,
12 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Spent some time with a startup struggling with #hiring quality talent in #Bangalore. The story is quite common so thought of putting them in a thread.
The startup shared these (usual) problems: 1. Not finding skilled talent 2. Salary range mis-match 3. Drop offs in hiring process 4. Only 1/5 offers were converting to a joining
#1 skill mismatch: The HR was instructed to look for 2+ "solid" experience on #rubyonrails and would reject anyone else without looking at their growth curve. Moreover, she was non-technical but was also doing the initial technical screening (on ROR).
#2 salary mismatch: Some candidates matched well but were rejected since they were about 20% above their top range.
#3 Drop offs: Candidates were tracked in a sheet and manual calls or emails were made to schedule interviews, send tests and send reminders. Usual problems in calls not picked, email not responded, reminders not sent.
#4 Joining ratio: The final step in hiring process was hangouts with the founder. Offer letters were rolled out to remote candidates without any face to face interactions.
Having talked to many founders like this and having been in the same situation, here were my suggestions.
#1 Skill mismatch. Look for skills but stop competing for 100% proven talent. Be open to people with less years of experience but high learnability and ambition. And hey, please involve technical team for technical screening - developers love talking to developers.
#2 Salary mismatch: Know the demand/supply gap before capping your salary range. The usual 2x or 3x experience multiples don’t always work. Also - is the additional delay and effort worth saving 2-3 Lakhs premium on a good and available candidate?
#3 High drop offs: Manual effort wastes more than 65% of recruiters's time and worse - every delay increases chances of candidates going away. Use modern tools (like @CutshortHQ) to save time that could be better spent on improving the other 3 problems in this thread.
#4 Low joining ratio: Impress the candidates early. Connect them early with the founder who sells them the vision and later with peers who sell the reality. Do meet them personally before rolling out the offer letters.
Conclusion: Startup hiring is way different than enterprise hiring. Be open to discover talent, give them chances to prove and keep experimenting to create your winning team!
