Hiring Strategies Used By Start-ups

3 essential pillars of any startup are its plan, process & people. Let’s say when one has a plan & process in shape; he needs people to kick off his idea and turn them into commercial realities. Many years ago Henry Ford quoted this with his famous saying “You can take my factories, burn up my buildings, but give me my people and I’ll build the business right back again”.

For a startup it is vital to know what its vision is, how the processes are meant to achieve its mission and finally what kind of talent & skill set is required to do so. It is equally important to know the right ratio of talent mix. For a startup, it is usually seen that budget allocation for institutionalizing manpower is low. According to www.startupcafeindia.com “Many startups are conservative when it comes to branding themselves as employers. The focus area of branding is on products and services and the employer branding part does not get resource or focus. But this is important to attract good talent. It is also important to attract the right talent.” 

Startups go through different phases and each phase has its own distinct talent needs. In the early stage, when the startup is small and money is scarce, hiring is a big challenge. And the focus is on innovation to build a better product or service. "People who come on board at that stage are very driven & are there for a larger purpose," says M.Maheshwari, director (HR), Flipkart. In the early stages of a startup, its difficult to hire for a given role (as most of the early team will wear multiple hats).  In a larger company, the recruitment process can be much more targeted and focused.  As such, in a startup it is hard to describe the role that you’re hiring for (sources).

An attractive organization culture, top level support, scope to learn & experiment and in short a good mentor can assure good manpower. All this, if exhibited and shared on social media hiring platforms, can boost good employer branding among mass.

Nowadays many startups use online portals to source candidates in a cost effective manner. There are many dedicated websites that are good sources of recruitment for startups. Umang Kumar, CEO, Gaadi.com, a car portal says "They pre-filter high quality talent and amplify your reach" (sources).

If we talk about attributes, startups these days are focusing on getting personnel, who are - learners more than experienced degree holders, doers more than tellers, creative more than conventional, different more than similar. Seeking hires that can bring new skills and experiences to the office will help to build a more dynamic company environment.  Contributors who can learn quickly, who are hungry for the business to succeed - are the lifeblood of startups.

According to sources , K Ganesh, who has founded close to 10 startups and angel-invested in over 25, has learnt plenty of lessons on how, where and who to hire. Perhaps the first lesson he learned and followed was not to go down the traditional headhunting route. "Startups often operate in areas where rules of engagement are yet to be defined. Experience is not of much use. The skills they need don't exist out there. So they need to innovate and learn," says Shankar Maruwada, co-founder of Marketics, a marketing analytics firm, who has now turned mentor/investor to startups.

Once talent is identified, startups must focus on communicating strategic purpose of its existence to the candidate. Candidate must know how his contribution will help in shaping vision into realities. 

There are certain behavioral testing instruments that can help startups choose the right personality fit for a given role. These tests are less expensive and are available with easy to use methodology. Agencies like SHL – OPQ , Thomas profiling are few examples which extend professional testing support.

Successful startups manage their human resource by following the MBO system i.e.“Management By Objective”. It helps an individual to bring his part of creativity and thus makes him free from continued supervision of management - resulting in longer service support.

Having the right talent is very important for a startup to begin its journey. 

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