Author | Anuradha Sharma
There are many dimensions that come into play while hiring the right people for a company. It gets even more complicated when you are trying to find good talent for a growing startup. What are the key things one should look out for? Is there a method to the madness to finding great candidates?
Here at Scienaptic there are a few things we do to ensure we find people that help us meet our goals and create a diverse, creative and talented team.
Nailing the role description
It is imperative that we define what the role is and what the candidate will need to do very clearly. While this should be the standard operating procedure, often many companies get it wrong. A lot of times it is too vague while at other times it is too detailed! We aim to create job descriptions that talk about the company and where we want to go, define role and responsibilities keeping in mind key responsibilities, results to be delivered and reporting structure, qualifications, technical skills and soft skills needed for the role.
Getting to know candidates over time
We believe it is important to get to know candidates over a period and not just during the interview process. Talk with candidates before you put them into a formal interview process, ask about their passions, their goals what makes them get up and seize their day. Understanding candidates and building relationships helps both parties-the candidate to get a clear look at the company and its people and the company to assess at a close level how the relationship will work out. Make it less transactional and more human.
Listening and asking the right questions in the interview process
We keep the interview process centered on the candidate. Listening to what they have to say about case studies we ask them to solve, technical solutions we probe them on and culture fit assessments we make is key to finding out if they have the skills and attitude we need. Active listening allows us to dig deeper and ask questions around skills, experience, problem solving, style, attitude to help make a better assessment on fit.
Clearly articulate the company vision and mission
Our team is aligned on the company message and mission and we articulate the same clearly to all our candidates. The experience created for the candidate when he meets needs to be consistent and is extremely important to us.
Hiring is an extremely challenging and rewarding part of a startup’s journey. It needs an enormous investment of time and energy from all members of the team. To be able to create a smart team we believe one cannot stop looking for the right people.