How to Find and Hire the Best People for Your Startup

If we were to ask what is the most important element of a startup, what would you say? Some people might say that it’s the business model, while others might think it’s the way in which it generates revenue. While these are important aspects in any business, the vital one is the human element.

This goes for businesses of any size – if they don’t hire the best people, they will fail. However, it’s especially important you find good employees for your startup, as it’s a developing business that needs constant care and attention. And these can only be brought in by passionate people, ready to give their best.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at how to find and hire the best people for your startup. So, if that’s something you’re interested in, just keep reading to find out more. Did we mention that these tips apply to tight budgets too?

Hiring Tips For Startups

1. Plan Ahead

Whenever you’re looking to hire the best people, treat it as a project. And just like you’d do with any other project, it’s recommended you plan ahead. If you skip this step, you risk wasting both your time and the interviewees’. So before you start the actual recruitment process, make sure you have some clear answers to the following questions:

• What skills does the new employee need to have?
• How much experience does the job require?
• Will they be working on a team or by themselves?
• Do you want them to work from the office?

There are several other details you need to iron out, of course, but that depends on the type of business you have. These are just the basics. If you want to have an even clearer picture of what you’re looking for in an employee, we recommend you use a decision tree.

A decision tree will help you get a better idea about the type of person your business needs, as it lays out every possible outcome and decision in an objective manner. You can draw one by hand or use a handy online decision tree generator.

2. Reduce Interview Costs

Huge companies will usually have entire HR departments that go through thousands of resumes to find the perfect candidate. Sadly, a startup cannot afford that luxury. That’s why, whenever possible, we recommend you try to reduce any interview-related costs, especially as holding interviews in an office can be more costly and complicated, due to all the social distancing rules.

Interviewing by video call is a much cheaper and better way to hold an interview. You can use apps such as WhatsApp, Miro, Skype, or Facetime, which are all free of cost. On top of that, we all know how stressful in-person interviews can be.

When your potential employees are talking to you from the comfort of their own homes, they’re more relaxed and prone to show their true personalities. This will help you figure out early on if they would be a good fit for your team or not.

3. Use Job Sites To Their Full Potential

Having your available job seen by as many target people as possible is crucial when looking for new talent. The more applicants, the better – it means you have more variety and more options. Which is always a good thing.

However, your vacancy just being seen isn’t enough. If you want to attract great people, you have to make sure your job posting stands out from the rest. You should keep the language simple and casual, forgetting about corporate terms. People are more prone to apply for a job if they feel like they’re interacting with a human and not a robot.

Write your job posting using simple words, as if you’re having a casual conversation with a friend. Bullets, numbers, and proper spacing are also recommended, as they make the job posting easier to get through.

On top of that, we also recommend adding the following details:

• Salary range;
• If the job is full-time or part-time;
• If there’s remote work available;
• Any benefits offered by the company;
• Expected working hours.

4. Ask About Their Past

Anyone can give a polished answer when asked about the future. Besides being overused and boring, the question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” will only offer you a rose-tinted view of the candidate’s hopes and dreams. While a quick insight into their imagination is nice, this doesn’t always reflect their actual ability to do their job.

Instead, ask questions about who they are. Ask them about their earlier years and jobs and what they were known for back then, ask them about highlights and lowlights during their school years, and other such questions.

Then, ask about their last job. What skills they brought to the table, what role they had and how they solved an issue that they faced at a certain point. We guarantee you’ll get more useful information out of these questions than by using future-related ones.

Our Final Thoughts

In conclusion, finding and hiring new talent shouldn’t be a complicated process. Sure, it can be time-consuming and sometimes stressful but if you follow these tips, we’re sure you’ll breeze through it.

Just keep in mind that you need to ask relevant questions, plan ahead and have a clear view of what you want for your company. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting both your time and the potential candidates.

What about you? Do you have any tips and tricks on how to find and hire new talent? How did the entire process go for your company? Leave your tips and impressions in the comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts!