Building a strong career in HR with AI Skills
Rethinking investor roles
Venture capital investment provides impetus to the growth potential of startups. The roles that venture partners play in startups are evolving. What does it mean when we say venture partners #addvalue? Traditionally, venture capital investors are considered to add value only through money. However, this notion is changing. Venture capital investors are redefining their roles as liaisons and partners. Today, when we talk about investor value, we talk about #valueaddition through – Strategic advice Venture capitalists have a long-term orientation towards return on investments and hence provide a strategic outlook towards organization building and scale-up. Investors are willing to work with entrepreneurs toward organizational success and long-term value creation. Strategic and valuable guidance from venture partners especially in the early stages can help entrepreneurs make better business and managerial decisions. Technical expertise Experienced venture partners can provide expertise on not just product fitment, and market dynamics but also on how to build teams and maneuver people management challenges, especially in the early stages of growth. Managerial know-how Entrepreneurs often require managerial knowledge as they scale their organizations. Early-stage startups grapple with liabilities of newness and lack of legitimacy. Venture partners can help bridge gaps and partner with entrepreneurs as they move forward on the growth path. Staffing and recruitment support Experienced venture partners possess excellent networking skills. These can be leveraged by entrepreneurs to scout for talent, fill leadership positions, and get connected with recruitment agencies and consultants. Access to a high-quality network helps fill gaps in recruitment and staffing. It is important to understand that for value addition to happen, there has to be an open and trusting relationship between the entrepreneur and the investor. #Credibility, #transparency, and #trustbuilding are essential to this relationship.
HR metrics that matter for start-ups
One of the key strategies to successfully scale a #start-up is to use metrics from day one. Whether you are an early-stage founder or have just had Series C funding, measuring the performance of your start-up at every stage is important. Metrics help us define goals, track progress, identify problem areas, and make data-driven decisions. Without using metrics, it is impossible to know when and how to pivot your business strategy toward the fast-changing context of start-ups. In the early stages of the company, founders make many decisions based on intuition. This may work for a while, however, as soon as you start scaling up, things can go wrong. If you are not measuring the results of your actions, you will not know what’s going on wrong. While it is critical to measure key performance indicators such as financial growth, revenue, and costs, as a start-up founder you also need to define and measure HR metrics. Here are a few important #HRmetrics that you should be measuring regularly:
The Start-up Hiring Template
Making hiring mistakes is one of the main reasons why start-ups fail to grow and survive. As you start scaling up, a strategic approach towards building your hiring process is critical. As the business grows, you need to develop a road map for attracting key talent, developing a robust hiring process, and becoming a strong #employerbrand. In the initial days, you need to find a team of people who understand your vision and can work towards it. However, as the start-ups expand, you need to keep on finding the right people at the right time. Here are a few important questions to be answered before developing a successful start-up hiring plan: 1. What are the hiring costs? Before you initiate the #hiring process, you need to account for the costs associated with hiring. These include the cost to hire as well as additional costs such as advertising and relocation. One important aspect of costs that gets overlooked is the time taken to fill the positions. Use data points to understand how much time is required before the prospective candidate comes on board. Review timelines to build #efficiency in the hiring process. 2. Which roles do you need to hire for? During the growth phase, it is important to understand how your start-up is evolving. Take time to develop an organizational chart or something that helps you visualize the different functions and departments that need to be aligned as per the organizational #goals. Identify key roles that need to be filled in immediately and work towards building a strong candidate pipeline. 3. How many positions do you need to fill in and in how much time? #Forecasting the hiring needs of your start-up is the first step towards streamlining the hiring process. Determining how many people you need in a particular quarter/six months should be based on your goals. Identify your objectives and evaluate the gaps in your current team. This will give you a sense of the upcoming hiring needs. Assess both short-term and long-term hiring needs. 4. What are the skills that you should be looking for? Building a capable team is as important as building an attractive product and having a strong customer base. Identify the #corecompetencies and #values that you need in people. Develop relevant job descriptions and reach out to people. Think about both skill and culture fitment when evaluating candidates. Participate actively in the interviewing process to achieve your hiring objectives. 5. From where are you going to hire? Identify the sources from which you are going to seek people. Leverage your network and contact lists. You might need to assess whether there is a need to outsource some of the sourcing work or hire freelancers/interns to help you source candidates quickly. Weigh your options and take corrective action in line with the hiring goals. Be flexible and explore various options so that you have many candidates to choose from. 6. How does the start-up become a strong employer brand? A long-term objective of your hiring process should be developing a positive image as an employer of choice. Work towards showcasing your start-up and why someone would want to join it. Use social media to increase visibility. Build a strong positive culture so that your employees stay motivated. Also, think about your building your own ‘founder brand’ to boost positive perception. Developing a game plan to achieve your hiring goals and objectives is extremely critical for #start-up success.
From Start-up to Scale-up
Here are a few questions that entrepreneurs, especially in the early stages of the company grapple with: The above and many more questions related to people management are so important to think about when scaling up. Early-stage companies that have many issues to deal with including product/market fit, competitor analysis, and customer attraction tend to overlook the need to spend time on adopting effective people management practices. Attracting and retaining key talent is listed as the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs. Even then if you ask the entrepreneurs how much time they actually spend on looking through profiles and talking to potential candidates, you will be surprised. Startups can make many mistakes in the early stages but making hiring mistakes is often listed as the most costly. Here a are few points to help you develop a strategic approach toward attracting and developing key talent: Understand whom and when to hire Often entrepreneurs take a short-term view of attracting people. This backfires as the hiring needs keep changing in a fast-growing organization. It is important to take a step back, analyze your future hiring needs, and then develop a long-term hiring strategy. At this stage, it is also important to pay attention to organization design. How do you want to approach organization design? How should I define roles and responsibilities? Are there any gaps in leadership positions? While it might be time-saving to delegate some of these tasks, you must play an active role in key hiring decisions. Spend time with potential candidates, talk to people in your network, and build a pipeline. It is important to understand your company culture before you look at hiring people. It is impossible to build a cohesive team unless there is synergy in terms of values and aspirations. Value your efforts in selecting the best fit as this will lead to long-term gains. Sell your vision When you are thinking about attracting key talent, think about what’s in it for them. Sell the vision of the company to help people understand where they can be in the next few years. Help people connect with your aspirations and think clearly about their career progression. Define what this opportunity means to them and how they are going to add value to your organization. Be ready to clear doubts that potential candidates might have in terms of roles and responsibilities. Acknowledge that you might not be sure about everything, however, you have a clear vision and are committed to the organization’s goals. Leverage information to understand whether you are offering attractive salary packages at par with the industry. Revise your compensation strategies, if needed. Develop your people skills Developing people management skills is paramount, especially in a fast-changing environment. People skills are not only needed when engaging with customers and clients. They are equally important when managing people and teams. Good people skills including communication, delegation, empathy, emotional intelligence, and leadership. In today’s world, good people management skills are the key to building effective teams, better products, and successful companies. Entrepreneurs who understand the importance of prioritizing people over products can engage with employees, build relationships with stakeholders, and understand customer needs. One of the key steps for entrepreneurs towards scaling up is to reassess where they are allocating their resources because their success lies in the people who become part of their journey. #startups #entrepreneurs #people #hiring #talent
