7 tips for startups to attract and retain top talent - forbes

4/1/2016 7 Tips For Startups To Attract And Retain Top Talent - Forbes

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ENTREPRENEURS 9/08/2014 @ 11:32AM 10,370 views

7 Tips For Startups To Attract AndRetain Top TalentBringing the right people on board is important

for any business, but startups in particular can’t

afford to make hiring mistakes. When money is

tight and credibility has yet to be established, a

wrong hire can set you back for months or keep

your business from taking off altogether. In

addition, a lack of resources and recognition can

make it difficult for startups to lure the best and

brightest.

So what can startups do to attract and retain top

talent?

I recently moderated a panel discussion on the

topic at TechPint’s Industry Digital Summit in

Cleveland. My fellow panelists had several

interesting pieces of advice for entrepreneurs

that I’d like to share.

1. Build An Exciting Company That DoesSomething Big

Attracting top talent starts with building a

business that people want to be part of, says

Robert Hatta, talent partner at Drive Capital,

which invests in Midwest companies. Everything

else, including where a startup is located, is

secondary, he says.

“If you build an exciting company that’s trying to

do something big, good people will want to work

for you,” he says. “And the people who work for

you will tell their friends how awesome it is; and

people from other regions that are perceived to

be sexier will come to work for you.”

Rebecca O. Bagley ContributorI write about strategies that accelerate the pace of innovation.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.



2. Define Yourself Before You Hire

For Julie Maurer, president of SilverLine

Consulting, hiring successfully begins with

defining who you are and figuring out what set of

skills you are looking for. In other words, the

exercise of creating a job description in many

respects is more important than the document

itself.

“You have to really think about what your

company is doing, where you are at and what

your culture is,” Julie says. “Think about top

talent in the context of your company, define it

and then recruit for it.”

3. The Hiring Process Should Reflect YourCulture

Recruiting for culture, not just skills, is an

important point. One of the hiring practices we

introduced at NorTech is a set of interviews

aimed at identifying whether or not a candidate

shares our values and can perform well in our

fast-paced, ever-changing environment.

Applicants go through a series of tough

interviews with employees who have not seen the

candidates’ résumés. Instead they pay attention

to values like passion, respect, individual

responsibility and the desire to grow.

4. Your First Hire Should Be A “GetStuffDone” Person

Flexibility is one of the most important things in

a startup, as people are likely going to wear lots

of different hats. In a startup, someone who can

adapt to different challenges and find solutions

quickly might be more important than someone

who is an expert in a particular subject.

“Your first hire as you are starting to take off as a

startup should be a ‘get-stuff-done’ person,”

Robert says. “There’s a million things to be done

and somebody’s gotta take care of that stuff.

Someone who’s smart, resourceful, takes

initiative and gets it done.”

Robert says that person almost always becomes

an expert in a particular area later and turns out

to be indispensable for the company.

5. Take Away The Fear Of Failure



One of the hiring challenges startups face is that

top recruits might consider it too risky joining

the company. After all, the startup has no track

record and there’s no guarantee for success.

Julie recommends tackling that issue head on in

the interviewing process. She suggests presenting

the worst-case scenario and stressing that the

candidate would have no problem finding

another opportunity should the startup go under.

“Often what you see is candidates will say, “Yeah,

I’ll be fine if this company goes down. But it’s not

going down, because I’m part of it,” she says.

6. Engage And Empower Employees

Once you have been able to attract top talent,

how do you retain it?

For Michael McDonnel, vice president of global

talent acquisition at TOA Technologies, which

was recently purchased by Oracle, it’s about

giving employees a sense of engagement and

empowerment.

“You have to give people the opportunity to own

what they do,” he says. “If they don’t, they’ll say

‘Check please’ pretty soon.”

Open communication is essential in order to

engage and empower employees, Michael says.

CEOs must set expectations clearly,

communicate progress and challenges

frequently, and recognize individual

contributions to overall success. Only then will

employees buy in and feel a sense of ownership

in their work.

7. Define Your Process And Commit To It

There are many different approaches to

executing these strategies. Whatever your

approach, it’s important that you define a clear

process, have someone on point to manage it and

commit to it, Michael says.

And that process doesn’t have to change even

after your startup grows, Robert says.

“Those things that seem natural when you’re

small tend to get cast aside when you grow,” he

says. “You can always act small with little things

even when you’re big.”

Michael T. Mcdonnell



This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/1lNqvGP 2016 Forbes.com LLC™ All Rights Reserved

Share your thoughts on how to attract andretain top talent by commenting below orsending me a tweet at @NorTech!

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7 tips for startups to attract and retain top talent - forbes

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