Initial Hires in a Fashion Startups

The hardest affair you've not been told

The Series A crunch may be tough but the talent crunch is brutal. We talk to high-growth startups every day and we go on hearing versions of "compared to recruiting, fundraising was easy". Just like fundraising, information technology's very competitive. It takes time, grooming and selling, and getting it incorrect tin dull downwardly or kill your startup. It's the hardest thing to get right. Information technology doesn't become the attention information technology deserves.

You need to exist a hiring obsessive

Whether it's ii founders talking to an affections investor, a squad of 10 making something from nothing, or a high-growth company with 50 staff, squad quality is the unmarried best predictor of success. If y'all can go not bad people then everything else becomes and then much easier.

Growth hacks versus talent hacks

Silicon Valley has figured out how to build bang-up products and turn them into successful business models. Methodologies have emerged like Lean Startup, agile product development and growth hacking. They function as roadmaps for the non-experts and inspire conversation and innovation in those fields. In comparison hiring practices have remained in the nighttime ages.

Getting from 5 to 50 and beyond

Your first 5 hires pretty much picked themselves but in getting from 5 to 50 you will need the best tools and analytics, and you will demand to exist systematic. It'southward about more than ping pong tables and wheel racks. We've spent the time to curate the best thinking on everything from employer branding and headhunting to every step in the interview process, whether y'all're building a distributed team or you've got an office. We've thrown in ideas, tricks, talent hacks and real life examples from great companies. The issue is this startup hiring guide that offers some construction when hiring for rapid growth from 5 to 50. It's a starting point. And my aim is to get all of us to talk nearly hiring.

1. Building an bonny company: Employer branding
2. Always be hiring: developing a hiring process
3. How to write job descriptions
4. What to look for: Hiring for a startup
5. Sourcing 101: Passive candidates
6. Creating an interview process
7. Workplace benefits and compensation
8. Recruiting software and tools
9. Where to post your jobs

1. Building an attractive company: employer branding

Smart companies typically operate in competitive talent markets. This means that the people you're looking for are likely to be juggling several task offers. Competing for outstanding candidates with the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter might seem like a losing proposition but information technology'south not.

It can be washed but, offset, you have to realize that hiring is marketing. We live in what's called the "historic period of transparency". It has never been easier for employees to be able to tell who you are or what working with yous would exist like. Digital platforms mean that even the youngest companies tin affordably showcase why they're an exciting identify to piece of work. There'southward more to social media hiring than just tweeting your jobs. Everything you do or say on social media is building your brand.

PRO TIP: Intercom'southward weblog is a bang-up example of doing marketing and employer branding at the same time.

You lot're speaking to two audiences: Customers & talent

In the early on days, the way you market your product and the mode you think nigh the problems you're solving, says a lot nigh the kind of company that you're most to build. If you become known for doing interesting things for your customers, you will attract talented and ambitious people. Smart people want to solve interesting problems. They're not looking for a job, they're looking for a mission. Smart people want to work with smart people.

Your presence in communities, your reputation, your contribution and ideas represent you lot. Use blogging, social media and public conversations to keep speaking to your ideal future hires. Signpost your involvement in events and your own content to make it piece of cake for people to find out what yous represent and why you matter.

PRO TIP: Buffer's focus on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Who the hell are you?

In the first were the founders. The early hires in startups don't take a company reputation to buy into, so usually they're taking a gamble on joining the founders in their large initiative. When yous're in the early phase, it'south the personal brand of the founders that's going to be the strongest component. Simple steps like having an engaging personal blog can project why you're worth working for and what you're trying to do. Allow prospective candidates get to know you.

PRO TIP: Nosotros honey Zendesk'south recruiting film for the way it showcases what information technology's like to work for them:

Fifty-fifty in the early days of a visitor your employees go your brand and signal what kind of people work there. Chances are yous've hired people who reflect your company'south brand and values well. Showcase your employees on your website and empower them to talk confidently about your business. Employees attending meetups and events, sharing a video of their home working environment, or just speaking with genuine passion about their jobs are a powerful marketing tool.

Hire people who can build teams

Proficient people know good people. Hire people who are already networked and know much of the talent you'll be needing. When yous can, go for people with a personal brand. This is besides a signal to future hires. Remember, some of your all-time people will exist high-potential junior hires who will grow with the startup. So, always look for those who can nurture and grow your young talent.

