People Maketh an Organization
How startups can attract and hire strong talent
Unpacking the narrative
The story around the biggest challenges faced by young startups frequently puts the spotlight on money and funding. However, scratch the surface and it becomes clear: attracting and retaining talent is a significant challenge, if not the biggest.
A quick rebuttal to the above might be that — having the funds inherently leads to good quality talent — however such a line of argument needs to be re-examined in light of the latest empirical evidence — which paints a different picture.
According to research facilitated by Omidyar Network:
While 63% of young, unfunded companies believe that the inability to hire the talent they need — will have high or critical impact on their businesses, the problem gets worse as the startups get bigger: 75% of funded, early stage companies say the same thing.
“As funding becomes less of a challenge, human capital becomes more of one” — says Doug Galen, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Rippleworks.
These numbers beg us to discover the factors challenging social entrepreneurs in their attempt to get the right people. According to the same research report, the most cited reasons, by entrepreneurs themselves, appear to be three-fold:
1. Shortage of Local talent
Social enterprises — based on the needs they are trying to cater to, try to look for local, qualified talent. A double digit percentage of respondents mentioned shortage of local talent as a challenge.
2. The Perceived Challenge of Job security
Prospective employees — especially in developing economies with low social cover, end up valuing job security at a big corporation over a potentially unreliable, small enterprise.
Attracting talent for a growing enterprise requires understanding the decision-making process of potential candidates.
As a social enterprise, when you are looking to bring on board qualified talent, you are competing with both the corporate world and other social enterprises.
3. Ability to Pay Compelling Salaries
Even with substantial funding, most enterprises find it extremely unfeasible to compete with pays at bigger companies. 66% of entrepreneurs cited this as a challenge that they face.
Acing the talent game
In order to succeed within this competitive dynamic, here are a few suggested approaches for social entrepreneurs to embrace:
1. Leverage your vision and mission
If there is one thing a social enterprise can beat a corporation’s value proposition at — it is having a meaningfully aspirational vision and an honest mission. This is also particularly relevant in the context of the kind of individuals social enterprises may want to attract as their most suitable talent.
2. Promise exciting and satisfying work
Working at a social enterprise typically provides employees significant responsibility and ownership. Showcasing this offering, coupled with highlighting the day-to-day activities that are likely to pique your candidate’s interest — will definitely increase the perceived value of being employed at your organization — for a potential candidate.
3. Develop a motivating work culture
The nimbleness of a small enterprise provides the perfect conditions to start building a positive work culture. Build visibility around your culture by leveraging public platforms — including your social media outposts.
4. Encourage professional development and talent management
As social enterprises grow, professional development and talent management tend to become complicated, and often take a backseat. This takes away significant value from potential employee loyalty — as longer-term human capital development, even though often de-prioritized in lieu of short-term benefits — impacts job satisfaction and perceived self-growth of an employee to a significant degree.
Individualized professional development plans and mentorship programs are tried-and-tested avenues — used by successful social enterprises and corporates alike — to develop their people and help them feel fulfilled in their work.
[About the author: This article was written by Karan Saini].
