Hiring is probably the toughest job in the Start up Founder routine, it is also what he does the most: hiring customers, partners, investors, co-founders, employees… It is complicated because at its early ages the Start up doesn’t have money, it doesn’t have renown but keeps wanting the best what will fit to its values. So how to manage with these confines ?
First, the founder has to really be obsessed by his start up to attract employees. He must be convinced that his company is the best place to work, if he really thinks that, he will be able to transmit his optimism. Start ups have to purpose to change the world, to make a better living for the users, the employees must feel this willingness to make the change happens. They should not be here for bad reasons such as money or glory.
Second, to be attractive a Start up must have strong values and culture. I have already talked about culture in an ancient post. I was saying that to perform well a company needs a strong culture, but it is also very true in the process of hiring. A company such as Google receives résumé from the best computer scientists all around the world because it is considered to be a great company with very strong values. According to Linkedin, it is currently the most attractive company in the world.
Third, to be sure that the employee in the hiring pipe meets the company standard and culture the founder should spend a lot of time evaluating the people who are going to join his team, listen to his instinct and gut, ask for what the people like to do outside of work and be focus on their potential to grow and leadership. For example, Airbnb founder conducted interviews for the first 1000 employees at Airbnb !
Fourthly, when you have finally found the best people to work with, keep them ! A good way to be sure to keep your best employees is to create an environment where people want to congregate with the culture with a good leader. Another way to keep your employees motivated and dedicated to the company is to create a referral system: reward your people that have found other employees to hire.
Finally, a founder can take a wrong decision and hire someone who finally doesn’t fit the company spirit. To avoid this kind of disappointment there should always be a try period before taking the final decision, this time period should be between one or two weeks depending on the position. However, if even after this period a bad decision has been taken, don’t hesitate to fire him. Don’t keep someone for too long if you have already given him multiple chance without any signs of change.
Francois Freixanet
frenchIceland 