PRO TIP: FullContact'south paid-paid holiday initiative offers holiday bonuses to staff who go completely off the grid. Everyone needs to from fourth dimension to time.

Live in the real world

Don't merely be digital. Y'all're going to be employing people afterwards all and they congregate at events and around offline communities too. Exist an active participant in these ecosystems. An consequence sponsorship or even a few beers tin go a long way. Even as remote work becomes more of a standard in 2020 and across, human interaction is highly valued and appreciated.

Return to top

2. Always be hiring: developing a hiring process

Networks are king

Ask any startup where most of their hires came from or enquire bigger companies where their best people came from and the answer is commonly the same: friends, friends of friends or ex-colleagues. It'southward all about networks for one unproblematic reason: proficient people know skilful people. Function of existence a skilful CEO is building a great network with quality and reach. There are no shortcuts here, it'due south real work. The amend your network is, the easier your adjacent rent is going to be.

If you lot don't know the right person you lot will at least know someone who does. Think quality as well as quantity. It's not just nearly having thousands of LinkedIn connections (although it tin't hurt). Are you working hard plenty to be an accurate member of the community where your talent puddle is? If your tech is built with Ruby are yous taking office in the relevant meetups and hackathons? Are your developers known for their thought leadership and contribution in your sphere?

Hiring is everyone's job, peculiarly sourcing

But as you look for candidates through networks, the all-time candidates are looking for their next job in the same style. Give-and-take of mouth matters. The best recommendation you're going to get will exist when someone you lot'd similar to hire is told by a friend of theirs who is already on your squad that your startup is great place to work. If your team is proud of where they work they'll tell their friends.

What happens when your own network runs out? Go on trying. There will always exist someone you oasis't told that you're hiring. You lot can go farther, have the time to sit with your employees one by one and go through their online networks (LinkedIn is a skillful instance). You'll find good people and you can get your colleagues to message them and then and there. This is a time-consuming process but worth it.

There's tremendous value in referred employees in the form of greater task satisfaction, college retention rates, quicker bidder-to-hire conversion – all metrics that ultimately reduce the cost of recruitment, especially when hiring for rapid growth.

PRO TIP: Ready a formal employee referral program in your company, with incentives for your current colleagues. You lot can even gamify the process to further motivate employees to refer people in their networks.

Exit of your bubble

Your own network can but extend so far and the chances are your colleagues' networks take a lot of overlap with yours. Plus, there's the potential for bias – equally the sometime saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. If you're hiring friends of friends or former colleagues of existing employees, that's a potential trap in homogenizing your workforce. Become out of that bubble and speak to new people, ask for introductions from your ain network and so you tin showtime tapping into adjacent ones.

Learn how a tech sales VP established gender residual in her team in a male-dominated field, by looking exterior of the usual candidate resources.

PRO TIP: Sending your developers to the best conferences is a sure burn fashion to grow your network, as well as encouraging them to spread the word through their online networks where they live and play.

How to practice social the right style

If you've done most things right then far you'll beginning with an audience. This means y'all have something to bootstrap your social media recruiting endeavor to. Using social for hiring isn't just about tweeting jobs and getting your colleagues to retweet. The companies who are most successful at social hiring have built up a relevant audition and target their tweets to influential people in their community. Not all retweets were born equal — you desire to exist talked about in context. You want influential people in your field talking yous upwardly as an authorisation.

PRO TIP: Netflix put their culture presentation online:

That open up presentation promoting Netflix'south Culture of Excellence went viral – conspicuously boosting their employer brand and reputation.

Return to meridian

iii. How to write task descriptions

Don't go with the flow

Job descriptions could and should sweep candidates off their feet. Only all as well often, we're content to lean on the old-fashioned and generic with the result that about job ads are mediocre. We're guessing yous don't want to be boilerplate. You're non one of those guys looking for superheroes who is too lazy to arts and crafts a job description that might actually attract them.

PRO TIP: The first time we came beyond Medium's careers folio was in Lou Hoffman'due south commodity: The best task descriptions on the planet. Plenty said.

