Successful companies find the right people for the right jobs. But, the most successful companies find the right jobs for the right people. Many businesses — especially startups — know the importance of finding the right employees first and creating roles for them second.
It might seem a little backwards, but think about how much your first ten employees can make or break your company’s success. The first people you hire shape the future and culture of your company, and the process should be just as important as the product or service you’re selling. Follow these tips to hire the people who will help your company reach new heights:
Hire a Recruiter
Unless you have an extensive background in recruiting, you probably don’t know how to find and hire new employees. Don’t take on this important and complex task on your own in the beginning stages of your business. Instead, hire a recruiter who knows the ins and outs of finding the best people and getting them to come in for interviews with little effort on your part. This step is well worth the extra expense.
Find the Right People
- Multi-Talented Matthew (MTM): MTM is an IT professional and a jack of all trades. He knows coding, programming, web development, design and IT repair solutions. MTM can’t run a whole IT department by himself, but you can move him to any role in the field and build a quality team around him.
- Leader Lenny (LL): A captain needs his first mate, and that’s what you’ll find in LL. A president or CEO can’t always have eyes on or give attention to all of his or her employees, so an omnipresent leader is key to keeping the company and its morale moving forward.
- Personal Patty (PP): PP knows people and she knows them well. She likely has a background in sales and is the go-to person to schmooze anyone outside of your company. She might work in the sales department, but can just as easily find a good home in customer service.
Follow Best Practices
- Don’t Sell the Gimmicks: Don’t fool your potential employees with a Red Bull machine or ping pong table in the break room. These are cheap tricks and the real talent won’t fall for it anyways. New companies try to lure employees with “cool” benefits, knowing full well those benefits will disappear as the company grows into something more serious. Be up front with your talent and sell them on what you will become, not what you are.
- Take Information Seriously: Think about all the data breaches you see in the news today. The fastest way to lose a new employee is to lose his or her information. Take the proper precautions to protect employee data and maintain trust inside your company.
- Don’t Forget Where You Come From: The people you first hire will shape the foundation of your company for years to come. Don’t forget what it was like when it all started, and, more importantly, don’t let them forget either. Your company will change as it grows and adds more people to the force, but that core group you first brought in to the mix will be there to inspire and lead the new talent and maintain the best parts of your company culture.
