How to hire the right development team?

The quality and solvency of the team you can form is a more important factor than the idea or project of the company you intend to create. Knowing how to hire and get the right partners and employees who will accompany you on your business adventure will not only give you peace of mind and will make your company prosper. In addition, it may be a determining factor to convince investors about the viability of the company you want to start.

More and more entrepreneurs are realizing that what is truly difficult is not finding capital, but finding and attracting the right talent to develop a team. Among other things, because innovative start-ups are solving problems and satisfy needs that no one else (or very few others) can solve, this implies never-before-seen professional demands. Somehow, true entrepreneurs and their new companies create new jobs that require different profiles. And this is very difficult to find.

Prepare for the challenges

Keep in mind that you should focus more on your team than on the project. The initial group with which the start-up adventure begins is one of the main arguments for obtaining the support of investors. When creating your company you must ensure that it maintains the challenges that permanently motivate who you hire.

Experts ensure that the first developers or collaborators you decide to hire are essential for the future of your company. Furthermore, these first employees will also set the tone for future hires. Your new company must be the breeding ground that stimulates and rewards the challenge. Find developers and collaborators who think differently and revolutionize the organization every day. Assemble a software development team that provides different responses, with the capacity for disruptive ideas to be carried out.

See that your employees continue to believe that the company provides opportunities for professional growth and development. You must cultivate entrepreneurship among teams and offer your employees the ability to lead projects. Take advantage of the opportunity to involve your collaborators in all possible initiatives of the company, and don’t forget that people are seeking recognition. Your startup must offer your developers (current and future) experiences that can exceed any monetary reward.

Don’t be conventional

Look for those who present resumes that reflect unconventional career paths. When forming and managing an effective development team you must be able to manage different personalities. This is one of the main challenges of the entrepreneur.

When signing you must bear in mind that the “who” is much more important than the “what”. This means that the activities that a potential employee has previously carried out in other companies may only be partially applicable to the tasks that they will have to perform in your company. Remember that the past successes of a professional in another organization may not fit in your startup. Do not record the best on paper, but who best suits your company’s culture and objectives.

Flee from mediocrity

The most valuable employees are suspicious of an organization that shows a high degree of tolerance for mediocrity. Prevent the work environment you have created from becoming machinery that promotes the incompetent.

Keep the ‘start-up’ spirit

The culture and special work environment that you have created with your startup should not be lost, even if the company grows. You can maintain the momentum from the first day.

One of the main characteristics of the startup mindset is having clear expectations. Knowing what to expect is essential, especially for your developers. You have to get clear objectives and be very sure of what is going to be done to achieve them.

You must know what you want to do, how you want people to do it, for whom you do it, and why. You need to spend time sharing it with your team, and you need to make sure there is a connection to what your people want to do, how they want to do it, who they want to do it for, and why.

You have to be the boss who communicates, and this should take you in a two-way route between you and your development team. Try to listen to the opinions and worry about the satisfaction of your employees.

As the founder of the company, you must believe in yourself, because you are responsible for your entire organization. You have to demonstrate a high degree of self-sufficiency.

Another part of your mission is to convince your team (current and future) of the success of your project.

Who should not be hired

To maintain the start-up spirit and ensure that your project continues to be associated with speed, agility, new work rhythms, and flexibility means to be a horizontal and collaborative organization, you should avoid apathetic behavior. Avoid the future, where your development team doesn’t know each other like office zombies. Don’t worry if their goals are different from yours. Even then, you must nurture their energy and nurture the entire organization.

Also, forget about those who prefer to work a lot more, but they do not obtain results. You are not looking for a presenteeism organization nor should you encourage this way. Even with your sincere employees, you need to be mindful of their inability to do the job and what is necessary for the company to maintain.

Don’t despise them, but you should openly state their situation and take immediate action.

Never sign those who are not in favor of contributing ideas for a very simple reason: to avoid the situation, where you are tired looking for reasons to execute them. It is the prototype of professionals who do not want to be close to the action (which is essential for a start-up) and who will stay on the sidelines when decisions have to be made.

These types of professionals can do the right thing so that nobody can blame them, but they provide the minimum result. These employees may survive in a traditional organization. But not in an innovative-minded company that pursues the result.

Egocentric, gossipers, time eaters, and stressful guys don’t interest you either.

The former never take others into account, and gossips, along with rumor makers, are the worst employers you can get into your team. Although it is practically impossible to get zero rumor in an organization, you should bear in mind that if this situation of gossip occurs it is because they occupy the place that official information does not cover, and this is an obvious sign that you have problems with communication.

When it comes to time thieves, they are especially annoying in a start-up, because in an organization of this type very strict deadlines should be handled, and action and impact prevail. The overwhelmed person who does not manage time or manage their stress will make the rest of the company sick with their terrible mood.

‘Short-term investments’

The speed at which the labor market is evolving may suggest what some call “short-term investment.” You may be interested in the fact that a large part of your employees can acquire knowledge or develop skills that are quick and immediately applicable (a programming language or innovative technology) even if they have an expiration date.

The career that your partners or employees have studied provides a first entry into the market, but it is necessary to invest in new assets (training, contribution to different projects). The best asset is adaptability, the ability to learn and react to changes.