Dear at kickoff sight

We all know that applicants similar to scan. They want to look at an opening and be able to recognize in the blink of an eye if information technology'south their dream task. Similar all decorated people they have a chiliad things competing for their attention; specially the passive candidates for whom you're trawling. Make every job clarification seductive. Kickoff with the job title, keeping in mind that most job boards work like search engines, therefore candidates use keywords to search for jobs.

The near-the-company part

This is your run a risk to brand a good start impression, so start thinking nearly the distinctive characteristics that make your company special. The blazon of job clarification you publish is closely related to who y'all are equally an employer. Give them a glimpse of your company that will amuse them into coming to working for yous.

PRO TIP: Check out some of our favorite chore ads from the Workable task board – each of which tin can fit different needs in your business.

Candidates need to be able to relate to job descriptions on a personal level. Tell them a story almost your company that will brand them sit back and picture themselves working with you lot. Get-go with an educated guess, with something uncomplicated, ask for feedback and and so optimize. Inquire employees why they savor working for your startup. If you have a marketing department lean on them for some content marketing advice. Hiring for rapid growth should not to exist done in isolation – it's a team effort. Yous'll need to put in some extra attempt but it will pay off.

The almost-the-chore part

You know that if you become with the flow then your chore descriptions will exist deathly dull but yous're tempted to do then anyway. Because that's the way everybody is doing it. But it won't help your company stand up out, it volition just add together to the mountain of identical job descriptions that grows larger every 24-hour interval.

How are job seekers (let lonely the precious, passive ones) supposed to spot that you're offering a dream gig when it looks similar a machine wrote your job description? It's not necessarily because they're not well-written, it's because they're presented equally if they were not written by or for a human being beingness. Do everyone a favor and stick to the important stuff. In that location are tons of job descriptions out there listing every tiny little task a future employee might perform. That'southward non the point.

Information technology'southward all near clarity

Start writing job descriptions that build businesses. They volition attract the all-time talent and convert prospects into candidates. How?

• Sell your company and their future in information technology in an engaging mode
• Get rid of the tedious corporate tone
• Go along it chatty and friendly
• Employ words that evoke feelings
• Make them aspire so act on that desire
• Use "you" or "we'; driblet the passive voice

To upwards the ante you tin can also add a listing of people the future hire volition get to piece of work with on a regular basis.

The about-the-requirements function

We've covered the basics in our "At that place's a difference between what y'all want and what you lot need" blog mail service. If you've used Workable, you may accept noticed the must-haves and prissy-to-haves requirements. Why did we add this characteristic? To make certain that candidates won't go excluded from the hiring process merely because they clicked "NO" on a secondary skill that is unlikely to be pivotal. Think nigh what skills would make sense, adding to the equation the fact that they are individuals and not miracle workers. Must-have requirements are the blank minimum: the tin can't-live-without listing. Squeamish-to-have requirements are the extras: they belong on the nosotros-can-live-without list.

Jobseekers also have a hierarchy of needs that you lot need to keep in listen as you craft the perfect job ad. In fact, if Maslow were live today, here'southward what he might retrieve about your job ads.

PRO TIP: Worth looking at KinHR. They might not accept a careers page at the moment but this sales chore description rocks.

Return to acme

4. What to look for: Hiring for rapid-growth startups

Punch above your weight

A startup literally is its team in the beginning. These are the people who volition signal your ambition and set your limits. So, go for the people you think you lot can't get. You'll be surprised and in one case you've got the first few heroes it volition get a lot easier to attract more of them. This is not a luxury. It seems obvious to punch above your weight only a successful startup will continually shift upwardly the weight categories. If y'all don't become these people y'all'll get stuck.

Hire deliberately

You're not hiring to fill a chore, y'all're edifice a company. Make the first 20 hires deliberately with the future in mind. Don't hire people just considering they're skilful in general and available. These kinds of opportunistic or bad hires early on in a startup'southward life can sink yous. The cost of a pointless rent can be astronomical. That's money that nigh startups cannot afford to waste. Beyond the cost of getting it incorrect, your first few hires will set the tone for the future. Getting information technology right will make something that's intrinsically hard a lot easier.

PRO TIP: Avert hiring a candidate who badmouths their previous employers and coworkers.

