Before you actually begin recruiting for your startup, you should consider investing some time into creating a recruitment strategy. Doing this in advance, before you actually hire a new addition to your team, can make the entire process easier and hopefully drama free!
Unfortunately, many businesses don't do this and their hiring process can be something of an afterthought. That in turn can have a hugely negative impact; a disjointed process can not only lead to unnecessary stress but the potential of losing out on fab candidates too.
So, why do you actually need a process?
Firstly, having a dedicated recruitment process can save you heaps of valuable time when you start hiring for real. It can also help you attract the right talent for your vacancies, whether that’s corporate talent, graduates or otherwise, ensuring that you don't lose out and miss out on good candidates because you provided them with a poor quality experience. After all, first impressions matter. If you come across badly or disorganised, then it should come as no surprise if that dream candidate rejects your offer.
Remember that you aren't the only startup or company hiring. Great candidates will have options! Get into the right frame of mind - remember you’re selling your passion, your vision, and your mission. You ideally want to be in the position of having your first choice of candidate, rather than in a situation where candidates are turning you down.
What are the stages in the process?
Planning
Job Description
Advertising and Searching
CV sifting
Interviewing
Offer/ rejections
Onboarding
Planning
First of all, make sure that you consider the process that you want at each of these stages in advance, not when you actually reach that stage!
Map out the candidate journey and consider the various touchpoints and how you want to be perceived at each of those stages, as well as how you would ideally like candidates to feel or respond to each. Include everything - from that initial job spec that a candidate views, through to confirming receipt of a CV or how rejection is communicated to those candidates that don't get shortlisted for interview. And of course all aspects of the interview process itself, from inviting candidates for interview, the actual interview, the closing at interview, then rejecting, inviting for further interview and the subsequent rejecting and offering. You want everyone to feel positive about their experience with your company regardless of the eventual outcome. It's vital that you take time to consider all of this - it all matters.
Take time to consider the impact that every aspect of your recruitment process can potentially have on prospective candidates.
Think about where you will store all the information that you’ll gather during the process. Lots of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) software is free so it might be worthwhile checking out the best option for your hiring needs, or if you prefer, tracking via a simple Google doc can be great as well.
Ensure that the Careers section on your website is up to date and accurate. If you don’t currently have one, then look at Thriva or Perkbox for some fab inspiration. Remove old job ads and callouts for speculative applications that are no longer of interest. Your Careers scotia should ideally include:
Your values as a business
Your mission and goals
An explanation about your culture
Perks and benefits
Written testimonials or even better, video testimonials from some of your team
Make sure that your mission, values and goals are consistent across the careers webpage, social media bios and in any candidate recruitment documents.
Consider asking your existing team what they like about the company and perhaps use their quotes or feedback to help with your recruitment.
Remember that the legal stuff needs to be planned in advance. Get the contracts drawn up or work out who will do this for you. There is lots of government guidance available online to help you with all your legal responsibilities as an employer.
Work out what your recruitment timeframe is. How much time do you have to fill this role? Will anyone be going on holidays during that time? Does it coincide with any bank holidays? For early careers, try not to leave it any longer than 4 working days as candidates get easily distracted with other options. Also, if you're too slow, you can lose a candidate's interest and end up having more competition with other employers.
Map out the entire interview process. Will it be a remote interview? How many stages will there be? Will you have a skills task? Who will be doing the interviewing? What time frame will this be done in? Whatever you decide, make sure that you fully inform the candidates in advance so there are no unexpected surprises.
Job description
What is the sign off process for the job spec? Who will be responsible for creating it?
Take some time to work on the format of the job spec. You should always aim to have the same format across all your job specs to keep things consistent with your brand management. To make things easier, the 'About us" and the "Great things about working here" sections can be static across all your job specs, irrespective of the role.
When you're creating the job spec, think carefully about all aspects - from the key duties and tasks the candidate will be doing and the ideal personality type for the role, right through to the experience and skills that they'll require. Don't just guess when doing this - particularly if it’s a new role that you are recruiting for.. Think about who could give you support and advice if you need to refine it.
Advertising and Research
Don't forget to consider how you will actually find that ideal candidate. Work out what advertising budget you have and plan accordingly. If you do this ahead of time, you'll perhaps be able to negotiate with companies on prices and if you buy more listings you'll also potentially be able to negotiate discounted or cheaper rates.
Think about any free channels that you have where you could promote your vacancies
Consider any relevant networks that you have as a founder, that you could use to help
Think about your wider professional network on Linkedin or any groups you're a member of and if they could perhaps share the word for you.
