Startup companies face unique challenges when hiring employees. The difficulty is that no one knows who your company is and your perks and benefits might be less than your established competition. You’re also faced with difficulty in showing that you’ll be around for the foreseeable future to provide job stability.
And yet, your greatest asset is your people, so finding individuals who view the startup world as exciting as you do is critical. Here are four tips for how startups can recruit and hire top talent.
Use your network
You may have former coworkers who are tired of corporate life, no matter how good the perks are. Hiring from inside your network can also help you find people who will passionately follow you and share interest in your success. These are some ideas for ways to tap into your network:
- Spend some time on LinkedIn reviewing your connections to see if anyone you know might be good for the position you’re recruiting for. Also think about who your connections know—your network also has a network that you can use to your advantage.
- Explore the contacts on your phone. Our cell phones are like a database nowadays and you might just find someone there who you hadn’t considered before.
- Attend local networking events. You never know who you might meet and who may be interested in joining the startup community.
Look to your employee networks
Another great way to find employees who would enjoy your environment is to ask your current staff who they might know from their previous job. Given that they enjoy startups, the employees from their former organization might be worth hiring. Additionally, if they came from a company that was experiencing layoffs, there might be other people who are in need of a job.
To help encourage your employees to open their network to you, offer incentives. Even if aren’t able to offer financial incentives yet, you can always offer perks like working from home or getting an extra day off.
Startup networking groups
Explore your local community for networking groups focused on startups. This is a great place to find people who are passionate about startups and worth recruiting to your organization.
You should keep an open mind about the networking groups you attend as well. Just because you’re a technology company, doesn’t mean you’ll find a marketing person in a technology group. Instead, look to your local marketing networking groups to recruit professionals for marketing roles.
Seek hiring and recruiting help
Startups can be difficult to hire for and just when you think you’ve found the right person, they can be poached by corporations. Recruiting firms know how to find like-minded individuals who may be willing to take a career risk and can help startups find passionate and qualified candidates.
Accomplishing your growth goals and beating your competition can be extremely difficult if you are constantly having to replace employees and focus on recruiting and hiring. That’s why hiring the right staff the first time is essential. Contact The Goodkind Group to learn more about how we can help you find the right hires. Contact us at 212-378-0700 or visit our website for more information.