Rent for potential

A successful startup will quickly outgrow everyone's electric current skills and roles. If things work out as intended it's going to abound and morph unpredictably. So will the demands on your employees. Ane of the most exhausting aspects of startups is this constant evolution, or as some founders call it "keeping up with their own company". While it can be fairly simple to assess a candidate'south electric current skills rating their potential is less so.

Await for people coming into their professional person prime. The past is a skillful guide, so accept into account lifetime achievements whether they're jobs, schools or hobbies. With few exceptions, smart, decisive and difficult working people unremarkably manage to become to a great schoolhouse and do well in exams they care about. Look for loftier achievers.

PRO TIP: Include pre-interview assignments in the hiring process. Those who carp to go the extra mile volition prevail.

The culture fit

This can be difficult to pin downward but it's about e'er of import. It has its roots in the unfashionable word "congruence" — the fit betwixt personality and organization. Information technology means that you lot need to appraise people on their behavior, mentality and match to the values of your organization.

PRO TIP: Valve'southward Employee Handbook (the production quality, akin to what you would wait from their best marketing material) tells y'all a lot about who they are and how of import this is for them.

Simply there's one elementary rule: never hire people with a bad attitude. It only takes 1 to poisonous substance an otherwise stellar team. That trivial problem you noticed in an interview will exist magnified one-hundred fold by vi months of hard work in a small team. Don't overlook it. Go for people with an opinion, people who can honestly explain what they like and dislike. The kind of people who believe in missions, values and visions. They care. Those are the people who volition be telling the truth when they clinch y'all that they believe in your startup's vision.

Hire for mental attitude, railroad train for skills

Y'all have to like a candidate before you rent them. This sounds highly subjective and unfair to them, particularly when the context is strictly professional person. However, someone's ability to blend into your team, get along with you on a daily basis and build upward some emotional reserves for tough times volition ultimately decide their functioning.

Malcolm Gladwell and Tim Ferriss tin can argue all they want nearly what and how fast a human being tin can learn simply the truth is that certain man traits tin't be acquired beyond a certain phase in life. Focus on the fundamentals: intelligence, personality, diligence. Instead of testing for specific knowledge, bank check how a prospect reacts when you inquire them to practise something they haven't worked on earlier.

PRO TIP: Carry out behavioral interviews, in addition to the standard ones. Ever have a practiced store of questions.

Look for things you tin't railroad train

You lot can teach financial management or how to interpret Google Analytics reports, but information technology'southward probably too late to instil manners, ethics or numeracy. Skills and experience are worthless when non put to use. Noesis is useless when not shared with others. The smaller your business, the more likely you are to be an expert in your field, and so transferring those skills to new employees is relatively easy. But yous can't railroad train enthusiasm or a solid work ethic.

According to a LeadershipIQ study, only xi% of the new hires that failed in the starting time 18 months did and so considering of deficiencies in technical skills. The bulk failed due to lack of motivation, an unwillingness to be coached, or bug with temperament and emotional intelligence.

PRO TIP: Always enquire for references. Poor players struggle to provide solid and conceivable references.

Return to top

five. Sourcing 101: Passive candidates

Build a profile

About people don't know how to fish for talent that's not looking for a hook. These elusive prospects are known equally passive candidates. Sourcing is the process of finding people who are not overtly looking for a job. Your starting point is to know what yous're pursuing and as much as possible virtually where you're likely to find it. Think about what the ideal person looks like. What experience do they need to have? What kind of job are they doing now? Which companies must have good people doing this job? Start building a profile. The key to sourcing is figuring out what you're pursuing and where it lives.

What is sourcing?

Mature companies: You're looking for established companies doing a great job at what you're looking for (eg. selling to SMEs, content marketing). Yous're looking for people trained past the best, whose options have vested, who are ready to move on to a new exciting gig.

Vulnerable companies: Startups are volatile. When a company experiences a shakeup, there's a window of opportunity. Signs to look for include the difference of a leadership figure; ventures which have gone 18 months with no follow-upwardly funding or rumors of layoffs. You're looking for drift and discontent where the talent works so mine the industry reports (Crunchbase, Mattermark, CBInsights, Owler) and mind to the gossip.

