Startup CXO

Chapter 36Recruiting

Your first priority is to work with the CEO/founders/leadership team to create the culture and values that define your company. Once those are established and communicated, you'll need to focus on recruiting. After you've hired your favorite former colleague, your CEO's brother‐in‐law, and your cousin's neighbor, you'll need to figure out where you'll find the rest of your people! Since there's so much work to do to build the People part of the business, it's likely that your first hire will do some recruiting, and your second hire will be a recruiter. You might even get a fractional or contract recruiter, until you know for sure you have enough work for a full‐time role. I strongly suggest that you stay deeply engaged in recruiting efforts at this stage, especially for leadership roles since leaders have a far greater impact on the organization than new hires at other levels.

Thinking about the overall recruitment process, strategy, and approach your organization is going to take will be helpful to do up front. For example, will you have a strong customer service approach with your candidates and hiring managers or will it be a softer touch model? Do you plan to grow in one location or will you be open to employees working remotely or expanding to new geographies where talent pools might be stronger? There are pros and cons of different approaches and there is no one best way, but thinking through the time, resources, and outcomes for your recruitment ...