Why your startup needs a strong recruiting process

Early-stage founders have a lot on their plates. Running a company and developing a product or a service is incredibly hard and time-consuming. Although, with every new employee, they can delegate some of their tasks and focus on setting their company on the right course. However, this also creates a problem – how do you make sure that these new employees are the right people for the job? How do you make sure that you're hiring people who will take your company to the next level?

The answer lies in having a strong recruiting process, which can serve as your secret weapon to growing your startup.: ‘a good recruitment process is a runway you need to build where your growth can smoothly take-off’ (Joyce, Head of Operations at ACELR8).

In this article, we will cover three reasons why you should invest in hiring.

1. Find candidates who are aligned with your mission and business goals

Finding a candidate whose skills match the job description is one thing, but finding someone who cares about the mission of your company and wants to contribute to it is a different story. To find the right candidate, though, you and your employees need to be aligned on the mission and the vision of your business. As Michael Varley, CEO at ACELR8, summarised:

'A strong recruiting process gives the whole team an understanding of who, where, how, and why we are looking for a particular talent. This provides the team alignment, improves transparency, and also creates the future building blocks to be able to repeat that and scale the most crucial thing in any company – its talent. This is an unfair advantage.'

2. Save time (and money)

Recruiting is a kind of investment that pays back over time, both time- and money-wise. At first, it doesn't seem that hard, and many founders decide to handle it on their own. It might work with a few first roles, but it's not the best long-term solution. As Grant Badgery, Engagement Manager at ACELR8 points out:

'When thinking about time in the recruitment process, it can be easy just to do things. Send an interview request, give feedback on a candidate, send a rejection mail. Each action only takes a few minutes. However, when you consider this across a company, or even just multiple positions for one recruiter, then this becomes a huge time commitment. Invest time to save time.'

Paul Finan, our UK-based Senior Talent Partner, also raised another, significant thing to have in mind: 'time is money – time wasted is a cost to your business.' By ensuring a high quality of your hiring process, you can reduce unnecessary expenses, like hiring the wrong people for the role or people who don't match your company's culture. 

A well-planned recruiting process can be very beneficial, especially with a dedicated recruiter on board:

'Allocation of your internal interviewing resources needs to be effectively managed and consistent. Using randoms members of your team to interview will produce poor consistency of results, and the knock-on effect is the cost to your business.'

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3. Attract talented candidates (A-players) and build your employer brand

For the candidates, the quality of your recruiting process is how they will perceive your company in the long-term. As Paul Power, Employer Branding Specialist at ACELR8 summarised: ‘Any strong hiring process will communicate key information about your company values, culture, mission, and team. These are all important aspects of employer branding and will attract candidates who can already see themselves working with you.’ 

Viola, Head of People at ACELR8, added that a strong recruiting process makes the decision much easier, both for the employer (if they want to hire the candidate), and for the talent (if they want to join the company): 

‘In a well-put process, there are no doubts or questions at the time when the decision needs to be made – everything has been assessed, from both sides.’

To ensure that the candidates see your company the way you want them to, you need to offer them a great candidate experience during the interview process. As Estelle Boussès, Engagement Manager at ACELR8 stated:

'Great interviews and well-crafted candidate challenges convey a professional and out-of-the-box thinking image of your company. Train your team members to be great interviewers to boost the engagement of your candidates. Whatever the outcome of the process is, your company will be known as professional, prepared and with one of the best teams on the market.'

Poor candidate experience can have huge consequences, leaving permanent damage to your company's image:

'As a startup, your way of interviewing is a long-term image you convey to the candidate. If the experience was bad, your candidate wouldn’t join your company even if you offer a great salary and perks. Worse, they will also share across their network how bad it was. Your reputation on the market will be quickly damaged.'

But, on the other side of the spectrum, an outstanding candidate experience will attract more talented people and allow you to build a well-functioning business full of passionate employees:

'An A-player who had an amazing experience, whatever the outcome is, will recommend your startup to the market that will lead to better visibility and boost your employer brand.'

Summary

For a new startup, every decision, even a small one, can have a huge impact on its future. Making the right decisions in terms of hiring is especially important, as it will determine who will be working with you shoulder-to-shoulder to make your idea a reality. If you don't put enough effort into the process of hiring great people, you can lose them and damage your company's brand. Investing in hiring will pay off.

'Excellence attracts excellence.'

If you need support with your hiring, ACELR8 is here to help. We offer a flexible pricing model adjusted to your company’s size and hiring needs. We work should-to-shoulder with you to find the best people to make your idea happen. Learn more about our services here.