Events: Where exercise the best people on your shortlist hang out? Think virtually what kind of events they attend and make certain y'all're in that location – be they virtual gatherings or in person. These settings give you the take a chance to encounter people who yous may want to approach in the future. When the time comes yous will take less cold calling to do.

Universities: The very all-time talent are merely truly unemployed one time in their life: right out of college. Universities have structures that help you identify this acme echelon. They're at careers fairs, on internship programmes, or even doing work experience that contributes course credits.

PRO TIP: Expect for companies 6-12 months later on a seed funding without followup.

Make a shortlist and lean in

Now that we know what to search for, all these sourcing tools (LinkedIn, TalentBin, GitHub, Sourcing.io, and of course, Workable) actually become useful. Beginning browsing profiles and brand a long-list of prospects. Prioritize people who you tin can reach out to through your extended network. If you can't go an intro, then see if you lot can engage them on social media (Twitter) or engineer a run a risk meeting.

PRO TIP: Attend startup community meetups, pattern conventions or hackathons.

A courtship doesn't begin with leaning in, it starts with people getting to know each other. If you do this well the prospect will have already gotten to know yous before the conversation turns to a job offer. These are people you may non hire today, or even one yr from now. They may also be the primal to introducing y'all to your best hires in the future.

External recruiters

This is where you plow when you're brusque on time or confidence to follow the steps higher up. They can be a fantastic shortcut. It might look elementary but there are a couple of things to bear in listen. Look out for recruiters who have hired for small companies before and accept a runway record of placement in the role y'all're looking for. Well-nigh startups use contingent recruiters whom you pay but when they deliver someone you rent (typically ane-third of the hire's annual salary).

The upside is that y'all just pay for what you lot get. The downside is that your aim and the recruiter'south aim are not the same. Yous want to hire great people. They want you to hire someone. This subtle difference can lose yous fourth dimension dealing with uninspiring candidates.

PRO TIP: Pay your recruiter more they ask for. They'll retrieve twice earlier referring the next high-quality candidate to some other competitor or well-funded visitor.

A nod to ethics

You demand to be competitive but you likewise live in a customs. Employee poaching can backlash on you, peculiarly when you're just starting out. Getting the balance right tin be as unproblematic as being mindful of basic good manners.

Return to tiptop

6. Creating an interview procedure

One of the biggest mistakes made when hiring for rapid growth in a startup is to think that just because you're small you don't need a process. If you think "process" means doing things slowly, think again. Get the right tools, call back to hire as a team and you volition stay on track. The selection process is a funnel – you get a lot of applicants, you speak with some of them, you meet a few of them, you lot hire the 1 yous like all-time. An efficient filtering process will save you lot and your candidates time.

Pre-interview questions

This all starts with the pre-interview questions, the questions you lot inquire a candidate when they utilise that will assistance yous decide whether to progress with an applicant. Make sure candidates can sensibly weigh themselves against the requirements. Exercise you lot know anyone who will say "no" to the requirement "must be difficult working"? Neither exercise nosotros.

PRO TIP: Get candidates to do an assignment or task related to the task as part of the pre-interview.

Pre-interview questions tin only go yous and so far. They weed out the most inappropriate candidates and give you an insight across a bones resume. However, a major factor in your hiring conclusion will exist how well a candidate will fit in with your business. It's personal and you demand to become to know the candidates.

Screening assignments / testing

Ever walked in to an interview and known within 30 seconds that the candidate you lot're meeting is never going to work out? Certain, most people have been there. The worst thing is that it wastes your fourth dimension. Y'all can't just stop the interview after half a minute and then you become through the routine and waste an hr of your time. It doesn't have to be that way. An initial phone call, Skype screening conversation, or asynchronous video interviews volition forestall that scenario nine times out of ten. Resumes, pre-screening questions, screens, interviews – we employ these techniques to utilize past performance equally an indicator of future success.

Merely what if you lot want to better empathize how candidates will actually perform in the chore you lot're hiring them for? 1 way of finding out is to get candidates to exercise an assignment or task related to the job – in other words, a skills assessment. Hiring for a customer support associate? Test candidates by getting them to answer some hypothetical customer queries. If you are hiring developers, in that location are online tools like Codility which tin can put developers through their paces so yous tin can see exactly how they code.

