How to Staff Your Company/Team

When starting at square one with your new team or new company, the first step you should take (besides securing the all important funding) is to look into bringing on the best talent. These are the people on the front lines of your vision, fighting for the future of the product. Here’s a list that looks at a few easy steps you can take to improve your chances of grabbing the best and the brightest in the industry.

Create a compelling job description

One of the easiest ways to attract talent is to spend a little extra time in the beginning and write a well thought out job description. A good job description hould include the following: “sizzle” about the company and its vision, details about the role (not all job titles are created equal, be specific), qualifications for the role, and requirements of the candidate. Have it nicely typed, and make sure to double and triple check it for grammar and spelling mistakes. Little errors in the description itself can often be an unexpected turnoff for those eventually reading it.

Post your job description

There are a million different places to post your job description, but here are some of the most visible in reference to the tech industry: Monster, Dice, HotJobs, Craigslist, CareerBuilder, Jobster and LinkedIn just to name a few. If you’re on a very tight budget, you can still create a fair amount of buzz for the role on Craigslist and LinkedIn alone, though to date, Craigslist still attracts a younger crowd.

Create a referral program

One of the most underutilized resources for talent is referrals from your current employees. Implement a modest referral program that motivates your current staff to bring more good people to the table. Remind them to think of more than their current colleagues – they should think back to prior employments and send out the job description to anyone they might have known previously. Allow employees to claim a bonus of $500 or more, offer gift certificates, allot more vacation time, or give away swag.

Tap your network

Your first lines of defense should always be to reach out to your own network of colleagues and spread the word of your need. Post a request to your LinkedIn account, reach out to previous managers and co-workers, and provide everyone with your job description including bits of word-of-mouth sizzle that they can utilize on your behalf. All of these steps should net you at least a few very decent prospective candidates.

Set aside a budget for recruiting

There are obviously different kinds of recruiting, and both, if possible, should be accounted for. First, some of the initial budget should be set aside for an in-house recruiter. Almost every company makes the mistake of initially assuming that talented candidates will just start flooding through the front door. Your in-house recruiter can be much more - their calls to potential candidates can also be considered initial marketing buzz.

In addition to an in-house recruiter, put aside money for agency recruiters/headhunters. While your in-house recruiter is busy with the HR side of setting up interviews and offers, an agency recruiter has nothing but time to reach out to targeted people you deem potentially great fits. Agency recruiters/headhunters are especially good for high end searches like directors, VPs, and C-level candidates. Additionally, headhunters come in handy when you’re in a high end talent war for hard to find developers and the like.

When all else fails...

It’s time to start getting creative. There are collections of other ways to draw attention to your company, including: utilizing the blogosphere, posting in technology aligned forums, attending alumni/career fairs, and offering such highly sought after benefits as relocation packages, educational reimbursement, and telecommuting. It’s a difficult market presently with so many companies fighting over the same talent. Find ways to make your company or team stand out and you’ll easily be at the top of your potential candidates’ lists.