Hiring talent is always a challenge whether be it a startup or a multi-national. The problem becomes more challenging for a startup where cash is an issue, the company is unknown. I haven't still figured all of it out yet. Most of these thoughts are either things I have tried, I have read somewhere and yet to implement.
Steady stream of resumes is something which we all aspire for. But for that your company has to be discoverable. How would an individual apply if they don't know about your company at all. Many a times we resort to using job-portals which may not always work. Posting on the portals while bringing in awareness does also bring a lot of noise. With a lot of noise you also run the risk of losing upon the right guy.
Posting on start-up jobs forums. A few forums where it works
- http://www.pluggd.in/
- http://www.startups.in/
- http://www.startupdunia.com/
- http://www.venturewoods.org
You should also use every startup forum such as
- http://groups.google.com/group/hydstartups?hl=en
- http://groups.google.com/group/punestartups?hl=en
- http://groups.google.com/group/headstart-network
Keep repeating your posting atleast once a month.
Social channel: Post good updates on your linked-in profiles, facebook profiles. The more friends who talk or forward updates of your profile the better. All these channels provide features to post updates. Also send your requirements to your connections who if they believe in you and your company will definitely be messengers for you.
College Recruiting: Going on campus is a challenge in itself. Most of the times on good campus you are either late to apply or unable to attend or the campus will not schedule you in time. Go through friends, family to figure students who are currently in their 3rd year or final year. You can ask them to help you identify or announce on campus about your company and your job openings. An internal referrer is definitely better at times as they will identify good candidates and also give already placed candidates a choice.
Internship openings. This is a very good avenue to attract talent. I am sure there could be projects broken down into 2-3 month stints. This is very apt for good internship projects. Interns from good colleges are mostly interested in working on an exciting project. If you provide a small stipend and a good work environment these interns can become ambassadors of your company in their colleges. This relationship is extremely symbiotic, while they garner good experience, a good chunk of your work is also accomplished. Sarvesh of http://blog.internshala.com/ has put forth a great channel to find good interns.
Using recruiters. I have gradually begun to lose hopes on this method. Identifying the right recruiter is pretty hard and then comes the payout per hire. Which amounts to atleast 1 month of the newhire's salary. There are some recruiters like Sutra-lite that has campaigns which run for month long and they charge a flat-fee of Rs 3000 per posting. They do forward good number of resumes fulfilling the requirement, which you can keep revising.
Bringing company awareness:
- This is the biggest challenge for a startup. To be discoverable the first thing you would need is a good website which talks at length about the company and the product. You should strive hard to keep your careers page as current and as complete as possible. Any postings you do always send the traffic over to your website and if possible to the exact page.
- Be a very enthusiastic contributor to the online community. Blogs, answers to queries and being helpful in the community goes a long mile. A good deed brings forth an abundance of awareness by word-of-mouth. It also goes to help the community immensely.
- Hold mini competitions, it can be either at your facility, or a hired facility or even online. This brings a good traction to your company. Enthusiasts can show-case their skills to the community and you also get to find the right person for you. You also help them get discovered.
Screening through noise:
- If you hit upon a huge surge of resumes it is time to use good screening techniques. There is always a limited set of resources to interview. You can and should use online tests to filter through resumes.
- http://www.examprofessor.com/
- http://quizstar.4teachers.org
You can schedule good set of questions for different skillsets and let them qualify these before you go through their resume.
