The toughest challenge facing most new technology start-ups these days isn’t getting funded – it’s hiring the best, most talented employees. While overall unemployment remains quite high, there is a war for talent raging in the tech industry, and a lot of start-ups are losing the battle to attract and retain “A+” talent.
The team behind your idea is the most important piece of the start-up puzzle. Hiring the right people makes all the difference, especially in the early days. The cost of getting the wrong hire is far higher than the time and cost it takes to hire the right person, so it’s best to invest that time and energy in making sure you are doing everything you can to win over the right people.
The three biggest challenges that we see start-ups facing when competing for talent is their lack of brand recognition, the importance the hire has in the start-ups overall mission and where the hire should expect to be as the company continues to grow. Start-ups that are successful in recruiting do a great job of telling their story, explaining their vision and how the candidate will be an important part of reaching that goal.
Passion is the Key but cannot be pinpointed on a resume. It is best revealed with time, which makes it difficult to recognize in the hiring process. The rule is to build a strong pipeline, turn quality leads into opportunities, and identify top talent. The opportunity to work on a technical challenge is something money can’t buy. Highlight the challenge and the person you want may choose your company.
In India, particularly, the challenge is huge because we are also trying to overcome the social aspects when it comes to working for a start-up. Most fresh graduates do not really think about working for start-ups. Although this trend is changing slowly, we still have a long way to go before some real glamour can be added to a start-up job.
CareerXperts has built many early stage technology start-up teams from scratch; write to us at info@careerxperts.com to build your “A+” team.