Hiring for a Startup: 7 Key Qualities to Look for In New Employees

Hiring for a startup is no joke. It actually takes more than you might think to get the right candidates on board to help make your startup a success.

Hiring for a startup is very different than recruiting for a larger organization. Employees at startups help drive innovation, as well as determine the direction your company is likely to take in the near future. In addition, they will probably need to juggle multiple responsibilities, so there really aren’t job descriptions available for when you first put a team together.

A wrong hire during the initial days of your business can cost you dearly. As it is, the statistics for startup success are often disheartening. Almost 75 percent of new businesses fail, says a Harvard Business School senior lecturer Shikhar Ghosh. And in a Forbes post , Neil Patel, co-founder of Crazy Egg and KiSSmetrics, claims that 90 percent of startups fail.

In both the cases, the rate of failure for startups is indeed alarming. Many entrepreneurs link their failures to the fact that 46 percent of new hires in small businesses fail within 18 months. It is therefore essential to find great employees who will stick around long enough to help you grow your startup venture.

But how do you find the right candidates for your new business? The solution is usually to look beyond a person’s resume and cover letter, and examine the character of the applicant. Candidates who possess these seven qualities can help take your business to the next level.

Out of many qualities, humility tops the list. Startup entrepreneurs generally aren’t short on ego, so humility is one quality your employees must have. Your new hires must be smart, but there will always be certain things that they don’t know and need to accept. Having an ego often stops them from accepting their ignorance, and as a result, they never learn new things properly.

Your hires should not be egoistic, but must be willing to do whatever it takes to learn new skills to help the business grow. Humility will also help you avoid a battle of egos, especially in the boardroom. While your employees must be confident enough to speak up and disagree, ego battles can totally ruin your startup.

In addition, when there is a lack of humility, people are usually afraid to take responsibility if and when things go wrong–they are even afraid to ask for help. These things will hardly work in your favor in the early startup days. Your new hires must be willing to pitch in and accept decisions at any level, even if they don’t agree.

In addition to humility, another important quality to look for is empathy. Employees must be understanding and compassionate individuals who are willing to make connections with others on the team to establish deep bonds. Empathy is also the root of great leadership skills, so you should give preference to emotional intelligence when interviewing people for your startup.

Empathy builds the foundation of trust and helps create an environment of mutual respect and support where team members push each other to be better so that they can achieve success together. When looking for empathy in a candidate, you need to figure out the vibe you’re getting while being in the room with the person. Eye contact and body language play crucial roles in determining empathy.

It’s obvious, isn’t it? You need passionate individuals working for you who love what they do. Startups are driven by passion; having people on your team who are passionate about their work and want to create a happier and more productive workplace is definitely an advantage. Besides, when people love what they do, work feels like play.

What is also more important is having a shared passion. Your initial hires must have a shared purpose, whether it be to do something innovative or to drive the business in a certain direction. Shared passion helps your team develop commitment and direction to achieve the company’s vision.

When you are building the foundation of your business, it is imperative to be surrounded by passionate people who believe in you and your vision, and have the same level of enthusiasm to work towards the same goal.

The success of many businesses and teams depends on their collective strength. Your team members must be pushing each other to be better in order to achieve success together–this is the strength of the collaborative team. You work together to leverage each individual’s strengths to find the best possible solution. While diverse thinking and disagreement will also be there, you need to channel them in a way that everyone works to achieve the same goal, regardless of their personal beliefs.

There is no room for ego battles in a collaborative team. Each team member must respect the views of others, even if they disagree. A collaborative team knows the ultimate goal is to reach your destination together–that’s the reason they are there in the first place.

When it comes to determining whether or not a candidate has collaborative tendencies, it is easier said than done; this is not something you can find in a resume. Instead, you need to ask open-ended questions what will help you understand if a candidate is the right fit for a collaborative team.

Ask candidates to describe their previous work environment. Where was the best place they have worked? Why did they like it? What do they want in an office environment?

Analyze their answers–do they understand collaboration? Hire people who truly believe that collaboration is the core component of a winning team.

As a startup, you will likely face challenges more often than not. You therefore need people who are adaptive and have great problem-solving skills, in addition to functional skills. Your initial hires, especially the first 10 to 12 employees, are part of your co-founding team; they play key roles in setting the tone of your business’s growth.

Hiring candidates solely for their functional skills won’t help you here. While functional skills are important, they are not enough to help you meet the day-to-day challenges of a startup business. For example, startups typically don’t have proper processes in place. In fact, it is detrimental for startups to have too much structure as their key competitive advantage lies in speed and flexibility.

Startups typically thrive in a world of chaos; they require people who can think “on-the-go” and adapt to situations as needed. This requires each of your team members to have a good understanding of your business, from the more technical aspects such as design and development, to the more strategic ones like growth hacking.

This creates a cohesion that will help you better deal with challenges, giving you a competitive advantage over established organizations. However, as your team grows, it will become more and more difficult to sustain this cohesion. But that’s a different issue altogether.

Identifying this particular quality in job candidates is rather easy. Ask them about the kinds of challenges they faced at their previous organizations, and how they reacted to overcome them. Also, present hypothetical situations and see how they react to them and what solutions they offer.

As stated in the previous point, startup employees should be flexible enough to adapt to any given situation. They must be resilient–be able to work under conditions of uncertainty and stay calm without their performance being affected. A lack of resiliency usually results in irritability, poor performance, tension, and fear among team members.

To look for this quality in potential candidates, ask them for evidence of grit. How have they averted disaster in the past? Did they ever take a huge risk and/or make a stunning comeback after a substantial defeat?

Look for confident individuals. You need people who truly believe in themselves; however, be careful not to bring on someone who is arrogant as there is a fine line between arrogance and confidence. To determine whether a person is confident or arrogant, focus on their tone. A confident person will never shy away from saying, “I can handle it,” but at the same time he/she will also not hesitate to ask for help or say they don’t know if something is beyond their capacity or knowledge.

Ask questions that candidates won’t likely have answers to. A confident person will probably admit not knowing a right answer if they aren’t sure; an arrogant person will try everything from guessing to dodging and ridiculing the question–except accepting their ignorance. Confident people tend to speak slowly, and think and pause before answering questions.

Finally, look for candidates with intrapreneurship attributes. These are people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and will help your company with their innovative ideas. According to a study on Generation Y workplace expectations, 58 percent of managers are supportive of employees’ entrepreneurial ambitions within their companies.

Ask candidates for suggestions on how to improve your company. But don’t just ask for ideas–ask them for specific plans on how to improve your company. Focus on their creative and innovative problem-solving qualities.

Finding the right hires for your startup isn’t easy–you need to find people who have sound functional skills combined with the personal attributes mentioned above. And when you do find the right candidates, they can add value, enthusiasm, and innovation to your new business–all that’s required for long-term success.

Post by: Vivek Patel

Vivek Patel is a Local Search Specialist at E2M , one of India’s fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, a company committed to meeting the highest ethical standards of digital marketing to encourage and drive strategic and sustainable business growth. Vivek covers local search optimization, organic search tactics, and social media marketing strategies. You can find him on Twitter @vivekrpatel.

Company: E2M
Website: www.e2msolutions.com
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