Starting up is always hard, especially when putting together a team for an early-stage startup. Founders often lack the resources to attract and retain top talent, yet a strong team is essential for the success of the product.
From an applicant’s perspective, joining a startup at an early stage may look like this: It could be a huge success, or it could be a huge failure. The tasks are certainly interesting, but the level of uncertainty is high, the rewards are modest, and there are no guarantees.
From a founder’s perspective, the situation is the same as it’s ever been: you don’t have a big budget, you don’t have an established HR brand, you don’t have a market position, and it’s hard to compete with the big players in the industry.
How can integrate these two realities? Here are some tips:
- HR isn’t just about compensation – start with culture
Building a strong culture is essential and should be a priority from day one. You’ve probably heard the famous phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Before creating and executing a business strategy, it’s important to know who you are, where you are now, where you’re going, and the big vision behind your business. Understand your core values and what values you want to share with the world.
Founders need to answer all of these questions before they start recruiting or hiring. This will shape your startup’s mission, vision, and strategy. You can use these insights to develop your EVP.
- Identify competencies and behavioral indicators
Next, consider what type of people you want on your team or who will succeed with you. This involves understanding competencies and behavioral indicators.
For example, in a startup, employees need to be flexible and adaptable to work in a fast-changing environment. They also value openness to new ideas, a healthy amount of ambition, a willingness to take risks to innovate, and the ability to remain calm and decisive under uncertainty and pressure.
When someone doesn’t have these traits, it becomes difficult for everyone involved, resulting in poor task performance. This employee is unlikely to stay with the company long.
- Formulate and clearly communicate your EVP
People who are startup ready are typically passionate enthusiasts and risk-takers. They value freedom, space for creativity, a sense of belonging to something meaningful, and opportunities for career advancement. Be sure to offer these. If the remuneration is below market levels, consider offering additional perks such as stock options.
On the other hand, you need to understand that a startup is not for everyone. A candidate can be a brilliant specialist, but will not be satisfied if his way of thinking does not fit into the startup culture. No matter how many perks you offer – corporate psychologists, fitness trainers, family insurance, interest clubs – if a person values stability and status, he will not join a startup.
It is important for startup founders to talk about the growth and future potential of the product, instill a culture of excitement and development, and highlight the benefits and value the product offers to the world. These catalysts are effective in attracting like-minded people. This should be part of your EVP (Employee Value Proposition). Choosing a job isn’t always just about the salary. To attract the right talent, you need to know exactly who you are looking for and understand the needs and expectations of potential candidates.
- Start building your HR processes
When building HR processes for an early stage startup, you need to balance structure with flexibility. Key tasks like hiring employees and defining roles will be established quickly, while other processes will evolve over time as your startup grows.
Key HR areas include:
- Recruiting
- Training and development
- Performance management
- Compensation and bonuses
- Company culture and internal communications
- Performance evaluation
- Offboarding, etc.
Yes, all of these will need to be addressed, and it will be a challenging journey.
- Consider outsourcing your HR back-office
For early-stage startups, the biggest challenge is knowing when, where, and how to find the right talent. The workload is huge and experience is often limited, especially with only 24 hours in a day. Additionally, founders need to have a strategic focus on the product. Trying to do everything yourself significantly reduces the chances of developing a successful, scalable business model.
Consider outsourcing your HR back-office processes. A team of specialists can manage all aspects including recruiting, onboarding, culture building, HR branding, and creating retention and development programs.
Outsourcing your HR activities can speed up hiring and reduce costs associated with acquiring and retaining talent. Most importantly, you’ll have more time to focus on product development and achieve your goals faster.
Building a team is a bottleneck for early-stage startups. This is mainly due to limited resources, high uncertainty, and the difficulty of attracting and retaining talent. Early-stage startups are not classic companies, so the HR process for such projects comes with its own complexities.
Today’s top companies were founded and developed by passionate people who believed in big ideas and took risks. Your job is to find such dreamers, innovators and visionaries for your project – people who are ready to share risks with you and work together towards big goals. The key to building a dream team is to know your mission, goals and values. Once you are clear on this, it will be much easier to find people who share your way of thinking, your worldview and your culture.
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