Startups.ie

Many start-ups are moments away from success but we all know that for most of us the first years of any successful business are the toughest. They test you mentally and physically and often become too much for some people.

What are the solutions? Should you hire extra help? Should it be full-time or part-time? Each case is different but I hope to offer some friendly advice and tips that you may find helpful.

Before making that big decision you need to sit yourself down and look at the questions. Why? Who? What for? How Long will I need them? Do you actually need someone?

Below is a list of questions you should be able to answer regarding the new hire. You may find it helpful to write down the answers to help you draw up a job specification.

• Why are you hiring this person? As a source of direction for the business? A source of support? A source of ideas?
• Who is it you are looking for? Is it a specific skill? Is it administration support?
• What for? What will their role involve? How long will they need to spend per week at these tasks? Do they require experience or training?
• How long will I need them? Is the contract part-time or full-time? Do I require them to be present with me? How much will I pay them?

After answering these questions you should be able to identify if you require the hire. You will be able to weigh up the costs vs. spending more time yourself on your venture. You are now ready to hire.

Your first hire, whether part-time or full time should be recruited, selected and managed in the same way, start as you mean to go on. You should take the answers from the questions above and use the answers to populate the job specification. It is very important that you yourself compile the job description for the role, as you and only you will know the exact person you are looking for. Do note however that you shouldn’t be overly specific, we’d all love that technical expert who’ll go above and beyond, has every qualification and a wealth of experience and will work for €10k a year!

Compiling the job specification

Everything needs to be clear when describing a job. Many business owners use job specifcations to simply outline the duties, tasks and responsibilities for the job- in other words what you want the employee to do from day to day. However if you take the time and put detailed effort into the spec you will in turn be rewarded with the best, most qualified candidates for the job. Below are three tips a good job description should include:

Skills

First you must assess what competencies and skills the employee must possess in order to actually do meet the objectives you set.  The majority of skills are transferable from job to job and industry to industry.  Some simple examples could be verbal and written communication, team player, attention-to-detail, leadership, problem-solving, analytical, and planning.  By specifying the skills you may find that the candidates might bring something extra to the table that you could use in another area of the business.

Education & Experience

There is a huge difference when recruiting to what is required and what is preferred by the employer.  When specifying what you need it is crucial not to eliminate candidates for no reason. Where you may want the best candidate with MBAs MBS’s etc you may overlook those with the practical real-life experience. This is why when composing the education part of your job spec set a minimum e.g. undergraduate and state “Masters may be preferable” or “relevant experience will be considered”. After all you must remember as start-ups we want to keep expenses at their lowest so we are all not going to be able to offer high salaries and packages, therefore it would be a pointless task for example to specify masters education/5 years experience or above only and only offer a standard graduate salary.

Work Environment

This section is not just about explaining who/where the candiadate will be reporting to/working but an opportunity to sell your company. You should describe the work environment, the company and working atmosphere. This can be very effective in getting candidates to apply.

Good job descriptions keep you focused on what you want and communicate your expectations to your future employees. They will also help you set targets, KPIs and measure the success of hiring that extra person.

Start-ups Recruitment Tip

There are many sources of recruiting new hires out there with so many agencies, job sites and the likes but our tip for start ups if on a shoestring budget would be to look to the universities. For years now the country has been investing in these educational institiutions and many of us are not even aware of what we can get from too. Every year several universities around the country have students seeking work experience both paid and unpaid for 3 month to 12 month placements. It is reported that from DCU alone over 800 students per year are hired for placemnt.

Some universities also have MBA/MBS/MSC students looking to complete area specific 3 month/6 month projects and these could actually fit with exactly what you’re looking for. Examples of some of the projects can be SEO reports, Social Media Marketing, Charity Fundraising, Google Adwords and Summer Practicum Projects. The students come in an array of subjects ranging across Science, Maths, Computing, Electronic & Mechanical Engineering, Business Studies, Marketing, HR, Finance, Accounting & Journalism to name a few. These placements and projects are a great, economic and time saving way of getting a certain piece of work completed and also of a step to recruiting a long term employee. They also free your exisiting staff from time consuming but essential jobs so they can work on the more immediate or growing areas of your start up- a problem we all know to well!

All start-ups should try call their nearby university to ask about these placement programmes and projects. Some sources we are aware of are DCU INTRA and DIT placements, both Dublin based. If you are interested why not enquire and email maeve.long@dcu.ie (DCU) or stacy.maccarthy@dit.ie (DIT).

Best of luck with your recruiting!