Startups do things differently. Pushing boundaries on a daily basis is what gives a startup its identity, so why shouldn’t this be applied to their hiring process, too? Traditional recruitment practices have their place, but whether they’re right for your company is another question altogether and one we’re challenging ourselves…
So what should you consider?
One size doesn’t fit all.
One of the best things about startups is that there’s no ‘right’ way to do things. Whether it’s a remote team, team days or even breakfast catch-ups, you’re in total control of how you navigate your work culture and hiring process. Gone are the days of suited-and-booted interrogations. Welcome to a world where company culture and values are at the forefront of hiring decisions. Your possibilities are endless, with a number of tools at your disposal to help you along the way. Whether that’s incorporating tech in the form of Video screenings or including junior members of the team to allow candidates to truly meet the team and even small-scale assessment centres. It’s vital that you identify what’s right for you and how small tweaks can make your lives a lot easier.
Plan ahead.
While ever-changing landscapes are part and parcel of startup life, this doesn’t mean that your hiring process cannot be mapped out ahead of time. Simple processes put in place can make your hiring stream efficient and time manageable. They don’t have to be set in stone either, but simply incorporating some structure will not only give potential candidates an inkling of what to expect but also create a solid timeline for you. Protracted hiring processes are often quoted as the biggest turn-off for candidates, so save yourself a never-ending recruitment cycle and decide how many stages there will be and what will be covered at each, so you can keep those repetitive second interviews at bay!
The C+A Way.
We are a startup hiring for startups, so we get it. We know how hard it can be to incorporate traditional recruitment processes in a startup environment, and we know that sometimes it simply doesn’t work. Learning from our own recruitment challenges and from the trials and tribulations faced by our fellow startup clients, we’re creating a pretty good playbook of alternative hiring strategies. Going back to basics with every client is always the starting point for us; understanding what they want to achieve and reverse engineering the best process to get them across that finish line. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt along the way, it’s that every client and every role is different, so the cookie-cutter approach is unlikely to be the right option.
At C+A we want our clients to question everything. We encourage you to look at things from every perspective, to work and re-work ideas, to try and try again until you’ve found what works for you. When it comes to hiring processes in startups, all bets are off. Reinventing recruitment is what we do, so if you’re tired of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, then get in touch!
