Let’s face it: Hiring employees can be one of the hardest things a start-up can do.
They don’t have fancy offices, pensions, or the salaries that Fortune 5000 companies can offer. Keeping them loyal can be equally challenging.
Therefore, start-ups need to be a little more innovative when it comes to hiring.
3 Key Strategies
1. Hire people with love, ownership, and freedom
Start-ups can motivate people through love, ownership, and freedom. We have three things the big companies don’t: a close relationship with our employees, the opportunity for the employee to get in on the ground floor, and flexibility. For founders to attract the best talent for their start-ups, they need to offer things that are different from the rest.
Love: Let’s start by loving our employees and “recognizing greatness.” For many type A personality founders, this does not come naturally, but with practice and constant repetition, it can become not only something the owner does but also part of the organization’s culture.
Secondly, founders need to understand what their employees want to achieve in life. Where do they want to be five years from now? What are their goals, and how can the founder and this company help them achieve them?
Challenge them by giving them responsibilities in several areas. At bigger companies, employees tend to focus on singular tasks and do them over and over again, which can be boring. A start-up, by contrast, needs “DIYers” or “Jacks of All Trades.” A start-up is a great environment to get exposure to several areas and develop leadership skills.
Understand who they are as a person. What are their favorite hobbies? Shower them with gifts. I remain impressed with my wife, who has successfully retained teachers for the school she owns. During the holidays, she gives 12 days of gifting to each of her 16 employees. The investment may only be a few hundred dollars, but giving them thoughtful gifts lets them know you love them.
Ownership: Consider finding a way for your employees to benefit from the business’ successes. This could come as a bonus when the company hits a certain target. Long-term incentives such as annual profit sharing or stock options also can motivate the right type of people, especially if you are trying to attract key talent. One of the companies I am working with recently hired one of my ex-employees who worked for a Fortune 500 company and got him to cut his salary by more than half in return for getting 10 percent of the company in stock options.
Cash is king in a start-up. Preserving as much oxygen (or cash) as possible is important. Just make certain when venturing down these paths that you get the right legal advice. Also, don’t make verbal promises. Employees can be skeptical of such claims. Ambiguity is the founder’s enemy. When you put it in writing, it all becomes real.
Freedom: A key advantage prior to the pandemic was offering your employees the opportunity to work whenever or wherever they wanted to. Since the pandemic, bigger companies have been jumping on board, allowing employees to have more work-life balance. Start-ups need to take this to the next level. Bring the dog or even kids to work—no problem. Founders need to focus on results, not hours worked or time spent at work.
2. Sell success
The fact is, nothing motivates more than success. Everyone wants to be a part of a winning company.
It is important for the entrepreneur to lay out the vision of what the start-up can become. Now, don’t go too far and land in jail like Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos or Billy McFarland from the Fyre Festival. But it is important to sell your team a vision. Both Elon Musk and Steve Jobs have done a good job of selling a vision and inspiring teams to achieve the impossible. When success happens, it not only makes the employees look good in their family and friend circles, it also makes them feel good about winning.
3. Profile everyone for positions to fill
The most important thing you can likely do is figure out the personality profiles of the positions you want to fill. The founder first needs to start with themselves and figure out who they are. Are they good at sales? Operations? IT? Then, identify the personality profiles of the positions you need to fill.
Lastly, hire for personality first and then skills. If someone doesn’t fit the right personality profile, they won’t last long. We use tools like Myers-Briggs and DiSC to align talents with organizational needs.
Start-ups must navigate hiring with a unique blend of emotional intelligence, strategic incentives, and cultural fit to turn hiring hurdles into stepping stones for success.
