How To Save On Technical Recruiting During COVID-19
When the unexpected happens
The key to operating a successful startup is an efficient engineering team. The key to building that team is acquiring and maintaining quality talent.
But, what happens when an unexpected roadblock (or, you know, a global pandemic) gets in the way of that success?
Your needs change…
...but you still have production deadlines to meet, and you still need engineers to get there.
Due to an unprecedented time, your priority is conserving capital while trying to navigate the uncertainty. But, you don’t have to choose between quality work and bringing your product to a halt.
Operating a successful startup requires capital, a compelling product or service, and an efficient team. However, finding the right recruiting strategy to acquire and maintain quality talent is a major roadblock to that success.
Most startups who choose the traditional hiring model stunt their team’s growth by becoming their own recruiting firm. Teams bear the weight of recruiting costs, time-to-hire restrictions, and turnover, with little ROI to show for it.
Luckily, there’s a better way to hire.
What we know
The majority of startups are maxing out their resources to build and maintain velocity with a successful team.
To put it into perspective, the average series-A startup spends:
- 1,250 hours a year recruiting engineers
- 28 days just to interview and screen a candidate
- 58 days to fill a single engineering role (not including specialized development roles)
That initial time investment buys you an engineer who is hopefully a great fit for your team, and will stick around for the average 2-year tenure of a startup employee¹.
Best case scenario, you get two years of fantastic work before you find yourself back at square one. Worst case scenario, a few months in you find that you’ve made a mis-hire, and spend the requisite 30% of their salary on righting the ship².
Better hiring requires more flexibility
The traditional recruiting model promises to solve for reliability.
However, its outdated process spends too much time recruiting a candidate and hoping it goes well — then allowing zero room for flexibility if it doesn’t.
Keyword: Flexibility.
If your product roadmap quickly pivots, your team needs to pivot with it. If your “pivot” involves implementing a new tech stack that your team isn’t proficient in, you need to be able to quickly supplement that need.
…without 58 days of downtime while you look for the right candidate.
Fractional hiring operates on flexibility. It solves for capital risk and turnover, and meets the ever-changing needs of your product. It provides a plug-and-play solution that doesn’t cut corners or quality — just the time you spend on acquiring talent for your team.
Your recruiting pipeline’s secret weapon
The efficacy of your recruiting pipeline is determined by two factors:
Your referral rate, and your ability to close candidates.
Even a company with an 80% referral rate will spend about 750 hours on recruiting³.
Utilizing an established community of independent software professionals ensures an evergreen source of qualified talent to maintain a recruiting pipeline fit for any stage of your project.
Gun.io cultivates rapport with talent by engaging them with projects best fit for their technical expertise and interests.
Quality projects attract quality talent.
Better hiring starts with better screening
There’s a reason why referred candidates are so attractive: someone you respect and trust was willing to vouch for that candidate’s character and skills. It’s tough to reproduce that kind of peace of mind in a traditional screening process.
Sure, you can quickly assess a candidate’s technical ability through a code test. But what does that really tell you about the value that engineer might add to your team? When you think of the MVPs you’ve hired and worked with over the years, was it just exceptional code that made them rockstars?
Gun.io’s talent takes the guessing out of the hiring process.
Our verification process enables us to honestly vouch for every candidate we present to clients. Technical proficiency is just our starting point to ensure the right fit.
We’ve seen their work and we’ve talked to previous colleagues to co-sign on their value.
This is the promise on which our business is built, and it provides you with the peace of mind needed to select the best fit for your team.
Better hiring should save you money
Fractional hiring removes over half of your typical recruiting and overhead costs, making it the most capital efficient hiring solution.
There is no cost for acquisition, vetting, mis-hiring, or onboarding. Just pay for the time you work together.
Quality work. Verified expertise. Flexibility on every project.
[1] Founders Circle Capital. (2020). In The Front Door, Out The Back: Attrition Challenges At High Growth Startups
[2] Woven Teams. (January 30 2019). How to Minimize Your Risk of Hiring the Wrong Person For Your Engineering Team
[3] Tech Crunch. (December 21 2013). How To Hire More Engineers In Less Time
[4] Data courtesy of:
- ZipRecruiter (2020)
- Glassdoor (2020)
- PayScale (2020)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019)
- SHRM (2016)
