Your company is made up of the total value of your team. This is not an individual pursuit. You can't do everything by yourself. Hiring the right people is easier said than done, though. With international background checks, looking into references, and making sure they fit in with the company's culture, you have a lot of work to do.
This guide is going to show you how you can go about hiring the right people for your startup.
Recruit in the Right Places
To find the right candidate, you need to look beyond the traditional career sites. These big names will have a lot of candidates, but the chances are the latest hot talent isn't there. They would have already been snapped up if they did.
You need to go look for the best candidates yourself. Look to niche career websites and advertise on your own website. That's a great start and will help you to unlock the niche you want to find someone in.
Go even further by signing up on LinkedIn and stalking some of the groups there. This is the whole point of LinkedIn. It's where qualified candidates get head hunted. Even if you don't find someone here, though, you are still being visible and you're still building relationships for the future.
Outline the Core Values of Your Company
What you have to remember about the core values of your company is that they resemble what the job is all about. This is nothing to do with just looking nice for the cameras. Your company's core values are revealed each and every day, whether you happen to know it or not.
These core values should embody anyone you want to pick up for your team. As well as making them slip easily into your company, you are continuing an important tradition. These same traditions will then be passed on to other newcomers in the future.
Wearing your value for all to see is crucial. That doesn't mean you should compromise on actual skills, though, it just means that you should be searching for like-minded employees.
Focus on Behavior
The fact is that mistakes will happen in building a startup, but the way your employees will react is essential. If they react in the right way, they are going to learn from their mistakes and go on to bigger and better things. The only way that you can guarantee this is through focusing on behavior.
During the interview, go out of your way to ask questions regarding behavior. The answers will help you to predict how someone is going to react under pressure and whether they are going to perform for your company.
So what sort of questions should you ask?
The type of questions shouldn't be too specific. Ask them things regarding their current goals, their ambitions, and what their greatest challenge was. Questions like this are specific enough to provide value in the answers, while being general enough to allow the candidate to answer in their own way.
Move Fast
The reason why you never see the best candidates on the major career websites is because they are in high demand. Every position receives an average of 250 resumes. Companies have already hunted them down long before they can get to the point of placing their resume on these websites.
You have to move quickly if you want to get the best talent before everyone else. If you want to compete, you have to be able to make decisions quickly. The best way to do this is to respond as early as possible. Contact the successful candidate as soon as you're ready to offer them some form of contract.
Also, make sure that you notify everyone else who failed to make the grade. This is not about making them feel bad it's about extending some form of basic courtesy. You may very well see them applying to you again in the future, thus making your job much easier.
Last Word - Look Outside the Box
You are more likely to succeed through looking outside the box. To get better job candidates you have to be able to do what your competitors aren't doing. Searching for great candidates is not something that you should do just when you need a new member of the team.
Every so often, go out of your way to look online and check out the job market. You may find someone you want to build a relationship with and keep tabs on for later.
There's a reason why huge corporations have entire departments dedicated to this. Your company is only as strong as the people driving it forward.