These are interesting times in India.. with the
Government pushing entrepreneurial talent to make it big, making it
easier for foreign investors to invest here (ok, ok work in progress),
talent from all over the world flocking to our shores for some sun,
start ups & spirituality [oh cmon, its India :), can't leave out that
'S'], our brilliant minds churning out business ideas that disrupt,
support & inspire us to build world class companies that shine.
And then as these success stories develop, comes this other 'S'...
talked about mostly with high passion & tons of excitement, then
possibly with some fear & foreboding... identified commonly as 'Scaling'.
As start ups clamber to reach the 'me first'
finish line, recruiting falls in the hands of the founders, co-founders
& even some well entrenched investors to conduct rounds of hiring
that would bring on board some pretty potent core teams, dedicated
support staff & basically 'A++' level talent that become the
differentiators between getting there first, & getting there
sometime later or even not getting there at all.
A slew of recruitment service providers claiming to be 'Start up Hiring Experts' (even if they've never hired for start ups - yes a disturbing trend among many), ineffectual or untrained in house hiring teams, pricey but incompetent retained top level search firms, disconnected campus outreach programs, a thousand job portals with duplicate profiles & some faulty recruitment software later...many start ups still find themselves shortchanged & people-less or worse - having hired the wrong fits.
As daunting as it may seem to be able to find the right talent, that has an entrepreneurial mindset, requisite technical skills & experience, staying power, ability to go the extra/last mile, loyalty (many start ups now have employees who build their own start ups while working with their current employers), an innovation rich approach, adaptability, passion x 1000 for building a game changing product/services company, & the general, overall right attitude to work for a start up, there are no short cuts & quick fixes to start up hiring success if you want to move from there to being a world class company.
Some learnings along the way that I believe are good contenders to be in your recruiting play book:
1> The One directional hiring strategy:
A start-up, being the ever changing/evolving, mercurial, amoeba-esque entity, is doomed to hiring hiccups/tunnel vision issues if it adopts a singular strategy for its hiring. For eg: If they go by a rule book that makes them only hire FMCG guys for their sales teams, or their Design guys need to be from XYZ Design institutes only, only particular B schools for their Marketing/HR/Strategy hiring, etc..they may possibly lose out on competent, engaged, interested talent which may come from other backgrounds & even be a better fit! Don't get me wrong, finding technical / cultural fits & hiring wins from specific schools & institutes is like a good marriage when it happens, but putting blinders on in this case could be severely damaging too. Like from one of my Disney favorites, Ratatouille, Chef Gusteau is said to have wisely said, "Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere."
2> Campus hiring - Are you doing it right?:
To reiterate on my earlier point, perfect campus picks are like a good marriage & efforts must be taken to identify first the company's core values/traits/skill requirements & see which campuses best reflect those (or have academic programs/activities of high relevance to the hiring mandate) & then deep dive into the selection process. What it cannot be, is an unplanned, last minute, ditzy plunge & picking up shoals of those schools of fish (pun intended) before anyone else does. A halo effect here, needs to be avoided on all costs.
3> Interview panels:
Google has had some very innovative hiring techniques. Of one of these, the applicant would be interviewed by a very holistic panel comprising of senior reporting heads, peers as well as subordinates! In India, we may call it unorthodox, but there's definitely something there. Coming to the point, it helps if the interview panels for various positions being hired for, are preplanned & strategized to ensure the most competent/in depth interview being taken. Plus is reduces interview stress/fatigue on the core interviewing team, which in turn ensures consciously selected applicants.
4> Tapping local talent:
Now although great talent can indeed come from anywhere, it helps to start off by tapping local talent for a lot of reasons like their longevity at the company, proximity to the core teams, leveraging their knowledge/ease of access to local businesses/networks, decreased cost from not having to bear cost of their moving, etc & many more. Most importantly the time & energy taken to onboard a lot of talent from other cities & towns across the country can be quite a bit. So if you can help it, think global but act local!
