How to Attract Top Talent to Your Startup In 2022

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By Jacob Maslow

As a startup, it can be exceedingly difficult to attract top talent. After all, most of the ‘best minds’ don’t want to work for a company that has yet to forge its way in the business world. However, there are a few things that you can do that may encourage a few of the brightest minds to work for your company. Of course, we can’t guarantee that everybody will buy into your vision, but follow these tips, and you may be in for a fighting chance.

Offer Work From Home

Pre-pandemic, most employees were OK with working from the office. However, during the pandemic, everybody quickly realized how beneficial ‘work from home’ could be. People loved it so much that they now focus purely on work-from-home positions.

If you offer a ‘work from home’ position, you have a greater chance of attracting the best talent.

Market Your Company Well

As a startup, you don’t have much proof that your business will stick around for a while. Because let’s face it, most startups will be gone within the year. This can often make it difficult to attract good talent.

This is why it is important that you have a good vision for your company. You need to be able to sell people on the idea of your business. Tell people what you do in the clearest possible way. State how you will get there and why you will be around for a long time.

If you know how to ‘sell’ your company, you will have a greater chance of getting some great employees in.

Offer The Most Competitive Salary That You Can

As a startup, offering a competitive salary can often be tricky. However, sadly, if you want the brightest minds in the business, then this is precisely what you will need to do.

People will understand that your business will not offer the best salaries. If they can believe in your idea, then they may be OK with this. However, you need to give something. You need to be paying people for the work that they do. Trust us, as much as some startups believe it will happen. Nobody is going to work for you for free.

Offer Flexibility In The Workplace

Flexibility in the workplace can mean a couple of things. First, it may mean allowing employees to choose their working hours or having occasional time away from work.

However, we feel that flexibility in other areas can help here. For example, if you can’t offer a competitive salary, allow people to work another job. Allow them to put a few hours of work into your business each week (paid, of course). Many people will find that they are more able to work for startups if the startup is not heavily restricting their income potential.

Promote a Positive Company Culture

Your startup needs to foster a positive company culture. We are not talking about the fake happiness that big businesses have (everybody is a team!), but genuine positivity. An excellent place to work. Somewhere that you can be yourself and feel free to share ideas that you may have or even approach management directly.

The whole reason why you are bringing in top talent for your startup is that you want your business to go places. So make sure the top talent is free to help you get there.

Provide Stock Incentives

Most people you want to hire won’t work for you unless they have stock incentives. Some may even accept reduced pay for more stock. After all, if your startup strikes it lucky, it could end up with a sizeable sum of cash in its pocket.

Provide stock incentives, but you may want to tie these incentives to certain things, e.g., putting a certain amount of work into the business or sticking around for a certain period. If you don’t, somebody could get hired, get their stock, and leave shortly after.

Promote Employee Development

Employees like to feel that they are cared for. So everything you do, from your business from startup to striking it big (and beyond), should be employee-focused. Help your employees grow. Invest in training. Promote. Do everything possible to ensure that your employee becomes a better employee. Not only will your business benefit, but you will have a much easier time getting people to stick around.

Final Word

It can be challenging to attract top talent to a startup, and we cannot promise you that you will be able to get every employee you want. After all, your business remains untested. However, if you put the tips we shared on this page into practice, you will often end up with a higher caliber of employees, even if you can’t pay huge salaries.

 

References

 

https://www.recruiter.com/recruiting/5-innovative-ways-to-attract-top-talent-for-your-company-in-2022/

https://hbr.org/sponsored/2022/01/how-to-attract-top-talent-in-2022

https://storm3.com/storm3-voice/hiring/how-to-attract-talent-as-startup/

https://www.predictiveindex.com/blog/attracting-talent/

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