Are you struggling to find the right talent for your startup? Do you want to learn how to hire effectively without wasting time and resources?
In Buy Back Your Time, Dan Martell offers valuable insights on how to hire for startups. He provides practical strategies for identifying, attracting, and selecting the best candidates to help grow your business.
Read more to explore Martell’s approach to eliminating important but unenjoyable tasks through smart hiring.
How to Hire for Startups
Martell writes that an important step in freeing up your schedule is to transfer tasks that are high-value but drain your energy. These tasks might include marketing your product or onboarding new hires. Because these tasks are more important, you’ll need to hire someone with the right skills and qualifications to do the job effectively. Hiring the right person will free up your time and grow your business, but hiring the wrong person can be costly. So, how do you ensure you find the right person for the job?
(Shortform note: Research suggests that the average cost of a bad hire is 30% of their annual salary, but it can be even higher—ranging from $240,000 to $850,000 per employee. Not only are bad hires costly, but they also damage your company’s productivity, reputation, and culture, which makes it imperative to hire well.)
First, Martell recommends you define the specific requirements and responsibilities of the position. This way, you can hire people who excel at the core tasks of the position and avoid getting distracted and hiring someone who has other appealing but less relevant qualities.
(Shortform note: In First, Break All the Rules, Gallup Press recommends you think about your past and present employees when determining the requirements and responsibilities of any new position. This allows you to clearly define the talents that make a candidate ideal for the role. Think about the qualities of your best employee in that role or in a similar one, then use those qualities to guide you when writing the job description.)
Next, look for candidates who have the skills and traits you’re looking for. Martell suggests you have candidates upload a short video answering several basic questions. This can help reveal their personalities, communication skills, and ability to follow directions. You can also use profile assessments or personality tests to gain insights about a candidate’s traits and how they might perform in workplace scenarios.
| A Word of Caution on One-Way Interviews and Personality Tests While one-way video interviews may be appealing due to their convenience, they also have some drawbacks you should consider: Critics point out that one-way interviews can narrow your hiring pool in two ways. First, many job seekers find this format dehumanizing and impersonal, which can deter potentially promising candidates from applying. In fact, research has shown that 58% of job seekers have declined a job offer due to a poor hiring experience. Second, one-way interviews put people who don’t have good internet or video recording equipment, and those with disabilities, at a disadvantage. Others also argue that one-way video interviews can introduce bias into the hiring process. Without the chance for a two-way conversation, hiring managers may watch these videos and unconsciously judge candidates on their appearance, age, or gender rather than their skills or experiences. This unintentional bias can lead to less diverse and inclusive workplaces. Similarly, some experts advise you to be cautious when using personality tests in hiring, as not all personality assessments are suitable for hiring. In fact, some companies create these assessments to predict job performance but end up exaggerating their capability. Not all of these assessments are created equal—some lack validity (meaning that they don’t measure what they claim to), and others lack reliability (meaning that they may give inconsistent results over time). Therefore, hiring teams should ensure that whatever tests they use are valid, reliable, and highly relevant to the position they’re hiring for. Another possible weakness could be their misuse. For instance, the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator isn’t meant for recruitment processes, but it’s sometimes used anyway. This can result in poor hiring decision-making or even legal consequences. |
Once you’ve filtered the field down to your top choices, assign your candidates a paid test project that reflects the real work they’d do if hired. Martell recommends you give minimal instructions: This will provide candidates with an opportunity to showcase their problem-solving skills and work style.
(Shortform note: What if you can’t afford to give candidates a paid test project? In The Making of a Manager, Julie Zhuo says you can glean helpful insights about a candidate’s skills and problem-solving abilities by looking at their past projects. Look for completed projects that are relevant to the work you intend for them to do at your company.)
Finally, when you’ve found the right person, shift your effort toward convincing them to join your company. Highlight the opportunities and growth your organization offers and clearly communicate how the position aligns with their career goals.
(Shortform note: In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street argue that you must not only convince your candidate to accept the job offer during the interview but also keep them engaged for their first 100 days of employment. Many people reconsider their decision within that window, so the authors recommend you tackle common concerns, which typically include the following: a disconnect between the role and their goals, a negative impact on loved ones, limited autonomy, inadequate compensation, and an ill-fitting work environment. For example, if your candidate has to move to a foreign country and they’re concerned about the work environment, you might offer an introductory foreign language course to address this concern.)
