As you surely understood, this article will not deal with the famous characters from the 80’s TV series, but rather employing employees who may add value to your start-up company in its first steps and will form the winning team.
- In order to assist in such difficult task, we have compiled a number of suggestions for you:
Define the list of qualifications required for the position and compare these skills with those of the interviewee. An employee who held similar positions in the past is preferable than an employee without any experience, since training a new employee can waste valuable time and resources. - Experience is the key, but do not underestimate potential. The key is not to examine years of experience, but to examine actual experience in the positions and tasks you want the employee to do. You should try to anticipate whether in a few months/years, in the case that the company’s goals will change, the employee will be able to fit into the future positions. If not, you may find yourself with a wonderful employee today who might be inexperienced and unable to cope with the new tasks and challenges in the future. Accordingly, you should not judge the employee solely based on his/her achievements up to the interview, but rather try to understand whether s/he has potential. This can be examined by providing tasks or minor projects, or alternatively by trying to get information with respect to relevant traits from their past experiences, such as competitiveness, achievements, and diligence.
- Cultural Fit. First, you must define together with all of the founders what are the values of the company today and in the future. This decision has a great impact when working in a small team, as this may affect the group dynamics. Second, you should consider whether the job applicant is suitable to the values you defined. A person who thinks exactly like you do will not necessarily be suitable for the company and it may be better to look for a person that will think of things differently. On the other hand, a person who sees the goals and work values totally differently than you may, instead of helping the company grow, become a burden.
- How much to pay and how much to offer. Finding the most talented employees can be a costly business, especially in today’s competitive market, and therefore this is a serious dilemma for a beginning start-up. There are several ways to attract those employees and one of them is finding the right balance between the amount of the salary and the grant of options to shares of the start-up. It is important to remember that this issue depends on the circumstances of the company (its financial situation and previous options that were granted to employees and consultants) as well as the job applicant himself.
There is no one rule that fits everyone, and the first step is to identify what is most important to your start-up. Hiring employees takes time, effort and risk, but with the right people, your start-up can grow such that investing the time and resources in the early stages will pay off.
