Often when a startup reaches the stage where they are looking for their first hires, they do not focus on the complete process. They do not look at the bigger picture and leave a few important considerations. It is crucial to know how to hire employees for your business especially the first batch of employees. We will guide you with some important considerations on hiring employees and who should be your first few hires.
How To Hire Your First 7 Employees?
To answer your question, how to hire employees for your business? It is crucial that you can explain your company’s vision and mission to the candidate. Make the candidate feel comfortable, spread the vibe of your company culture. Along with this, clear your mind about what you are looking for, all these are factors that you should consider while hiring your first 7 employees, let us take a look at it in detail:
1. Set Your Hiring Goals
Figure out what you are looking for in a candidate. What kind of positions you are filling, ask yourself all these questions and set up your goals clear and straight. This will allow you to make a more precise judgement. We know hiring can be an expensive process, having a clear goal will also save you money.
2. Consider Company Total Cost
Be clear with what is your budget and how much you can spend on employees’ salaries. There will be exceptions during your hiring process, some may perform beyond your expectations. During that time, you must be clear about what you need to do and must not take an irrational decision that goes beyond what you can afford.
3. Sell Your Vision
You knowing the candidate is important but it is equally important that the candidate knows your company as well. You must be able to show your company’s vision to your potential employees. Joining a start-up or a new company is not easy, there are risks for both sides. So you must answer the main question first, why would a candidate join your company. Show them your vision and how you can help them grow and how they can help you row.
4. Show Your Company Culture
Working in suitable company culture is an important factor for any candidate. Therefore, during your interview, you must also convey your company culture and if you already think the candidate is worthy, then you can also let him/her know how they are suitable for this company culture.
5. Don’t Stop Hiring
You should not stop hiring, do not keep the process in full advertising but also do not stop hiring when there is an opportunity. Keep contact with candidates who closely did not make the cut or maybe someone who was overqualified or did not want to commit at that time. You never know when you might need employees. Someone may leave suddenly or your business booms and you need more employees. So do not wait till the last minute till you are in need.
Who Should be your First 7 Hires?
One of the goals that must be set before the hiring process starts is to know what is your company’s requirement. This requirement suggests the job positions in your company and the number of employees in those positions. Let us guide you with who should be your first 7 preferences during your hiring process.
1. CEO and COO
If you are the CEO or the COO then you might not look for that position. Although the two very important roles for the base of the company is the chief executive officer and chief operating officer. The CEO is typically the main man in the company who runs the company with his/her visions. COO is a position that looks after the day to day operations of the company.
2. CFO – Chief Financial Officer
As a start-up, it might not be the most important thing as you can outsource your accounting and finance. Although as your company grows it is recommended to have a chief financial officer (CFO), this will give you a proper eye on the finance of the company and the CFO can recommend good strategies to make your finance cost-effective.
3. CTO – Chief Technology Officer
If your startup is a tech startup then it is even more important to have a chief technology officer. The CTO looks after the tech and development of your company. He/she can manage the whole company tech system which is crucial for many reasons. The CTO will keep all the hardware and software of your company in check.
4. CMO – Chief Marketing Officer
A CMO will completely focus on developing marketing strategies and understanding your audiences. He/she is the key to spreading the company’s vision and mission to your target audience with the marketing strategies. It is important to choose the right CMO who can maintain a relationship with your audience.
5. Product & Sales Manager
The product manager focuses on developing the product strategy. It is important to understand how to market your product so the product manager will work very closely with the marketing team to strategise the product features and how to sell them and much more. Whereas a sales manager will help you to sell the product to your targeted market.
6. Business Development Manager
The BDM is specifically tasked to grow your business. They do not focus on selling your product to your audience, they focus on creating a relationship with other businesses to grow and earn revenue. It is also important for the BDM to know the product thoroughly.
7. Customer Service Representative
We should appreciate customer service representatives more. They do critical work on engaging with customers daily. They are crucial to maintaining the relationship with their customers. Their work leaves a big impression on your customers.
Where You Can Make Your First Hires?
So what could be your source of first hires? There are many ways you can get your hires. You will not only get tailor-made candidates for your company. Although your process will determine how much you can narrow down your search. Here are some ideas you can use to look for your first hires.
1. Your Network
Your network could be invaluable, look for candidates from your network. This means that you can get the word out that you are looking for employees. You may get help from your friends or people you have worked with previously. They know you and your company, so it could prove very helpful.
2. Social Media
Another great and upcoming source could be social media. Sharing your requirement on social media could help spread the word. and doing any sort of advertising on them could also lead to a great pool of candidates for your company.
3. Competitors
Your competitors could prove to be the best source of hiring as they are in the same industry as yours. Although you need to be very transparent about your approach. Any bad decision could negatively take the whole situation and could create tension between the companies. There are often that employees are looking for a change and if you figure out such candidates from your competitors then they could prove to be very helpful with their experience and skills already set for your industry.
4. Job Portals
There are many job portals these days, that have created enough database of employees. You could choose any of the job portals that seem suitable for your requirement and run ads on them. This can create a very smooth process of hiring given the job portal features are such.
Ready To Make Your First Hires?
Reading all this should prepare you to make your first hires. Hope we could be of your help. Remember, setting up your hiring goals at first is the base of how to hire employees for your business. Ensure that your try and make your process efficient and not make it more expensive than it already be. Let us know in the comments if your hiring process had any challenges.