For most startup founders, hiring top talent is one of the biggest challenges they face.
Having the right set of people on your team can be the difference between a startup’s success and failure.
With less time and resources to devote to the hiring process, startup founders/co-founders must
be aware of the common recruiting hurdles that most startups face.
Luckily, with the right knowledge, you can make sure that you’re not just hiring right, but hiring the right people.
To help you achieve success with your hiring process,
here are the 6 most common startup recruiting mistakes and how to avoid them:
1. Failing To Sell The Startup Idea To The Candidates
To build and grow a successful startup, it is important to have a team that is as passionate
about the product as the founders.
If your early hires are not sold on the startup ideas, chances are they will deviate
from the startup goals from time to time.
Ensure that you give all of your candidates an orientation in their initial interview on
how your startup disrupts traditional business with its mere existence.
Every single potential employee must see your passion, progress and accomplishments
on your way to being the next big startup.
This will help show them that an opportunity to work with you is a great career move for them.
2. Hiring Someone Because You Know Them.
Hiring a friend, family member and other relatives can be a bad decision, especially if they are not actually skilled for the job.
When they don’t perform as expected, it becomes extremely difficult for you to ask them to quit.
This seems like a no-brainer but it happens more often than you think.
Firing an underperforming employee is difficult enough, but when you know them on a personal level, it becomes a Herculean task.
More often than not, you’ll end up compromising the qualities of the work they produce and suffer the loss unwillingly.
To avoid such a situation, it would be best to draw the line between your professional and personal relations.
3. Hiring Someone Out Of Pity.
The hiring process can be difficult.
So, if you’re hiring someone just because you pity their situation and want to help them out, your business will suffer for their incompetence.
Instead, make sure your hiring process is set up objectively so that you hire people who actually add value to your company and are willing to go the extra mile.
4. Making Hasty Hiring Decisions
We all want to get things done as quickly as possible, but some things are worth taking your time over, and hiring is one of them.
If you rush through a hiring process, it can be a costly mistake. Hiring the wrong person for a role will cost you time, resources and money.
Take the time to interview some of your top candidates, and resist the urge to hire the first good fit that comes your way.
5. Recruiting Talent That Is Not A Cultural Fit For Your Startup
Working in a startup environment comes with a lot of learning and adapting quickly to certain kinds of change.
This means you need someone who can constantly learn and adapt and at times, manage multiple tasks resourcefully.
Hiring someone that is not strategic or cannot handle change (pressure) might end up being a bad hire for fast-paced startup culture.
A good way to find out if a candidate is the right cultural fit is to get clear on the values of your startup.
When you know what values you’re looking for, you should incorporate simple tests in the hiring process to see if the candidates you are looking at not only have the skills but have the desired value traits.
Another great way to find this out is if the candidate has prior experience working with a startup or an understanding of startup cultures.
If they’ve worked in a startup before, chances are they are aware and used to the nature of startups and will adapt quickly.
So What’s next?
Irrespective of the role you are trying to fill, avoid these common startup hiring mistakes, and hopefully, you should be on the right track to a successful hire.
But, building a successful startup doesn’t just end with hiring the right people.
You also need growth and marketing strategies as well as proven processes to go along with it.
You can put your startup growth processes on auto-pilot with the right strategy and tools.
Let’s work together to help you build the next unicorn startup.