What It Takes to Find the Right Talent as a London-Based Startup
Recruiting top talent takes time, effort, and money you don’t have. So use these seven easy tips to attract the best unicorns to your London-based startup today:
How do London-based startups find and attract the top talent?
With unemployment levels at near-record lows, stats show one in three London startups suffers from a shortage of tech talent[*].
Diverse, top-performing candidates are in high demand. And big companies are willing to offer them higher salaries than most young startups can afford.
So how do you gain an edge in this hyper-competitive market?
7 Tips to Help Your London-Based Startup Find and Attract the Right Talent
Recruiting out-of-this-world talent takes a lot of legwork.
But these seven tips will help you focus your recruiting efforts and encourage talent to come knocking on your door:
#1. Inspire Contagious Excitement
The first step to getting anyone to want to work for your startup is to show them what makes your business different and worth getting behind.
What are you doing better than your competition?
What’s new, exciting, and motivating about your vision?
What’s the company culture and mission?
Create palpable excitement about your brand, product, service, or leaders, and you’ll connect with people eager to see your mission through to success.
So make sure to:
- Share your mission on your website and social profiles. Anyone who navigates to your brand should know what you and your crew stand for. And they should be excited about what they read.
- Create a page dedicated to your company culture. Candidates will be able to visualize what it will be like to work for your startup when they read about your goals, values, and practices.
- Engage in online industry discussions to position your brand as an authority in its niche, provoke memorable chats, and network with potential hires.
- Encourage referrals from your current team members. Your crew has an extensive network of potential coworkers, and someone you already trust to vouch for them.
These tips should inspire enthusiasm about your startup and have candidates gravitate towards your brand naturally.
#2. Introduce Your Team
[go team!]
Potential hires like to get the vibe of the team they may be working (long) hours with. They’ll want to know whether they’ll be a good fit and accepted into your existing flock.
So before submitting an application, candidates may sleuth around on social to see what the co-founders and employees value, share, and believe.
That’s why a page of short team bios makes all the difference.
Have each of your team members write up a blurb about themselves, and it will be easier for potential hires to envision their future with your company.
This team introduction shows that you recognize and value each member of your crew for their unique and diverse backgrounds and skills. And candidates will surely dig that.
#3. Highlight the Good Stuff
What happens when you can’t offer the most competitive salary or killer stock options?
You’ll need to make working for your startup more attractive by highlighting the other perks you offer employees.
These tell candidates what they can expect to receive for the hard work they’ll eventually put in bringing your vision to life.
These tangible benefits may include:
- Flexible work schedules and the ability to work remotely.
- Free snacks and meals in the break room and drinks during happy hour.
- Health and wellness packages, such as discounted/free gym membership, spa or massage passes, guided meditation classes, etc.
- Career advancement programs like reimbursements for continuing education.
- Company retreats to exotic locales, or extra vacation days.
These perks should reflect your commitment to creating a stellar work-life balance for your employees. And that’s very attractive to modern job seekers.
So post snaps of these upsides on your company’s website, or share them on Instagram, to inspire a bit of envy and interest.
#4. Envision Your Ideal Candidates
Does your startup have a specific role to fill, or is it just looking for new hires to handle whatever needs to get done?
Before you waste time and money on recruiting, you must understand your ideal candidate. This will not only help you find candidates with the right skills, education, and abilities, but weed out those who don’t meet your requirements.
Bonus: When you understand your dream hire, you’ll know precisely how to target your recruiting to attract them.
#5. Sponsor Learning Events
When you identify where your ideal candidates are likely to hang out, make sure your startup has exposure in these places.
Potential employees are attracted to businesses demonstrating an interest in their community, especially if they’re hiring local talent.
So you may want to:
- Hold a free class to demonstrate how to use your product or service
- Organize a workshop where people can learn a new skill
- Sponsor a local community event
- Run a trivia or karaoke night at your local watering hole
You’re bound to run into people curious to hear more about your company. And then they’ll tell all their friends.
#6. Tap Into the Returnship Market
New parents and parents returning to the workforce are the most significant sources of untapped talent for your startup.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 1.8 million UK women (and 200,000 men) have to trade off a career income to look after their family[*].
Unlike interns, these highly-qualified individuals often need little training to crush their work remotely. They’ll add diversity to your team, and their work experience will help plug skills gaps.
To tap into this market, include parent-friendly copy in all your job ads. And don’t forget to highlight perks that will interest them, such as flexible work hours, family healthcare benefits, daycare or childcare stipends, etc.
#7. Reach Candidates On the Best Startup Job Board
Recruiting is one of the most challenging tasks for startup owners. And it eats up a massive chunk of your time, resources, and budget.
So why not let Europe’s magical beast of a startup job board do the heavy lifting for you?
When you post your startup job ad on Unicorn Hunt, over 10,000 unique monthly users will check it out. This select group of people knows what it takes to work at a startup — and they’re searching for a team to join.
This kind of exposure will help bring new talent to your door — fast. Work through all the steps in this guide, and you’ll be their #1 choice.
