Challenges Involved In Hiring A Kickass Team And Retaining It

So you have everything sorted out for your brand new venture – the funds, location, branding – the works. However, few would disagree with the fact that the core team of human resource and the right assembly of people power is what will decide the fate of your startup business.

A single rotten apple in the team can be the weakest link to bring the company crashing down, whereas the right people recruited at the right time and given the right set of responsibilities can make your time, money and effort spent well worthwhile.

Mark Positions To Fill

To start with, the founder and co-founder of the venture should fill in their own place and agree upon their position as per their expertise to build the structure and basis of the startup.

Remaining positions in sales, marketing, IT, accounts, etc can be filled in subsequently, keeping in mind priority positions and ensuring no overlapping or duplicating of the talent pool in the team.

You should also be wary and keep track of the finances and allotted for staffing and filling up these positions so that the staffing budget is not overshot.

Contractual/ Part-Time Hires

In order to avail a varied and fuller skillset for your business, it’s always better to hire people on a contractual or part-time basis. This approach ensures short term and target-based delivery as opposed to investing in staff who may not deliver when hired as full-time employees with no contractual or time constraint.

Industrial meets and entrepreneurial events are good places to help you locate domain experts, advisors, personal coaches, skilled contractors, mentors, and specific field experts.

Spot The Right Candidate

We should look for the following while choosing the right person for the team:

• Skills and experience of the prospective employee
• Personality and behavioral traits
• Candidate should be a perfect match for the work culture of your startup.

Once the above requisitions are met, your dream team is halfway formed!

Hiring The Chosen One

 Once you’ve found your pool of candidates, the actual hiring procedure then starts with an interview. The first rounds should cover work-related to technicalities based on the position applied for.

Following this, there should be a round conducted on the person’s background from the previous organization and fact-checking on the candidate’s claims.

The potential employee should then be given tested tasks which will bring out his/her abilities in dealing with pressure, team dynamics, and communication. Starting with a small task and moving on to bigger projects always works best.

Hiring the best team for your upcoming venture is not the end of your hurdles. It’s quite a common startup challenge to ensure employee retention and lowest possible staff turnover. Hiring the right talent may be a time consuming and expensive process but the exiting of the workforce is a bigger negative to reckon with. Here are some strategies which may help in better employee retention for the long run.

Training At Managerial Level

An employee who excels in his or her domain may not necessarily excel in managerial tasks. An adept manager will encourage every team member to perform optimally and efficiently, by empathizing and communicating with each of them.

A new venture can turn unsuccessful even with a team of talented and strong leaders if the managerial training is not extensive and continuous. The best way to reduce employee turnover is to equip managers with soft skills and the necessary tools to lead and motivate the teams reporting into them. Keeping a track on each manager’s growth and getting constructive feedback from the employees will further ensure lower churn.

Encourage Growth

Challenges put forth for employees will encourage and motivate them to do better and create healthy competition across the teams. The incentive to stay in an organization comes with being engaged and taking new opportunities at the workplace.

Personal career goals of individual employees must be identified so that the organization can work toward achieving those goals.

Show Gratitude

Giving credit where it’s due goes a long way in ensuring employees stay motivated, feel valued and stay loyal to the organization they are working for.

Showing appreciation for an employee’s hard work by way of small surprises, bonuses, recognition, and celebrations will demonstrate your gratitude toward the efforts of the team.

Building Interpersonal Relationships

 A happy and comfortable work environment is a good reason for employees to refrain from leaving to switch companies. A new venture should essentially work towards encouraging interpersonal bonding and team connections through group excursions, dine outs, team games, etc.

Bonding between team members ensures a happier and more productive work culture in the office where people enjoy each other’s company and the work they are doing.

Keep an eye on this page for many more such updates!

Image Source –Google, pixabay.com