There’s no doubting the effects Startups have on the HR landscape. Over the past decade, Startups have been magnets for young professionals and is prime workplace real estate for former entrepreneurs or top-level CEOs.
It’s safe to say that startups have a natural way of setting trends in hiring tactics and practices designed to snag the very best prospects capable of getting their stocks soaring to meet the expectations of famished investors.
One thing I believe startups have that must corporate bodies don’t is the ability to take risks on nonexperience applicants, or former entrepreneurs, without feeling threatened.
Here are two main reasons why your startup can be a magnet for powerful talent:
A safe haven from failure
Sometimes another entrepreneur might need a period of standing back from what they’ve been doing for so long and getting back into the groove of paid employment. It could happen for different reasons; as much as we hate to think about it businesses has a high rate of failure. According to a recent Harvard business school study, 3 out of every four venture-backed companies fail to provide investors any return. When failure knocks on the doors of some entrepreneurs one of the little options they might have is to go back to work for someone else, ideally your Startup. Where else could be better? The culture of most Startups is about the same atmosphere that most creative entrepreneurs crave.
An unapologetic environment for self-starters and leaders
It’s no secret that the global workforce isn’t exactly flush with self-starters and leaders, the available few are more than worth their weight in gold if one happens to turn up at your door snap them up as fast as you can. Don’t be fooled by the name “Startup,” you might think of the term as synonymous with youth and naiveté but these young companies are hard pressed to grow at super speed, or they invariably get devoured by mature predators in the unforgiving jungle that is the world of global business. Startups need self -starters that are eager to take the initiative and make decisions that others shirk from. Only those that succeed in making these essential hires have any chance of survival. Mark Zuckerberg once said in an interview ” I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person.”
More human, less technical approach to hiring
With the importance of putting the right pegs in the right holes quickly, at any company most HR departments have adopted the culture of outsourcing or using software/ algorithms to identify ideal candidates. Sadly, this may cause a few issues in recruiting. Simply because candidates don’t have “key words” on their resume, this hiring process is slightly fraught with errors and inaccuracies, caused by ridged computerized parameters, that often rule the best candidates out of their ideal jobs and deny organizations the opportunity to hire the best talent for their needs.
However, startups due to their budget being tighter in nature, or because the culture is more family-oriented, expect their hiring managers to find the best fit for their needs through referrals, one on one interviews, or exploratory interviews.
This process gives quality candidates a chance to provide humanness to their creative, technical, and professional experiences. Just as important allows startups not to miss out on the chance of recruiting ideal candidates.
Human #AF.
Sade Disu is known and sought after for her ability to leverage storytelling, data, and business operations with her innate understanding of the cultural consumers’ lifestyle attitudes.
She attributes this aforementioned attention (press and awards) to her grit for creating cross-cultural content, platform solutions, and activations that engage (what she coins) the ” multi-hyphenated millennial women.”
Her content strategies and live event platforms were deemed unmatched for its convening power of global content, culture, and empowerment according to Forbes, LA Times, Essence, and Black Enterprise. And even more, was given a proclamation, by former Mayor of New York (now Presidential candidate) Michael Bloomberg in 2010.
All in all, Sade has delivered award-winning and has been press ordained (had a 4-page press feature in Black Enterprise and 2-page press feature in Forbes French Edition for her global experiential marketing and digital work across various clients.
Brands like Kimora Lee Simons, Iman Cosmetics, Pikolinos, Zara, Roommate Hotels and USAID, immediately tapped into her three-tier prong approach “community, content, to commerce” when looking to connect with the cultural consumers.
Under her auspice, she managed a team of 25 and built a 10-year-old marketing and digital communication firm, responsible for offline and online platforms that connected brands to consumers organically and authentically.
The results increased brand awareness 8.5 million views; $300+ K in revenue generated per event (total of 3) for project sponsors, and performance beyond the expected for key performance indicators such as newsletter subscribers. Media giants such as Hearst Magazines caught wind of her competencies — the ability to connect to cultural consumers through content and experiential solutions– and immediately hired her agency to build and produce its international spin-off of COSMO (which Disu also helped cultivate and manage editorial teams for).