One of the success factors for startups is a strong team. It contributes to the sustainable growth and development of a company. Researchers from the analytical agency CB Insights conducted a survey “The Top 12 Reasons Startups Fail”. They estimated that in 14% of cases, the failure of a startup is due to wrongly chosen employees.
Let’s see how to assemble a startup team and what to pay attention to during the search process.
How to Prepare for Hiring: 4 Tips for the Startup
Table of Interests
Identify the Needs of the Business
At the initial stage of the development of a startup or business, you need to understand what specialists are needed for the existence and development of the project. Two methods will help you form a pool of vacancies:
● The first is strategic. Plan to hire employees for a year or two in advance.
● The second is situational. Hire people as needed.
Team-building methods can be combined. For example, according to the project development strategy, form a team for two years in advance, but invite new employees to the startup as needed.
Let’s say you are planning to develop a casino app. At a minimum, the startup needs analysts, a project manager, frontend and backend developers, a UI/UX designer, and a tester. This is a list of basic specialists.
In the future, you will need to organize marketing and sales and provide technical support to promote the product. So, new specialists will be needed for the startup. This is an approximate list of employees who will need to be gradually recruited into the team:
● Business analysts, marketers, and copywriters to promote the project.
● Web developers to create a website.
● Customer support operators to work with clients.
● Technical support staff to fix problems with the app.
Make a list of the necessary employees and spell out their duties.
Evaluate How Best to Structure the Hiring Process
To find candidates for a startup or new business, you can hire an HR manager to join the team. There are other options as well:
● HR on staff. Such a specialist is useful if the startup team needs to constantly recruit people or if there is turnover. He helps to look for employees, conducts onboarding, and is responsible for the adaptation of newcomers.
● Outsourced HR. Some agencies on the market provide an opportunity to hire an employee on a subscription basis. For example, if an HR manager is needed for 2-3 months for recruitment and training.
● Recruitment agency. At the stage of team building, specialists from the agency will help to find a team quickly. If the vacancy is highly specialized, you can turn to a specialized agency.
This option is suitable when you need to fill a lot of similar vacancies. But sometimes a startup cannot turn to an agency, as it is an expensive service.
Don’t limit yourself to these methods of searching. Candidates can be invited to join the team using social media. You need to look for employees on specialized platforms, like Behance or LinkedIn.
If the startup founder has time to search for specialists, you can look for people on your own. But be prepared: this can be time-consuming.
When deadlines are burning or you need to close an important vacancy for your team, you should turn to professionals.
Draw up Candidate Portraits
Before testing apps, make a list and outline the key data that will help build an image of the candidate:
● Age, gender, and city of residence.
● Salary expectations of the candidate.
● Education.
● Required work experience.
● Hard and soft skills.
● Level of employment: full-time or part-time.
● Work format.
● Work schedule.
● where the candidate has worked.
Drawing up such a portrait is an effective way to understand what kind of employees you want to find for your startup.
Develop a Corporate Culture
In the initial stages of starting a business, a startup founder should think about corporate values. If you hire people whose values are close to yours, you can create a dream team.
Think through a few things:
● What communication rules you should have in the team.
● What offline and online activities you are willing to do to bring the team together.
● What traditions the company will have.
● What kind of relationships the team will build with partners and clients.
Let’s say you want to create a supportive atmosphere in the team. You are going to hold general events once a month. So, candidates should be sociable, polite, and positive. Introverts are not likely to participate in activities or get involved in team building.
Corporate culture also affects:
● Employee loyalty.
● Company image.
● The attractiveness of the startup for job seekers.
For example, for millennials, corporate culture is more important than money.
What to Pay Attention to When Selecting Candidates
Skills and Experience
A key point in the process of finding a specialist for a startup is whether the candidate’s skills and experience match the requirements of the vacancy. Evaluate how well the person knows the necessary tools, what experience he or she has in similar projects or areas.
Don’t forget about the specifics of the startup. Sometimes specialists need specific skills. For example, experience working with neural networks or the ability to use certain tools. In such a case, you need to think about how to evaluate such skills.
Let’s say you’re looking for a development team. Make a job posting and add a small test task to analyze the skills of the candidates. During the interview process, you can ask questions that will help you understand the applicant’s knowledge of the topic:
● What are the different headers in HTTP?
● How do you remove logs from iOS and Android?
● What techniques and tools do you use to debug mobile apps?
Soft Skills
To build a team of like-minded individuals, communication skills, flexibility, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving skills must be assessed. These traits are just as important as technical skills.
Candidates with strong soft skills work better in a team.
Assess how the person copes with difficulties and adapts to new conditions. Examples of questions that will help with this:
● What would you choose: to work in a team or alone?
● How would you react if a manager encouraged competition among team members instead of
cooperation?
● How do you handle situations where there is tension between you and a coworker?
● How do you structure your schedule if you are given an unplanned task?
Share an example of any challenging task that you have done well with your team.
These questions will also help you understand if the candidate’s values are aligned with corporate values.
Motivation and Interest in the Case
Motivation and personal interest in the success of a project can affect an employee’s performance.
When looking for a startup team, try to understand why the candidate chose you and what motivates them in their work.
A person who is interested in a startup idea and sees potential in it can bring much more value than someone who is just looking for a new job.
Identify people who are passionate about startup ideology, assess the candidate’s motivation with questions:
● Which company have you most enjoyed working for, and why?
● What kind of work do you like to do, and what kind of work do you dislike doing?
● Why do you want to work at a startup?
● What would motivate you to work at the company for a long time?
Don’t bombard the candidate with questions, but ask them during the conversation at times when it’s appropriate.
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