Overcoming The Biggest Challenges To Hiring Staff For Startups And Scaleups

Around the world, startups are facing challenges in attracting and retaining talent. There is a skills shortage, and those workers with technology skills, specific product knowledge and experience in sales and marketing are in increasingly high demand.

According to internal polling by my company of 125 senior decision makers, nearly two-thirds of startup and scaleup employers say sales and business development are the most important skills for achieving business objectives. Development (including front-end, back-end and mobile) is the next most common skill (53%), followed by marketing, branding and public relations (47%).

The United Kingdom, for example, has an estimated?1,600 fintech firms , and this industry is expected to grow exponentially despite Covid-19 challenges. That is a lot of positions that will need to be filled from a pool of workers that is currently smaller than the demand.

Recruitment

With this growth, the biggest challenge startups face is recruitment. As a solution, I believe startups and scaleup companies need to streamline their recruitment strategies with a blend of agencies and direct hiring. No organization can do everything themselves, and this blending of strategies can allow you to attract more staff and reduce hiring times. There are also cultural changes in the office environment that you can make to attract this talent.

Finding talent with the specific experience you need for your disruption model can be challenging, and when you do find such talent, competition is fierce. Talent acquisition models alone aren't a one-size-fits-all solution. Startups need to be proactive. As part of this proactiveness, you can seek out specialist startup recruitment agencies who are discovering and using direct sourcing strategies.

Proactive and direct recruitment strategies include market mapping of talent to identify potential recruits, brand development through content on social media and engaging with a specialist headhunter to take advantage of their channels and networks.

It is critical for startups to concentrate on attracting the best talent instead of only focusing on what recruitment model saves costs. In order to attract and retain employees, flexible working hours, the option to work from home, greater autonomy, better employee benefits and an empowering culture are all essential.

Staff recruitment is a time-consuming and challenging task for most startup and scaleup companies. Therefore, keeping staff on board is equally as important, if often challenging. Training, career development, brand buy-in, brand ethos and brand equity are keys to retention so that you do not have to keep hiring and training staff.

Overall, you may also want to reconsider your business' culture and brand. Nowadays, less and less talent wants to fit into a 9-to-5, lunch at noon, fixed pyramid structure. Today's companies should be innovative, dynamic and offer more than a role. When employees are a part of an empowering management philosophy, they become an integral part of your company's vision and ethos.

Key Skills

If you prioritize some key skills during the recruitment process, it can make things easier. You should look out for the following skills when starting your recruitment process.

? Technical.?These skills will depend on the exact job position and level. The most common technical skills sought after are QA testing, data insights, data science, cloud engineers, software engineers and app development.

? Problem-solving.?Identifying and solving problems within financial systems as well as finding solutions for consumers and businesses lies at the heart of startup and scaleup companies.

? Communication.?It is essential to be able to fully explain complex projects to internal and external clients as well as field tough questions.

Knowledge Types

As well as key skills, you should look for candidates with a command of certain types of knowledge.

? Product knowledge.?Familiarity with your tech products makes it so they can work on or sell them without needing additional training.

? Industry knowledge.?Look for potential recruits who know the current trends in your industry and are able to predict, incorporate and adapt them into your business.

? Tech knowledge.?Having a good understanding of technical terms and knowledge beyond the main products can open up new opportunities.

Salary Hurdles

In general, startups (apart from VC-backed startups) can't offer comparable salaries or benefits as more established companies. Due to their nature, they tend to also have less job security than other employers. On top of that, many startups require their employees to take on many responsibilities.

When salaries are the hurdle to hiring for startups, solutions can include:

? Creating a dynamic environment of flexible working hours and remote work.

? An equity/share ownership scheme to mitigate against the salary hurdle.

? Other benefits such as more holidays and other incentivizing perks.

? Having a strong mission and purpose. People are becoming more and more mission-oriented. They will join companies on this basis also, but it has to be effectively communicated online and via brand development.

Talent retention is vital for all companies, in particular startups. Therefore to keep your staff, you need to engage them and foster a strong and dynamic culture. Emphasize career recognition and progression as well as training and development. In essence, foster a strong working environment of reward, purpose, learning and progression.

Recruiting For Startups: What's Next?

In startups and scaleups, having the right recruitment strategy is essential. In fact, the CEO of one major fintech unicorn stated that he spent?one-third ?of his time on recruitment.

Therefore, a blended and multilayered recruitment strategy involving direct recruitment, community-led recruitment and partnerships with specialist agencies is the key to success. Equally important are strategies to invest in and retain current employees. After all, your people are your company.