By Billy Vrbensky, Altitude Accelerator Communications Intern
When you start a company, you handle all of the departments. You are the inventor, manager, marketer, financer and CEO. Just like football, you can’t sustain success with only a superstar quarterback on the team. You need a collection of talented individuals who can effectively work together to accomplish a common goal.
Here are five tips for recruiting the best talent to build a successful startup team:
1. Define what kind of team you need before you actually build it.
Most startups start by hiring people with only the best credentials and then sort out their responsibilities after. First, identify specific roles to fulfill and set out responsibilities. Then, seek employees who fit well with the tasks that a specific position should accomplish.
2. Create an employee value proposition to convince top candidates to join.
Before hiring anybody, make sure you have a clearly stated employee value proposition to show potential employees who you are as a startup. The employee value proposition defines what they are expected to contribute and what they will get in return. Think to yourself, why would a high growth, intelligent and talented person want to work for your company?
3. Recruit individuals who share your passion for the business.
Hire employees who are truly passionate about the problem you are trying to solve instead of those who only care about the money. Individuals tend to work harder when they become personally invested in the success of the company. If there isn’t a lot of funding available for high salaries, an effective way of attracting top caliber talent is to offer an equity stake in the startup.
4. Be open with your team and get input from all of your employees.
Set clear key performance indicators and host regular meetings to ensure that all of your employees are working towards the same goal. When it comes time to expand the workforce, ask your current team members what kind of qualities the next hire should have. Members of your team will probably end up working directly with the new hire so they may have some valuable input about what kind of skills may be required in the long run.
5. Hire people who have strengths where you have weaknesses.
You can’t be an expert in everything and chances are that your team has some weaknesses that you have been trying to work on over the years. You have to assess the areas where your startup most needs support, find skill-specific people and apply them to where they and the startup can prosper together. Talented people attract other talented individuals and it may just create a community of brilliant minds!
Is your business ready to find the right talent to help it take off? Check out Tech Collision Day presented by Altitude Accelerator on June 10th , where your great ideas are paired with student talent and technology experts!
