Environment
“If you’re trying to hire in Silicon Valley, you are facing different issues — there are more opportunities than there are people for them. When recruiting, it is wise to consider people both in and outside Silicon Valley. For example, in terms of engineers, some people are interviewing people in China for jobs in Palo Alto.” -Nancy Albertini, chairman of Kingsley Gate
3. How To Identify New Talent
“We look for up-and-comers by looking for outcome-based results such as: Did you close a million dollars in sales? It’s black and white. By doing this, we create a focus on outcomes that are easy to spot if someone over-delivers. Culture is not what you say it is, it is who you are. It’s easy to come up with a set of values and put it up on the walls. It’s hard to create a consistent way that everyone operates in. Once you do and it consistently shows through, it becomes addictive.” — Ragy Thomas, CEO and founder of Sprinklr
4. There’s Something About 6 Months
“Another technique that has had excellent results occurs when an employee submits their resignation. We have a client that keeps a good relationship and maintains contact. At six months after that employee left, they approach the departed employee with an offer to return and a proposed career path. Once an employee comes back, they don’t leave. It works almost 100 percent of the time.” — Nancy Albertini, chairman of Kingsley Gate
5. Have A Consistent Culture
“If you go out of your way, you may alienate a lot of people. Maybe it’s okay to have some super stars. You have to do what is consistent with your culture. I created a special group and gave them freedom.” — Steve Papa, chairman and founder of Parallel Wireless
6. Look Abroad for Talent
“Here’s an interesting approach for engineers: we had a client who started sending LinkedIn invitations to soldiers in Afghanistan. They would engage soldiers before they came home and then would recruit them for positions when they left the military. This client would also take the time to fill in gaps with online courses while the soldiers were still overseas. This is a pool that has less competition than traditional recruiting techniques.” — Nancy Albertini, chairman of Kingsley Gate
7. How To Stand Out
“For startups, you need the most talent. However, it’s hard to compete [with established companies when it comes to] salaries and stock options. Sell talent on the mission and the vision. Be choosy in who you go after.” -Ragy Thomas, CEO and founder of Sprinklr, Inc.
“It’s also about the pursuit of credibility. Venture capital is a great way to get credibility. However, some companies are already capital efficient[and don’t need outside funding].” — Steve Papa, chairman and founder of Parallel Wireless
8. Your Online Reputation Matters
“Social media is a channel. Through LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, you can reach more people than you ever could. The world is connected and has become social. It forces you into transparency. [The possible hire] is one connection or three reviews from finding out what it really is like to work for a company. You should be careful in how you appear online.” -Ragy Thomas, CEO and founder of Sprinklr, Inc.
9. Work Can’t Feel Like Work
“Millennials are fearless and impatient. These guys aren’t motivated by money or a career path. They are about how they feel that day or that week. You have to figure out how to make work/life fun. They don’t want to be trained like us. We tried to take away all the things that make you feel as if you are at work. Our office looks like a house. You have to infuse a culture and let them be themselves.” — Ragy Thomas, CEO and founder of Sprinklr, Inc.
“It’s about knowing what you are looking for. We are recruiting for teams. [Millennials] are interested in working on gnarly problems and want to work together to form relationships that will last a lifetime. We structure their work so they can collaborate. In a larger company, people want to be connected with each other.” -Deb Budd, director of executive talent management at Intel Corporation
10. The Fast Rewards Won’t Keep Them
“If you are competing on the basis of perks, you will lose. I don’t celebrate when an employee gets hired. I want them to be happy 90 days [after they start working]. It’s the difference between dating and getting married. [It’s more transparent] when you let them know what is wrong with you and then you don’t worry about day-to-day retention tactics.” — Ragy Thomas, CEO and founder of Sprinklr
The discussion above was based on the panel Houlihan Lokey’s managing director Susan Blanco moderated called “The Quest of The Best” at the Intel Capital Global Summit.
Full disclosure: This is the third story of a five article series about startups and venture capital. This series received support from Intel, who sponsored and invited me to attend the Intel Capital Global Summit last week. The first story published is called How to Pitch a VC. The second story is Scaling Your Company to $30M.