Know how to fire

Finally, you must bear in mind that just as important as knowing how to hire a dedicated development team is knowing how to fire. Many first-time entrepreneurs tend to hire the wrong people. Persisting in error and not knowing how to dispense with someone who is not worth it is critical.

Food for thought: some useful tips

Making good decisions when hiring the right development team will ensure the survival of your company tomorrow. Therefore, this forms a development team that can go from being the only operator to having an enthusiastic workforce. Follow these four points to guide your path.

1. Be honest about what you can afford

Joining a team isn’t just about sourcing when you need help. Normally, the basic hiring measure for entrepreneurs is governed by economic issues.

Sure, it’s tempting to see the overall budget as a flexible target that can turn into revenue projections and other hopes. It could also be even more tempting to hire web development team, based on the desire to fill in the blanks of an idealized organization chart. But in this case, it’s smarter to set a monetary limit and stick to it. Contract debts based on the current income of your business and not on what you expect tomorrow.

2. Determine your most pressing needs

What is important is that your candidates are always ready to plunge into chaos. Consequently, determine the primary reason why you are increasing your team at this time. Is it because you have too much work and a lack of people? Or is it because you require the help of industry veterans whose experience could carry out your business in the next phase? Answer those questions and make a decision based on it.

Don’t forget that any candidate, regardless of salary, must be able to do the job. If the candidates simply want to lead other people and have no desire to work with a team, that will be a bad bet.

Note: Take into account that C-level employees from large companies are rarely the right ones to join a startup unless they are the founders themselves.

3. Specify the skills you are looking for precisely

Once you have identified the needs they have to meet, ask the candidates if they have been in similar situations and how they were resolved. If it is a person who has problems solved, they will be able to give answers at various levels. And if it is not, they will be stuck in front of any contingency.

4. Make your company philosophy a priority

In addition, the most competent candidate may end up failing if it is not suited to your business philosophy. The work environment can affect the performance of your collaborators. Remember that skills can be learned, but personality is already programmed. Hence, one of the main reasons to hire a dedicated development team for your new venture is to have employees that are capable of adapting your company philosophy and who are highly competent.

Recruiting staff is a key element for the human resources department of any organization that is interested in being a leader in its sector. We have to see some tips to make this part of the human resources selection macro-process a complete success.

What is meant by recruitment in human resources?

Recruitment is the process of attracting people to our selection processes. Attract a sufficient number of candidates for the needs planned and programmed by the company and, also, an adequate profile to those needs and to the job descriptions that are vacant.

Recruitment can be done classically or adapted to new 2.0 tools and collaborative work. Thus, we would define recruitment 2.0 as the process to attract active and passive candidates for our organization, using social networks, specific human resources apps, job portals adapted for mobile phones, etc. 

Recruitment 2.0 has advantages. Normally there is a cost-saving, it broadens the spectrum of candidates that can meet and interact with, and also allows us to contact passive candidates; those people with talent suitable for our company who are not thinking of changing their work environment.

Tips for human resources

Below, we are going to discuss seven aspects that can improve our recruitment processes.

1. Before recruiting and selecting, we must be clear about the type of personnel we will need in the short, medium, and long term. Thus, the recruitment and selection of personnel are nourished by the planning processes and inventories of the human resources of the company. Knowing what we need for the Christmas campaign is urgent, but knowing what profiles of top managers will be necessary for our international expansion in the medium and long term.

2. If we want to attract powerful candidates, the company has to be perceived as an optimal place to work. To do this, working on our brand image as a company and ensuring that employees or potential candidates perceive the excellence of our business culture and your human resources policies and processes are essential. For some years now, lists with the best corporations to work have been published periodically. These lists, in some cases, have become a reference for many workers.

3. You have to pay attention to the recruitment manager of the organization. As we mentioned in a previous post, you must meet the maximum characteristics of the following competence profile:

4. Use a variety of channels to capture applications; but, above all, don’t forget 2.0. Social networks are excellent allies for any selection process. They are a magnificent source of candidates, where, in addition to being able to interact with them, you will be able to know what they are like through their 2.0 dynamics. Thus, as a company, it is essential that we are on Linkedin and that we can also interact through other networks such as Twitter or Facebook, even Tinder may be useful.

5. The recruitment process must always be open. The idea is not to start it when there are open vacancies but to continually look for good profiles. Don’t just look for the traditional ways, broaden your horizons, and stay tuned to other sources.

6. Don’t forget that recruiting = interview. Attracting candidates if we forget to make an efficient selection will not do any good. So look at both processes interconnected:

Set up a rigorous, objective process with optimal tests that guide us to know the candidate, to deepen their skills, and also to assess their degree of adaptation to the corporate philosophy, as well as their possible interests and aspirations.

Do not carry out very long selection processes. Also, don’t hire a development team in a rush. Balance reflection with action, it is always a good formula.

If you cannot carry out the personnel selection process in a solvent way, hire him outside. Many companies are specialists in recruiting and selecting staff.

7. And finally, keep in mind that both recruitment and selection of human resources must be aligned with the objectives of corporate strategies, with their mission, vision, and values, and they must help you build a brand through their processes.

Congratulations: Your new company is gaining momentum and you are ready to hire a development team. Although you already know that this day would come, and how it will be. You may not have thought much about the process. Now you have to do it: building a team means investing a significant part of your operating budget. Hope this article was useful and you will find your dream team!