Interviews

Have a program. Don't just inquire the same questions over and over. Take the time to know who y'all are meeting before you lot walk in. Not just their proper name and non simply the job title of the role they're interviewing for. Get to know them a little, cheque their resume and notation some questions in advance.

Interviews shouldn't slavishly follow a script. At that place are probably some standard questions you want to ask all candidates, such as whether they're eligible to work in your territory. Simply these are but hygiene questions – yous have to go further. Ask open questions that encourage a word, engage with the candidates' responses and consider follow up questions you want to ask. If it's dull, it's not working. There'south nix worse than the candidate feeling like the interviewer hasn't read their resume and is just going through the motions: "Tell me nigh this chore, now this job, and at present this chore…" No one gets much out of this kind of interview.

Interviews work both ways

When you leave an interview you should accept a much amend understanding of the candidate's credentials and suitability. As, they should exit knowing a lot more about the role and the company. If you've screened your shortlist properly then everyone you interview should exist a real contender – which means information technology'south worth selling to candidates in interviews. Chances are yous're going to offer them below market rate if you're an early phase startup. By and large people don't similar getting paid less so you'd meliorate give them a skilful reason to be excited.

PRO TIP: Notation down personalized questions for candidates before the interview only don't stick slavishly to the script.

Have a deep breath

If you have a nagging feeling that something isn't right when you lot're making an offer, don't rush. Take your fourth dimension to identify where that uneasiness comes from. Talk it through with a colleague. Don't be afraid to enquire a candidate to come for another coming together. Chances are if yous have a business concern, the candidate will exist feeling the same and a quick conversation volition atomic number 26 out whatsoever issues. In the long term a scrap of circumspection will pay off.

When you're hiring for a part where you have footling or no personal feel, it tin be very hard to assess resumes or know what to ask during interviews. You might desire to consider bringing in some outside help. This doesn't need to be paid help, it could just exist a friend or ex-colleague who can help yous out with the skills-based aspects of the hiring process.

Go on it challenging

This is where y'all set the bar and show your rigour and ambition. A challenging interview process is a signal to candidates that your company doesn't do average. This doesn't have to mean a drawn-out 15-phase interview – even Google is moving away from the huge number of interviews they put candidates through – only you absolutely should plant a thoughtful pipeline that gives the candidate an opportunity to testify their mettle.

PRO TIP: Level the playing field by posing customer support queries for a tool well-nigh people are familiar with or can access easily e.g. Facebook.

Taking references

Non anybody believes references from previous employers are useful style in determining futurity performance. Candidates are unlikely to provide a reference whom they wait to say negative things nearly them. And many people don't desire to talk badly well-nigh someone so even if your candidate was terrible in a past job their reference won't tell y'all.

This is non a reason to ignore references. Information technology'due south a reason to piece of work harder at getting them correct. Get more references. Successful entrepreneur-turned-VC Mark Suster recommends getting at least five, including people the candidate didn't propose. If we presume people are smart enough to gather good references, ask yourself: "Are they glowing?" If not, why not? Ask candidates why they chose the referees they did.

PRO TIP: Get at least five references and make sure some of them come from people the candidate hasn't put forward. Read this.

Return to top

7. Workplace benefits and compensation

You can't pay for groceries with equity

You're not going to compete on salary with Google and Facebook but you need to become survival out of mind. Fifty-fifty your primeval hires ‐ and that includes y'all, the founder ‐ will demand to pay bills. Some startups go to extremes, trying to make their track terminal longer. Don't build your rail on the backs of an exhausted and underpaid team. Y'all objective is not to delay the adjacent round but to get to it in the all-time possible shape. Hither's a few things yous can practice to accomplish the correct rest.

The power of perks

You're not going to have the swankiest offices just you lot can brand them reflect why people came to work for yous. Y'all don't demand a big budget to create a friendly, informal and energetic piece of work infinite. Our environment helps to shape our mindset and reminds us who we are. Spend the time to brand information technology attractive to your team, even if you can't initially spend much money. At that place are many ways to brand your company an attractive place to piece of work – even if you're in an "unsexy" location.

PRO TIP: Buffer's accent on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative, which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Perks are powerful and toll effective. When you have into account tax and deductions a $ten lunch is worth more than to your employee than $10 on their salary. But it's virtually more than a free dejeuner. Taking care of peoples' needs makes them feel taken care of. This pays off handsomely in productivity and morale.

