Three biggest challenges tech startups face in the hiring process

All successful companies share a common denominator: they prioritize their people. 

Simon Sinek puts it this way: “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” This reality is especially true for tech startups. When it’s time to scale, hiring looks a lot like bringing people on board while the founders are still building the train. It’s a necessary, but precarious, step. A wrong fit costs time and money, and it tarnishes the emerging culture. It’s difficult to recover once employee turnover derails momentum. The success of the company depends on the leader’s capacity to find and keep the right people.

The right people ask the right questions before they decide to pursue a position in a new company with no track record. If you’re the leader of a tech startup that’s ready to hire, top talent wants to know who you are, how you’ll get to where you’re going, and how they fit into your Big Picture.

Answering these three questions is the biggest challenge you’ll face in the hiring process. 

1. Who are you? 

Clearly defining your mission is the first step in finding the right people for your team. When a new hire steps into their role, they need to be crystal clear on the company’s vision (what future are you building together?), mission (why does your company exist?) and values (what is true of each decision you make as a company?)

A candidate’s first interaction with your mission/vision/values is in the hiring process. A mission focused job description attracts critical thinkers that have the intellectual flexibility to contribute to the company’s direction. The interviews are a golden opportunity to talk through what it looks like to work in the unique space of a startup. It’s definitely not for everybody, but it’s going to appeal to the type of candidate that can handle autonomy and flexibility in a dynamic environment, within the parameters of your values. 

2. How will you get there?

The biggest challenge that I see startups face is the lack of planning, especially in recruitment. They don’t have a strategy to hire- and retain- high caliber talent. 

Whether you’re hiring one or one hundred new team members, create a clearly defined interview process. Every candidate, from the accounts manager to senior software engineer, needs to have the same hiring experience. Communicate the same timeline to each applicant. Send links to a central scheduling calendar to make it easy for the candidate to take the next step. To minimize bias, use the same questions in the interviews and an objective rating system to evaluate responses and skill sets.

As soon as your candidates are hired, prioritize the onboarding process. 20% of employee turnover occurs in the first 45 days of a new job. Without a strong start, they won’t stick around. This is a death sentence for a startup- turnover leads to lost productivity and low morale among the employees that stay. Not only will this kill momentum, but it’s a red flag that top talent is watching for. If you can’t keep the right people, you won’t attract the right people. You’ll lose top talent to your competition.

A strong onboarding process can improve new hire retention by 82%. And 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3 or more years if they experience a great onboarding process. Onboarding creates the structure your employee needs to thrive in their new role.

3. How do they fit into your Big Picture? 

Top talent isn’t looking for busy work. They’re ready to make a difference by investing their professional hours in a compelling mission. And they want to do it with teammates that they like to work with. These must-haves are addressed in a healthy corporate culture. 

A healthy culture retains your people, enables them to thrive, and develops your future leaders. It’s intentionally established. If you treat culture as an afterthought, you’ll run off people faster than your drunk cousin can clear the dance floor when he gets his jiggy on. It’s both embarrassing and avoidable. 

Top talent will disengage the minute they stop connecting how their work contributes to the company’s Big Picture. The obvious resolution to this is to build a culture that keeps the Big Picture front and center in the minds of team members. This conversation starts in the interview process, continues throughout the onboarding, and permeates the everyday team meetings and interactions. Call attention to how specific actions contribute to moving the company in the direction of accomplishing the mission.

Chart a long-term career trajectory for each employee. Invest in the right people by offering training opportunities within the company. You believe in your team members- and they’re worth investing in. It enables you to hire internally for future leadership roles. And it’s good for a candidate that wants to grow their skillset. With technology changing at lightning speed, training overcomes any skill gaps. 

The biggest challenge I see in tech startups creating strong cultures is committing to diversity. An inclusive culture empowers workers to show up as their authentic selves. Each team member’s unique perspective, skillset, and experiences equally contribute to business solutions. A culture of inclusivity encourages trust and commitment. Personally, workers are happier and more resilient. Professionally, they’re more productive and engaged because they can identify how their decisions impact the company’s bottom line. They know that their contribution is making a difference. 

Connecting with people with different perspectives starts with the hiring process, but it doesn’t stop there. A healthy culture develops skill sets to develop communication and empathy in each worker. This includes listening, asking good questions, and implementing unconventional ideas into decisions. 

Your hiring process is as critical as laying tracks for the train to run on- because your people will determine whether your company moves forward to accomplish your mission. If you’re interested in more information on how to maximize the success of your recruiting efforts, check out my interview https://shorturl.at/FNZ17 with Mehmet Gonullu. We talked about my 3-part methodology for recruiting, which has a 95% fill rate, can decrease the time to hire by 65%, and has reduced turnover rate from 54% to 21%.

When you’re ready to invest in building a solid foundation for launching your innovative business, reach out for an exploratory conversation. I’d love to connect!