You can’t just pick anyone for your startup team. You need to be able identify not only each member’s individual skills but also their chemistry when they come together as a group. So it helps if you know what signs might indicate someone would work well with the idea of yours. Here are some things that could potentially point towards your Dream Team members.
Check the hard skills.
The hard skills are important for any startup, but they can be tough to find in employees without a formal background. If you’re hiring an administrative or coding position at your company and don’t know what kind of Software Engineer would best suit the needs – administer a test. A better way is by ensuring that potential candidates have all necessary abilities before putting them through their paces on technical challenges.
Find out their goals.
You want to make sure you hire someone who will grow with your startup. As a founder, it’s important that their goals align with yours and they don’t see themselves leaving any time soon or in the near future. You can ask about long-term potential careers too; this might give some insight on where their interests lie if anything changes down the line.
Make sure they fit with your startup’s culture.
The start-up culture is crucial when hiring new employees. If you want your team to work well towards a common goal, then make sure they fit in properly by checking if their personality matches up or not against what’s desired for the business’ mission statement/attitude toward leadership decisions. “One lesson I’ve learned about building teams,” says Neil Patel from Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics “is that it’s important find people who will stick around because without them there can be trouble.
Build diversity team in your startup.
Diverse teams are the key to success in startups. According the likes of IDEO, Salesforce and Amazon – 40% female employees make 75% purchasing decisions. The woman’s perspective is therefore necessary for designing products that generate meaningful impact as well marketable return on investment.
Test their resilience.
Startups are high-pressure environments, even if your startup does something like making an app with meditation classes. All the activities that go into making a product or service can add up to some serious extra stress sometimes because everything is uncertain and anything could change at any time. The hours may seem long when you’re just starting out but as soon as things start taking off it gets worse: deadlines become more rushed than ever before.
Look for the problem solver specialists.
Startups are a unique environment where you need to be able problem solve on the fly. It needs team members who are flexible and creative, because the company is always moving. You need people with problem-solving skills to find solutions for them when they get into challenges in their code or otherwise face obstacles head on instead of running back towards management every time there’s a snag.
Make sure they can cooperate.
In a startup, it’s need to have strong teamwork skills. You’ll often be working with other people who both overlap and depend on each other so an ideal candidate should enjoy frequent interactions outside of their desk role for this reason as well – good communication abilities are also a key.
Be convinced they complement your team.
Hiring is more than just picking someone who has the skills you need. Think about who you need to complement your team. If it’s because someone is leaving or due the growth of your startup, be specific in thinking about each member that’s already on staff and their roles/attributes before making any decisions regarding replacements.
Hiring the right people makes your life easier on a day-to-day basis. Look for candidates who not only have hard skills like technical expertise, but also soft abilities such as creativity and adaptability in order to best serve you company’s needs. Last of all hire someone with experience running their own startup because this type environment has high pressure which will test even experienced professionals.