In the early stages of a growing organization, every additional employee makes a much larger impact than at a large corporation. Employee No. 7 who is assuming responsibility as Director of Sales may have a game changing impact on the company, than Employee 700 who maybe joining as a Regional Sales Manager.
Of course, every hiring decision at any company - small or large, is an important one, but young companies should especially pay attention to the following factors:
1. Define the Job Description: Very often in small teams, the founders and entrepreneurs are eager to get some help on board quickly. They put together a broad and general description as they are looking for an autonomous person who understands startups and will work beyond job descriptions.
While this is the desired result, communicating what the manager is expected to achieve in 6 or 12 months is helpful in the hiring process. A list of possible responsibilities will work to filter out folks who may not be willing to work on certain necessary areas.
2. Post to the right channels: There are numerous hiring tools available both online and offline to post jobs. While recruiters are still quite effective, depending on the scale of your startup, you may want to find niche online job boards for your industry or specialty. Some of these boards can be found on: http://www.internetinc.com/top-100-job-board-niches/.
Also, there are people looking to connect with and work for startups on many entrepreneur blogs and incubator blogs. You can do an online search for regional blogs for your city. For example, for Boston there is: http://greenhornconnect.com/ and they have a good job board.
3. Understand the motivation: To be a manager or a responsible member of a smaller organization, the candidate must have a long-term vision about his career choice and sound belief in your business. Small organizations are about sharing longer-term upsides and inheriting more responsibility early on in one’s career.
If the candidate is looking for the highest possible pay and corporate perks, then he or she may not be the best fit. The driving factor for the application should be a keen interest in the business or industry, or passion about your company in particular.
4. Test the new manager: In a start-up there is little time to train folks into a certain pattern of working. At the end of the day, you want this person to add substantial value to what the company is trying to achieve. You can ask them to do a two-week trial period and see how they fit into your culture. To run a couple of such trials is more optimum than hiring a new manager every month.
5. Retain candidate information: You may be hiring only one manager right now, but may receive ten great applicants. Be smart and retain their resumes for the future. You may be hiring again before you know it!
There are simple and affordable recruitment software available. These replace email attachments and messy spreadsheets, so you won’t lose resumes in a pile of emails. For a small requirement, don’t pay more than $50 per month.
