In last Thursday’s column, we had discussed outsourcing for smaller, repetitive and manual tasks. Today we will discuss how you should hire your employees at the initial stages of your startup. A startup, as we know, has very few employees and tonnes of responsibilities for each. When a venture is in the beginning stages, everything needs to be done — marketing, sales, partnerships, financial management, etc. Since you will focus on future partnerships and other things, here is what you should keep in mind while doing your initial hiring:
Hire leaders: When you see startups posting job advertisements on different portals, you often see this line that they are looking for people with ‘entrepreneurial’ mindset. Why is that? In your initial days, you will have loads of work and will hardly have time to check if your employees are doing the tasks delegated to them or not. Better have leaders who will lead their projects without requiring a constant push from your side.
Hire people you can trust: Your first employees will probably know most of your confidential information. Better have people who will keep it that way.
Get hardworking people: This one is tricky. Most people you will interview will claim that they are hardworking. Then how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? When you interview them, try to look for their previous leadership roles. Have they done something interesting during their college days (in the case of freshers) or in their previous jobs? That should give you
a signal.
Filter people who have unwanted behaviour: All of us have distinct personalities and there is only some kind of people whom we get along with. Your employees don’t just have to be talented but also need to gel well with your personality. Or they might end up bad-mouthing you, your startup or the workplace. Unpleasant politics can kill your venture — especially in its initial days.
Look for optimistic people: A startup journey is full of crests and troughs. You might change your priorities within a few months depending on market trends and there is a possibility you might completely pivot your business model. People who are not optimistic will see each of these changes as a possible downfall for your startup. And that’s scary. An optimistic hire will see that as a change for good. So better be sure you do not have pessimists in your team.