Hiring your First Employee

Your startup’s first hire is always special. There are a couple of reasons for that.

First Experience of Hiring – Since this is the first time you are hiring someone, it makes you feel nervous and you tend to more careful and cautious.

For the Long Run – The first hires have two things attached to them – they are generally hired for a very particular skill set and are generally hired for the long run. An entrepreneur hopes to find someone who can stay with the company in the long run and can maybe lead the team around the skill set he/she was hired for.

Based on the importance of the first hire which we can gauge from the points above, I suggest that every entrepreneur should look for the following qualities in this person.

Passion – You don’t need an MBA degree or 5+ years of experience at this stage, you need passion to match yours.

Belief in Concept – Only a person who believes in the business idea as much as you do will want to be part of the company for the long run.

Strong Skill Set – Since that first hire will have to do a lot of the skill based stuff himself/herself, having a strong skill set is a must. Until the startup can afford to put together a team, this person will have to drive this part of the business.

Hiring the right people is a key factor which affects a startup’s growth. Hiring the first few people is even more critical and an entrepreneur must not hurry up and think it through before doing so.

Hiring Challenges

Here are some quotes from leading entrepreneurs on the challenges they faced in hiring for their startups.

Greg Isenberg, Founder& CEO, 5by (now acquired by Stumble Upon)

Joining a startup is a rollercoaster and most people know it. Most people want to go to their 9-5 and forget about work when it’s over. Finding startup employees are a rarity and they have to be willing to work long hours and get paid less than market rates.”

Steve Hoffman, Cofounder, Founders Space

I always tell my startups not to feel rushed. Don’t hire someone just because you desperately need to fill the position. Take a deep breath and wait until you find the right person, even if it means slowing everything down.”

Don Glacy, Founder & Principal, Omnific

“We hire attitude and train for everything else. We have built the company on superior service that requires a great culture. Our biggest challenge is maintaining our culture as we grow and hire new personalities at an increasingly faster pace.”

Baochi Nguyen, CEO, Social Canny

“Finding A-player employees takes time and patience. I’ve made mistakes because I hired too quickly and below my standards. But everytime I’ve kept interviewing (seemingly forever), I’ve hired great people that I will recruit/refer for the rest of my career.”

Jason Wang, Founder & CEO, TryCaviar

“The biggest challenge is finding someone with the right cultural fit. Many candidates look great on paper and do well in interviews, but can they buckle down and accomplish great things with the team?” 

(article taken from eazyhire.in)

Hiring Interns

Hiring good interns has become an intrinsic part of any startup's growth path today. With all startups wanting to cut excess fat and wanting to keep their setup as lean as possible, hiring interns is the way forward.

Interns are generally hired directly from University and work on a host of projects such as a new product launch, generating content for the website/blog, marketing campaign, doing backend work etc. I found this interesting infographic on yourstory.com on what the typical day of an intern looks like.

The benefits of hiring interns to a company include

Testing before Confirming: Though a lot of interns are given full time positions in most companies, the companies get to test them out before offering them these positions. Internships work as a 'try before you buy' kind of a situation for the company.

Cheaper: Interns are paid much less than full time employees of the company, thereby reducing the costs for the company.

Thus it makes it imperative for companies to have a solid internship programme. Also companies should look at the following techniques to get good quality interns.

Internships Portal: A lot of portals have come up in this space. Companies should establish a good presence on them to get visibility amongst the pool of people looking for internships.

Links with Universities: Companies must develop good links with leading Universities not only for recruiting full time employees, but also for getting best interns from them.

Hiring Challenges a Startup May Face...

A startup is as good as it's team driving the idea. Getting the right people on board is very critical and often tends to get very challenging for entrepreneurs.

Some of the typical mistakes startups make are highlighted below:

Pick the right team – Founders often have little to no experience in building a competent team of employees. The key is to pick a combination of talent, experience and innovation. Team leaders are just as important as programmers or rebel innovators.

Network – That’s the byword today. Don’t be bound by traditional channels of hiring. Look among family, friends, old classmates and past colleagues. Spread the word on social media. Be open to referrals as much as to unsolicited walk-ins.

Manage your weakness – Bolster up weak areas. Bring some stability to your development team by hiring somebody with experience, or throw the caution to wind by hiring some young blood for their bizarre ideas and joie de vivre.

Lack of expertise – In a startup, the founders’ plates are overflowing with a bevy of tasks. Furthermore, it is not necessary that they are an expert at everything. A founder may be good at many tasks, but not necessarily hiring, which may lead to bad hires.

(taken from www.eazyhire.in)