Getting a startup off the ground is a massive challenge for every team. Most startups start their journey with getting the necessary funding to start the development phase of their product or service since nothing will happen without those initial funds.
Once this initial phase is over, many startups realize that money isn’t the bottleneck to their growth. What’s keeping their startup from growing is its ability to find and attract the right talent.
This article will cover the foundation your startup needs to have to get the human resource that will enable you to achieve your goals.
How to Attract the Best Talent for Your Startup
As every HR professional will tell you, attracting the best talent for your startup is an incredibly competitive process. Your startup needs to compete against others in your industry and more prominent, more established companies.
Here are five areas you need to work on that go beyond the monetary compensation you’re offering.
1. Get your company culture right.
Company culture is one of the top three reasons employees report as being their motivation for looking for other workplace options. That’s because your company culture shapes their day-to-day. Company culture is a more significant consideration than their compensation package. Said differently, it will let your employees know if they can be happy working at your startup.
Here are two aspects to consider to make your company culture attract talent.
- Define and write down your culture and beliefs: The talent you are trying to attract can’t possibly know how to work at your startup. For this reason, you need to be able to articulate it in written or video form, so they can decide whether or not they want to be a part of it.
- Understand what makes you unique: Your company culture results from a process that takes time to develop. Take the time to pinpoint what it is that makes it unique and synergistic to your goals.
2. Offer attractive benefits
The primary motivator that will drive the best talent is the benefits package you offer. That’s because everyone dreams of joining an early-stage startup, getting stock options, and then having a valuable asset once the startup takes off.
When you combine this aspect of benefits with paid time off, medical, and everything else that makes up your compensation package, it becomes easier for the talent you’re looking for to join your startup.
- Retirement plans are necessary: Employees care about their retirement plans. This is the reason why you see top companies offer matching 401k contributions. Whether it’s a 401k or some other plan, make sure you offer something competitive in this regard, as your potential hire will evaluate it.
- ISO’s or NSO’s: Both of these stock options have their pros and cons that will impact how your new hires will receive them. Whether you choose one or the other, make sure that you dedicate enough time to educating your employees on how this will benefit them.
3. Actively Recruit New Talent
Recruiting needs to be an ongoing process for startups. It needs to align with your growth goals so that your recruiting efforts are always one step ahead.
- Be visible: Make sure you have a dedicated web presence to inform everyone of what opportunities are available.
- Be open to alternative ways to hire: One of the benefits of startups is how dynamically they can find solutions to their problems. Think outside the standard methods of recruiting and explore different avenues to get in touch with top talent.
4. Show Opportunities Available in Your Company
Startups are unique in that they can give opportunities to their team members that wouldn’t be possible in more prominent, more established companies. This is because startups move so fast that they rarely have a corporate-style bureaucracy to deal with. So being able to show these growth opportunities to your employees is critical.
Promotions, growth, and personal development
One of the essential concepts for communicating with your future team members is that you’re offering them more than a job. You’re offering them a future. To this end, the availability of promotions, growth opportunities, and the different ways you encourage personal development will help them commit to exploring options in your startup.
5. Pay is Important
The monetary incentive you offer to your new employees will always be an essential aspect of attracting talent. But it’s important to remember that payment goes beyond the salary you offer. It’s a combination of the benefits package and the salary. For example, companies that offer above-average amounts of paid time off can combine this with salary to illustrate the total value of what their employees will be earning.
Keeping Your Current Employees
Having a high rotation of employees is expensive and can severely hinder reaching your growth goals. It’s for this reason that employee retention is critical for every startup.
Here are four aspects that make retaining your employees easier.
1. Company Culture
Having a company culture conducive to reaching your goals is one of the essential elements that will make employees stay with you. For this reason, monitoring periodically how your culture is shifting to accommodate growth is important. And on the same token, communicating this with your team members also needs to be a constant practice for your leadership team.
2. Flexibility and remote work
Since the pandemic struck, how everyone goes about their daily life has shifted. Remote work and flexible schedules are now some of the main aspects that job hunters consider. And many job hunters can’t be in a situation where they don’t have this flexibility. Making sure your new employees understand where you can and cannot be flexible to accommodate their needs is part of retaining personnel.
3. Set Expectations and Describe Daily Work Life
Expectation management is one of the most critical aspects of having effective communication with your team members. It’s for this reason that educating them on what their day-to-day life will be like is essential. It lets them prepare in advance and know the impact that any change will have upon them.
4. Keep an Open Line of Communication
Communicating effectively with your team members is the foundation for having a healthy and long-lasting work relationship. Empowering your employees to communicate consistently and openly about their needs helps build a foundation of trust.
Ready to Grow Your Talent Pool?
Being able to manage growth and hire talent is one balancing act that every startup needs to master. Quite simply, you can’t grow unless you have the right people. So making sure that you have the proper infrastructure to hire people while maintaining a positive environment is critical.
At Founder’s, we specialize in helping startups manage their payroll, financial benefits, as well as giving you the data you need to make the most effective strategic decisions.
Click here to schedule a call with one of our startup experts to explore how Founder’s CPA can help you reach your talent acquisition goals.