Use recruitment services such as our own, as we absolutely love helping startups and scaleups to recruit the best talent for their teams
CV Sifting
Make sure that you set aside dedicated time for reviewing CVs. After all, you may end up with 100’s of applicants, many of which may not be what you're looking for, but you'll still need to take time to go through them.
If you're not going to do this yourself, then plan in advance who will do it and make sure they know precisely what they are looking for.
Have a non-negotiable list of those must-haves and score CVs accordingly
Agree in advance when and who will do background searches, or review LinkedIn or social channels
Don't forget to factor in what you will say to candidates that don’t make it through the CV sift stage. Remember at all times how you want to be perceived. People are generally used to either getting nothing back or a standard stock response, neither of which creates a good impression. By planning how you'll communicate with those candidates who don't make it at this stage, you'll be providing an opportunity to ensure that your brand is perceived positively, even if the news is not what the candidate wants to hear.
Interviewing
Don't wait until the job has been advertised to start thinking about the interview. Having the entire interview process prepared in advance is a must. Consider how you are going to invite candidates for an interview. Will you call or email them? Or do both? Whichever option you choose, make sure that the tone of voice and the language that you use, verbal or otherwise, fully aligns with how you would like your company to be perceived.
Plan what scoring criteria you will use to assess the candidates - considering all aspects - their skills, experience and character. Identify what your absolute must-haves are, those all-important non-negotiables.
Don't be blasé or casual about the whole thing - plan the questions you will ask in advance by having a list of the key skills, experience and core character traits that you’re looking for. This will make it much easier for you to compare candidates especially if you have to undertake interviews on different days.
Consider how you'll ultimately make your decision. Will you just go on a gut feeling at the interview, or will it be a data-driven decision or perhaps even a combination of the two?
Take some time to think about how you would like the candidate to feel. Do you want them to feel relaxed and comfortable throughout or would you like them to perhaps feel a tad more challenged by your interview questions and approach?
Think about how you will close the interview - any final message you’ll give to the candidate or information about the potential next steps.
Offers and Rejections
It's not good enough to simply wait until interviews are over before you consider how you will communicate with candidates - successful or otherwise.
Firstly, take time to plan how you will reject candidates.
Make a decision on whether or not you'll communicate by phone or email. If you plan to call them, consider the tone of voice that you'll use, just as much as what you plan to say. Don’t simply send a generic “We regret” email.
Don't rush it and leave a quick voicemail simply because you're feeling uncomfortable - the candidates deserve better, don’t you think?
If you aim to go for a personal approach, a phone call is much better - for the candidate and your overall brand management too. There is also less come back than with an email, provided you are clear in what you say.
Do also take time to consider how you would like to make the offer to your successful candidates - and don't expect a candidate to make a decision immediately. Think about how long you will give the candidate to accept or reject the offer and make the timescales clear to them.
It’s admittedly not ideal, however, you should also think about what may happen if your offer is rejected. Yes, that dream candidate may turn you down! Do take time to find out why this is. Don't become nasty or unnecessarily aggressive. If you get to the root of the reason, you may actually find that there is an issue that you can solve and who knows, a rejection could become an acceptance!
Onboarding
Don't wait until an offer has been accepted and a start date confirmed before you think about the onboarding process for your new recruit.
Have it all planned in advance, and not in a standard or generic way for every new recruit. Think about your new hire's specific role and where they'll fit in the company when planning this.
Don't forget the practical stuff. Get their laptop sorted out, ensure you have applied for or enabled access to any IT systems they'll be using.
If they'll be working remotely initially or perhaps on a more permanent basis, make sure that this is all made clear. If necessary, refine your working from home policies, your expectations and your commitment to support your remote employees
Have everything in order for the legal side of things - from the contract through to the PAYE and pension details
Identify who within your team will be welcoming them so there are is no first-day awkwardness
Figure out what their objectives should be for their first day, first week and first 3 months so that they have a clear induction plan from the off.
Don't make assumptions that you've got it all right. Chat with other new starters and ask them what they found good or indeed bad about their experience. Feedback like this can really help you shape and improve your processes.
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Who we are
Offering personalised, consultative service, at TableCrowd Talent we’re a specialist recruitment agency with our finger on the pulse of the startup and scaleup scene. We are committed to matching graduates, professionals and C-level executives to exciting startup and scaleup jobs across London, the UK and Europe.
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