Well-qualified, intelligent and diligent talent can be hard to find regardless of the job market. Even the largest and most successful companies in the world have to go out and look for their all-star talent line-up. Smaller startup companies are no different. In fact, startups have to go to even greater lengths to secure talent that catches the eyes of bigger companies. In other words, startup companies have to work just as hard, if not harder, to find the right talent for their open positions. With that said, doing so is certainly not impossible and can actually be a fun challenge for those trying to recruit the right talent for their company.
Before we get into the specifics of how many successful startups find the best talent available, let’s first touch on the nature of a startup to begin with. In many ways, a startup is not unlike an army of guerilla fighters trying to compete against a much large and all-encompassing army utilizing modern warfare tactics. Similarly, it’s not uncommon for a startup to begin with less than a hand full of employees, hiring more as revenue increases. Of course, if a startup is to be successful, it will almost certainly need to hire on better talent in increasingly higher volumes, but this is a process that may take shape over several years, or even decades. Startup companies like Facebook, YouTube and PayPal all began in this regard: with an idea, a few employees, and a slow, yet somewhat steady increase in employee depth.
For startups that steadily encounter success with their initially limited operations, the dilemma is when to expand the employee base, hiring on new, and perhaps more qualified, employees. For many startup companies, this isn’t a cut and dried decision, it’s something that takes a lot of consideration and careful calculation in order to be successful. If a startup hires staff prematurely or in too high a volume, it could result in a recipe of disaster for the company. After all, while employees are disposalable to a certain extent, they still result in an expense that needs to be paid consistently and on time.
New School Recruiting
The truth is, the recruiting process has likely never been easier for those startup companies still currently in the market. Nearly the entire human resources workflow (minus the humans) has been automated. With online resources like Monster and LinkedIn covering candidate acquisition and services like Paycor handling online recruiting in addition to more specialty job connection platforms, a company these days has the ability to target the exact type and grade of employee it is looking for. Obviously there is still no guarantee in this regard, but with such resources widely available, it is certainly possible to find the employees a startup company needs. The prospective employee listings on the aforementioned professional networking sites even have the potential to be so voluminous that an employer may actually have a difficult time limiting down the prospects that they may indeed hire. This is especially true in poor economic times when the unemployment rate is low and the job market is flooded with well-qualified applicants.
Old School Recruiting Trying To Recruit The Right Talent
Besides utilizing the new wave of professional networking sites, like LinkedIn, there are also more old school methods of seeking the right employees for a startup company. Perhaps the most effective method is setting up a booth at a job fair, or a similar type of open-call recruiting event. It is more than likely that big name companies will be at the same events, but a little competition never hurt anyone and such an event can prove to be a great opportunity for both startup companies and prospective employees. These recruiting events have a very low commitment and mellow vibe. As an employer at a recruiting event, you have the opportunity to meet any candidate that comes to your booth, but also the ability to limit the interviews you offer. In other words, you don’t have to offer any interviews if the prospective employee field is lacking. Essentially, it’s a win-win situation, if there are no qualified candidates, at the very least, the event creates more visibility for your business.
Conclusion
Whether a new startup business decides to adopt new or old school recruiting methods is entirely up to that particular company, however, many modern startups are using a sort of hybrid method that essentially exhausts all potential recruiting avenues, both through online resources and old school methods. Methods like job/career fairs, active community involvement and a consistent presence on professional networking sites, like LinkedIn and Monster should leave no shortage of qualified job candidates, especially with the current surplus of job seekers out there. It should be easy to recruit the right talent.