As a company grows, one of the biggest headaches we see is that the data in the ATS has become almost useless because it was not input to the system completely, or cleanly, or in the same way each time (normalized). Create best practices for the data being put into your ATS when you implement it (or as early as possible). Examples: "Only candidates with contact information go into the ATS" "Clean up all First and Last Names, as well as Company names when we put candidates in the system" "All candidates get 3-5 tags in the system to tell what type of candidate/skill-set that are" Creating these best practices will enable you to use your ATS as a candidate source for future roles, be able to automate outreach without sounding automated, and lower your spend on external tools.
Data Scientist, Digital Marketing & Leadership Consultant for Startups at Consorte Marketing
Answered 4 years ago
Most start-ups are lean, where people tend to wear many hats and do work outside of their intended scope. Hours can be long, too. So, it's important to check in with each team member individually on a monthly basis. Get a feel for each person's level of happiness, as well as the overall employee sentiment. Then, make adjustments to ensure that people stay motivated, engaged, and happy.
For HR to be relevant as a business partner, you need to ensure that all strategic objectives are aligned to the business plan. Remember to challenge the policies and processes to be sure that the objective is to grow and develop the employees and business and it cannot fail. The best written plans fall short of the mark if they are not founded in good business logic. The true test of success for HR is to be a critical component of the executive team and those seats don\'t come casually. Ask yourself often, do my business partners call me for guidance and if not, address it quickly. Businesses cannot afford for HR to be a cost center, they need to be a business imperative!
Building a new startup team? It's vital to integrate diversity into the DNA of the business from before day 1. Make sure investors, leaders and your team embrace the rich diversity of the world we live in. Hire on potential not an exact match to your shopping list of requirements. Ensuring that your company reflects real life is the best way to attract, engage and retain your people.
Leadership is responsible for embodying the vision of the organization. The creation of the vision comes from personal and professional values whom all can live into. From there, a strategic direction is developed. Leadership understands that corporate culture begins at the top and partners with HR. Armed with a values-based vision and a strategic plan, HR can readily hire those with skills who can keep the wheels on the start-up bus as it's rolling down the highway as well as those who will grow with the organization once a more stable growth process has been established. HR needs to keep a future focus on the current check list.
Use a good time tracker app to track the time being spent by the employees. These apps also have timesheets and a productivity checker. So that HR can reduce the load by automating basic activities. Few time tracking apps also allow screenshot tracking for proper employee monitoring.
Employee Experience should be at the top of everyone\'s HR List right now. There are so many options for our teams- gone are the days employees are lucky to work for a big name or need to be in the office from 9-5pm Monday - Friday. Leaders need to be cognizant of their values and how they are creating a unique employee experience that sets them a part from their competitors.
Put the psychological safety of your employees above all else. Both of the female founders of our start-up refer to themselves as “recovering corporate slaves,” having endured varied forms of corporate abuse in their former careers. For that reason, we are building a different kind of company with an employee-first approach. We believe a collaborative approach in every step of the employee journey will help to achieve this, so we engage in “co-recruiting,” where both the candidate and the company equally share needs, expectations, and goals; collaborative educational onboarding, in which we engage new employees to question and improve the training modules as they progress through them; creative cultural development with game nights and open ideation sessions; plus employee development opportunities like mindfulness, meditation and dispute resolution training. As a result, the culture we are building here is a healthy, winning culture.
When it comes to startups, there’s a tendency to over-index hard skills leading to job descriptions that are like wish lists or exercises in creating the perfect candidate to embody all roles in one while looking at team building as “nice to have '' instead of “need to have”. This approach ignores one thing that startups NEED to have on their HR checklist—curiosity. Curiosity prompts the “what if” questions, and sparks the creativity and innovation startups thrive on. Startups are fluid as much out of necessity as by definition. They practically demand agility and adaptability. Hiring with curiosity in mind supports that.
I’ve heard many start up leaders say that a strategic HR plan isn’t an immediate necessity. This may stem from a belief that HR is more of an administrative function than a strategic one. However, it is a critical step in setting up your start up for success in ensuring HR initiatives are part of your strategic planning process. Your start up may not need talent acquisition, retention, and engagement strategies on day one, but you still need to plan and prepare. Your strategic plan should include workforce planning, culture development, total rewards design, and more. Not only will this help you in budgeting properly for your labor force, but you’ll better position your organization to take advantage of opportunities in the labor market and avoid potential employer risks.