That shouldn't mean that you neglect traditional benefits. Before you start on the ping pong tables and games consoles make sure everyone has access to health insurance. When people know the basics like health are covered they're more prepared to live leaner when information technology comes to salaries.

Compensating take a chance

Equity compensates risk. It is a form of deferred reward. When deciding whether to join your startup a prospect is looking at what they could earn at marketplace rates for their skills over the same time period and balancing it against a potential future render that should be several multiples of the income they lost out on. It's mathematics.

All early employees should have a significant amount of equity. This ensures their sense of ownership and mission. A properly structured stock option is also a commitment on the function of the employee. Disinterestedness grants normally belong over a flow of three to four years and there'south a "cliff catamenia" (typically one year) earlier a new employee earns their first tranche of shares.

This way, you're not giving your company away. Instead, y'all're binding the core team to your mission for long plenty to brand meaningful progress. With that in listen, don't wait till the best people are restless. The best companies likewise requite retentivity equity packages to fully vested employees. Yous demand to think most this, before your star performers do.

How to research market rates, equity standards

Knowing the going charge per unit for salaries and equity is notoriously hard. A good identify to become a benchmark is AngelList (for startup equity and salaries) or Glassdoor (for market rates). Make sure to compare yourself to similar companies. For each hire, check what's on offer for jobs they could have so y'all know what their other options look like.

Particularly when it comes to equity, it's always improve to err on the generous side. Rather than beingness hung up over a 0.1% more or less, think about whether this employee will better your take chances of success by that amount. A good hire will make it worth your while.

PRO TIP: Wealthfront's Startup Compensation Tool is one of many benchmarks y'all can use.

Return to top

viii. Recruiting software and tools

You need tools

We consider an Applicant Tracking Organization (ATS) to exist the centerpiece of whatsoever effective toolkit – specially when hiring for rapid growth. This is why we built ane from scratch and patently consider information technology to exist the all-time of its kind. When choosing an ATS, ask yourself how well it integrates with other tools that yous'll need. A good one volition integrate or at least play nicely with most of the software we recommend below.

Fifty-fifty then, it helps to know which ones are tops in the marketplace. Nosotros've compiled for you lot the 12 best applicant tracking systems to aid inform your decision on purchasing an ATS.

Sourcing and referral platforms

TalentBin, Sourcing.io, 3Sourcing and Gild are people aggregators with searchable, frequently pre-evaluated or classified profiles of people. Professional networks or communities like LinkedIn, GitHub, Dribble, AngelList are good places to do manual sourcing. Zao is ane of the best referral platforms nosotros came across. It's made based on all-time practices, optimizes matches across all companies' open up jobs, has a gamification layer making information technology fun to participate and allows extended referrals. Another 1 to consider is RolePoint.

Online interview systems

Interviewing has gone video and this lets y'all record video questions, invite candidates to submit their responses then yous can review them. Fix time limits for responses, pause to have notes, tick the ones that are a perfect match, share if you're not sure to take a second opinion. Workable'south Video Interviews tin can set you up for success here – particularly if you're hiring for rapid growth in a curt menses of time and need to establish a standardized screening process with minimal breakdown.

Cess tools

Codility is a niche, engineers-only, database. These guys are loaded with millions of engineers — agile and passive. Considering the gap between demand and supply then this app is a treasure trove of prospects and a pretty straightforward tool to use if tech job boards aren't cut it. Yous can browse and filter data, interact with your team and do social recruiting too.

Smarterer have revolutionized skills assessment. Only give them 10 questions, 2 minutes and voila! you get a quantified skill. Information technology'southward basically a skills testing app merely different. All of its test content is crowdsourced from the individuals who take the tests.

SHL has power and personality tests if you need to test for critical qualities. They only offer scientific discipline-based assessments and criterion data.

Weirdly has your cultural fit riddle all figured out. Information technology's a four-step culture assessing recruitment tool. Define your desired cultural contour, publish the vacancy, picket candidates complete the quiz and select the right kind of weird.

Onboarding & talent direction

KinHR is probably the best when it comes to onboarding new hires in a comprehensive and thoughtful style. The new employee signs in and reads almost the company and the team they're going to piece of work with and what tasks they should outset working on.

