Hiring, the Foundation for Success You can tell a lot about a company by the quality of the people--how easily hiring comes to them and how impactful the team is. Can you say that a startup, for example, will be a success because they attracted great talent to the team? No. But you can certainly say that a company that struggles landing great people may never be a success.
Successful recruiting tests the CEO and executive team’s ability to sell the value proposition of the company. Understanding and pitching what’s in it for a given candidate in terms of professional development and compensation lands great people. Hiring is also a test of how a company allocates time and resources--namely cash and equity.
Individuals invent and create; a team brings the execution forward. It’s been said many times, one individual's contribution to a company is rarely equal to another's. Compensation is one tool to get what you need in terms of talent, but too often it's easier to hide behind ‘internal equity’.
Understanding the market forces, knowing your company strengths and weaknesses, and being decisive set companies apart.
It continues to be an incredibly tough talent market in technology.
One of the best at hiring that we’ve worked with is Matt Van Horn, CEO of June. Remarkably, he’s been able to land a team of Apple, Google, Facebook and GoPro leaders, and attracted a world class Chef to his company to boot.
Matt told us,
"There's nothing more important for my business than bringing in the most talented people in the world. Often people see recruiting as a burden on their time on a business, at June we see it as one of the most important areas of our business." Recruiting, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg when creating a dynamic, likeable culture, where people stay for the long term.
Understanding ‘table stakes’ for perks and benefits will also differentiate a company and help you land talent--if you are in San Francisco, consider generous commuter benefits for example. There’s a lot of free or low cost benefits that stack up and make for a great place to work. Human bowling, anyone? We have it on good authority that those folks over at June get some wickedly great cookies and lunches every day.
Recruiting--it’s not just a necessary evil, it’s a core competency for success.
