How to Attract top Talent for Startups & Small Business

Your small start-up is growing, and you have ambitious plans for expansion. For your start-up idea to materialise, you’ll need a larger workforce. So, you embark on a mission to hire the top talent in the job market. However, hiring is not an easy process. And for start-up ideas and small businesses, it is even harder.

The key lies in finding the right employee because a wrong one could potentially disrupt your enterprise. Now, with limited monetary assistance, your objective is hard to achieve. Therefore, you have to be careful and tactful with your decisions on hiring the best talent for your new start-up idea.

So, let us discuss how you could attract the top talent in the market towards your business.

Hire remote employees

Remote employees can become a necessity if you find it hard to discover the right talent in your location. But they can be a blessing in disguise for a startup business or a small enterprise. Mainly, an employee requires a team where they can share their thoughts and ideas freely. And that is why many employees find a start-up business attractive, as they get a chance to pitch in their new ideas which are welcome all the time.

Hiring a remote employee can give access to the top talent that you may be searching for but at a different location. And that’s fine as long as you have the right person to work with. To incentivise and motivate your remote employees, you can offer them flexible working options such as three days of office work and two days of work from home.

Hire your followers and fans

Every start-up idea has a fan following who really appreciate the innovation. You would have them too. Then, why not explore that zone? During the recruitment and selection process, you can consider hiring someone who is a fan or a follower, as they will put in more hard work than a regular employee.

A fan is always ready to go the extra mile to ensure that their idol achieves their objective, and that creates a great working environment. Also, they bring great word-of-mouth publicity. If a fan truly enjoys working at a start-up, they will, for sure, spread the word with their friends and immediate social circles. This will help you with networking and tapping the best organic talent. Plus, the recruitment that happens through word-of-mouth and referrals usually leads to long term employment.

If your fans do not have the required level of skills, you may still consider them and find them a place in your company — because attitude can triumph skills. After all, skills can be acquired, but the right attitude is hard to find.

Have a great vision and a mission

As a start-up or small business, you don’t have any grand milestones or projects, like Google or Apple do, to show to the world yet. All you have is your unshakeable vision and mission. So, talk about them with passion. These are your guiding lights, which will show you the path to glory, during your initial days of modest existence. And, as a new company, this is the only asset that you can showcase in the job market.

So, to hire the right talent, make sure you have clearly defined vision and mission. Emphasise on a long term perspective, as this will display more stability and credibility for the company. You should share your vision and mission with your prospective employees. Much more than a client, a potential employee will buy into your passion and your future goals. Not all employees look for a secure working place; some look for a company that has immense growth potential and a dream to accomplish.

Retain your existing talent

It is important to hold onto the existing talented employees. Recruitment and selection process is necessary. However, in your quest to get the next great hire, you may sometimes fail to acknowledge the contribution of the existing skilled employees in your company. Everyone scouts for top talent. There is no doubt that someone may also be looking for talented employees that you possess.

Hence, inspire and motivate your current workforce to be a part of your journey. As much as you want new employees, you should also pay attention to your existing employees, as they are the reason why you are in a position to hire more people. And finally, when you already have top talent working for you, it becomes much easier to attract new talent.

Build a great workplace

You must strive to make your start-up company comfortable, engaging and inspiring for your employees. Create a healthy work environment where there is a constant exchange of ideas and creativity. Most employees like a vibrant workplace. And this will result in good word-of-mouth publicity which can help you attract the best talent.

It has been observed that employed professionals spend most of their leisure time with their friends talking about their work. So, keep your employees happy and content at work. They will, without doubt, share their work-life experiences with their friends and social circle, attracting top talent into your company. Employees who love their jobs work harder than others and stay with the company for long. This adds more value to your start-up idea.

There is a reason why talented people want to work only for certain high profile companies — because they want to be associated with a brand, which will give a boost to their careers. Hence, as you begin your start-up company, strive to build your brand — however small it may be — so that an active job seeker gets attracted to your brand automatically. A good candidate always seeks a good opportunity, a potential for growth in the organisation, and a healthy and competitive work atmosphere. If you can provide these things to your employees, you will undoubtedly attract the best talent.