Zenefits is adept for payroll and benefits management.

The shift to remote piece of work also means onboarding remotely – such that you're bringing people on lath without them having met anyone on the team in person. Learn some tips and tricks of successful remote onboarding for you and your company.

Render to summit

9. Where to post your jobs

You know exactly what you're looking for so what'south your next step? Plaster your ad over every job board out there, right? Incorrect. It pays off in time and money to do a little homework. Consider these questions:

• Where does the rest of your industry (in your metropolis or country) post jobs?
• Did you become enough qualified candidates the last time y'all hit publish on XYZ chore board? Did you get any candidates at all?
• Did you get likewise many candidates, perhaps?
• Ask people who already have this blazon of job, where they first saw it?
• Visit alexa.com to see how popular the chore board you are considering is.
• Detect out where the audience you desire to attain hangs out online
• Study the other job postings on that XYZ job lath where you're thinking of publishing your opening

The chore board forest

To facilitate the job board option process, we brought together a handy listing of the meridian ones (below).

Horizontal

LinkedIn is the leader due to its three-way nature; professional social network/headhunting tool/chore board – the biggest of its kind with 760 meg members. It enables you to search profiles, pay to post jobs and more than besides. With LinkedIn InMail, y'all can even contact candidates directly.

Indeed is the premier job site globally with 250 million regular visitors. You can post all types of jobs, sponsor the ones from your careers folio, pay per click and search resumes.

Craigslist is the site for classifieds. Doesn't lucifer the traditional job lath criteria, is famous for its no-frills user interface but beats anybody for inbound traffic.

Monster is one of the oldest job boards that keeps expanding worldwide. It'due south a bit expensive in some countries (unless you lot post through Workable), has a lot of traffic and loads of resumes and free content.

Careerbuilder operates in the US, Europe, Canada and Asia. CareerBuilder is used past fourscore meg chore applicants and has three meg job postings per month.

Stepstone is i of the virtually successful job boards in Europe.

Beyond automatically distributes postings to niche sites and talent communities based on specific criteria. What'due south in it for you? Targeted exposure and more relevant applications.

Tech

StackOverflowCareers is the careers platform of StackOverflow. It's used past more than than 100 million developers and technologists and is the trusted first destination of tech recruiters. If you're looking for developers, it'south the place to go.

Dice is too a leader in the tech job boards industry. It has a cantankerous-posting network and minimizes unqualified clutter due to its niche nature, with a database of more than than nine 1000000 members.

Github Jobs taps into developers and engineers by being the place they hang out. Skilful place to trawl for passive candidates – especially with fifty million developers checking in regularly.

Artistic

Behance is where some of the top brands mail service their creative jobs. It'due south also the identify where professionals showcase their piece of work enabling you to take a sneak peek before you lot decide.

Dribbble gives yous admission to designers' portfolios and profiles. Workable'southward designers are actually addicted of it. Plus yous can post your jobs and connect with meridian talent.

Authentic Jobs introduces recruiters to creative professionals. Unproblematic and efficient.

Remote & flexible jobs

We Work Remotely is the job board without borders allowing you to narrow down talent without it having to be in the aforementioned location as you.

Upwork is free and for freelancers but. If you lot're looking for one, check out their well-rounded freelancers' database.

Flexjobs is costless and effective when it comes to flexible jobs job posting. Only applies if you're in search of part-time, telecommute or freelance employees.

Startups

AngelList ‐ you probably already know it if yous're a startup. Candidates get to use privately and see salary and equity up front end and startups get to access a huge list of developers and designers actively looking for a chore. On top of that, it's free!

Startuply is a free job list site aimed mainly at small startups, which find it rather difficult to attract engineering science talent. Startups tin create a detailed visitor profile to give prospect candidates a sense of what it'd be similar working for them. Yous should definitely requite it a shot.

StartUpHire lists hundreds of jobs, simply only for venture capital backed companies. It besides comes at zero cost and has a widget that enables you to automatically add your open up positions to your website

The Muse lets job seekers expect behind the defunction of great companies. You can "showcase the centre and soul of your visitor" in 500 words, videos and photos and then display your job openings.

Share this post