The one thing that every start up should do is define the people strategy aligned to the business strategy; Hire strategically but make sure that there is a clear process for the employee experience that everyone is across including development once the people join. It is horrible seeing businesses hire fast to then go through a RIF as they have not achieved the run way required to survive.
In the beginning, start by leveraging a strong outsourcing strategy. Don\'t burden your business with a lot of permanent staff that brings with it payroll issues, benefit issues, and so forth. Onboard your initial staff as contractors. While you need to keep in alignment with federal and state employment laws, bringing your initial staff in as contractors will allow you time to vet the candidates for their knowledge, overall fit within the organization, and ability to function on your team(s). During this period, it will save you payroll taxes and overhead while simultaneously ensuring you are getting the best candidate for the job. If your budget allows, you can use an recruiting agency and leverage their time, money, and tools necessary to do the preliminary screening, background checks, etc. If your budget doesn\'t allow, then start by using virtual assistants which can be done very affordably. You can also secure contractor talent through Fiverr, UpWork, Thumbtack and others.
Starting a business is no easy task. There are so many things to think about – from the initial planning stages to day-to-day operations. It’s important that you don’t overlook any key aspects of your business, especially when it comes to HR. There is one thing that should be on every startup’s HR checklist. Creating a formal employee orientation program. This educational session will help new employees learn the ins and outs of business while making them feel like they're part of the team. Also, it encourages employees to consider long-term employment with the company. This is a great way to provide new employees with the knowledge they need to hit the ground running. A formal orientation program is not only a great way to welcome new employees, but it also helps improve the company's culture.
"The one thing startup Founders must consider before hiring their first employee is what type of work culture is most beneficial for them? Do they aspire to collaborative operations where leveraging entrepreneurial employee strengths for innovation, growth and cross-functional team projects allows them to do more with less? Or are they invested in directive leadership operations because that is all they have known? These are the types of operations experiencing a tough time right now retaining mid-career employees. Mid-career employees, as first hires, provide experience and some past training. Many are looking for the right type of organization to build and grow through teams. All systems and operations emerge from this critical decision as discussed in the Book, TIGERS Among Us-Winning Business Team Cultures and Why They Thrive (available on Amazon) and used by startup Founders as their first and most primary decision." -- Dianne Crampton, The TIGERS 6 Principles
Startup companies cannot underestimate the importance of training as part of a HR checklist. This refers to both how you approach current training procedures, but also ensuring that keeping your training materials updated is crucial for new hires as your processes expand and evolve.
One must-have item on every startup HR checklist is an HR plan. Every HR department needs a plan with realistic goals that align with the company’s as well as a startup. Ideally, the goals should be attainable within the first three to six months. This allows ample time to adjust to growth and finalize interdepartmental organizational needs.
Establishing an organizational structure should be one of the top priorities of a startup. A clear organizational structure prevents miscommunication and makes the hiring process smoother. Furthermore, the corporate structure also establishes persons in charge of various departments and their respective job responsibilities. That makes addressing issues easier and newly onboarded employees know who to report to.
In the early days, startups might not have the budget to hire full-time recruitment professionals to guide their hiring activities. Recruitment is often founder-driven, and without a proper methodology, it might lead to costly hiring mistakes that startups can rarely afford. When designing the recruitment process for finding those superstars that startups are on the lookout for, founders often focus on making the process fun and unique, forgetting quality. Traditional "let's hang out and chat" interviews are very prone to bias and scary close to a coin-toss when it comes to validity. Still, they continue to be the most common hiring method at startups. By making sure that interview questions are based on job-related skills and that every candidate goes through the same question list, startups can double the predictive validity and halve the impact of unconscious bias in their interviews. That's why all startups should adopt the methodology for their hiring process.
On an HR checklist what should not be missing is the training and development of a company's most important resource: employees. Do not focus just on improving employees' existing skills and competencies, rather suggest challenging tasks so that they can develop new skills and abilities that will be an added value to the organization. Also, keep track of their progress. If someone makes no progress in their work ask themselves if they are satisfied with what they are doing and if not, talk with them to understand their inclinations. A satisfied employee will help the organization achieve its performance goals, even exceed them.
Onboarding and recruiting procedures need to be on that checklist. An HR checklist for a startup needs to have onboarding and recruiting procedures right at the top if they want to build a healthy and committed team and company. When a startup cares about its onboarding and recruiting procedures, its new team feels empowered and supported by the company and is more likely to be invested in its success. Onboarding and recruiting procedures are a must-have on HR’s checklist for a startup if they want to grow a healthy team and company.