5> Hiring from competition:
Another major faux pas can be trying to hire in droves from competition. Not only is it not ethical, there's a major chance they come with baggage! Of course there many be many more opinions here supporting the other option, that feels easier & more lucrative, but may end up being only messier & harder. Plus unless your & your competitor's products are nearly identical, you'll need a very strong training team to make them see the difference amongst the two! So unless it is for some other reason (like the applicant is a total rock star & fits your company culture & profile perfectly & understands your value proposition & can resonate with it, just don't hire from competition.)
This conversation shall continue in Part II, until then, pls leave your inputs, thoughts, comments, & even challenges you've faced in getting great talent for your start up. Cheers!
A slew of recruitment service providers claiming to be 'Start up Hiring Experts' (even if they've never hired for start ups - yes a disturbing trend among many), ineffectual or untrained in house hiring teams, pricey but incompetent retained top level search firms, disconnected campus outreach programs, a thousand job portals with duplicate profiles & some faulty recruitment software later...many start ups still find themselves shortchanged & people-less or worse - having hired the wrong fits.
As daunting as it may seem to be able to find the right talent, that has an entrepreneurial mindset, requisite technical skills & experience, staying power, ability to go the extra/last mile, loyalty (many start ups now have employees who build their own start ups while working with their current employers), an innovation rich approach, adaptability, passion x 1000 for building a game changing product/services company, & the general, overall right attitude to work for a start up, there are no short cuts & quick fixes to start up hiring success if you want to move from there to being a world class company.
Some learnings along the way that I believe are good contenders to be in your recruiting play book:
1> The One directional hiring strategy:
A start-up, being the ever changing/evolving, mercurial, amoeba-esque entity, is doomed to hiring hiccups/tunnel vision issues if it adopts a singular strategy for its hiring. For eg: If they go by a rule book that makes them only hire FMCG guys for their sales teams, or their Design guys need to be from XYZ Design institutes only, only particular B schools for their Marketing/HR/Strategy hiring, etc..they may possibly lose out on competent, engaged, interested talent which may come from other backgrounds & even be a better fit! Don't get me wrong, finding technical / cultural fits & hiring wins from specific schools & institutes is like a good marriage when it happens, but putting blinders on in this case could be severely damaging too. Like from one of my Disney favorites, Ratatouille, Chef Gusteau is said to have wisely said, "Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere."
2> Campus hiring - Are you doing it right?:
To reiterate on my earlier point, perfect campus picks are like a good marriage & efforts must be taken to identify first the company's core values/traits/skill requirements & see which campuses best reflect those (or have academic programs/activities of high relevance to the hiring mandate) & then deep dive into the selection process. What it cannot be, is an unplanned, last minute, ditzy plunge & picking up shoals of those schools of fish (pun intended) before anyone else does. A halo effect here, needs to be avoided on all costs.
3> Interview panels:
Google has had some very innovative hiring techniques. Of one of these, the applicant would be interviewed by a very holistic panel comprising of senior reporting heads, peers as well as subordinates! In India, we may call it unorthodox, but there's definitely something there. Coming to the point, it helps if the interview panels for various positions being hired for, are preplanned & strategized to ensure the most competent/in depth interview being taken. Plus is reduces interview stress/fatigue on the core interviewing team, which in turn ensures consciously selected applicants.
4> Tapping local talent:
Now although great talent can indeed come from anywhere, it helps to start off by tapping local talent for a lot of reasons like their longevity at the company, proximity to the core teams, leveraging their knowledge/ease of access to local businesses/networks, decreased cost from not having to bear cost of their moving, etc & many more. Most importantly the time & energy taken to onboard a lot of talent from other cities & towns across the country can be quite a bit. So if you can help it, think global but act local!
5> Hiring from competition:
Another major faux pas can be trying to hire in droves from competition. Not only is it not ethical, there's a major chance they come with baggage! Of course there many be many more opinions here supporting the other option, that feels easier & more lucrative, but may end up being only messier & harder. Plus unless your & your competitor's products are nearly identical, you'll need a very strong training team to make them see the difference amongst the two! So unless it is for some other reason (like the applicant is a total rock star & fits your company culture & profile perfectly & understands your value proposition & can resonate with it, just don't hire from competition.)
This conversation shall continue in Part II, until then, pls leave your inputs, thoughts, comments, & even challenges you've faced in getting great talent for your start up. Cheers!
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