Hiring new recruits for your startup company is never easy. As the founder of a new venture, you’re likely spending most of your time trying to secure funding and looking for business opportunities so your fledgling company can grow. Hiring might be the furthest thing from your mind, but eventually all startup companies realize it’s time to bring in talented new recruits.
However, hiring top talent on a tight startup budget is far from a simple task. It can also be a time-consuming prospect. As a startup founder, you still have to focus on growing the company and coming up with smart business ideas. You don’t want to spend all your time hunting top talent when you could be scaling your business.
This is where the video interview can really help startup founders become successful entrepreneurs. By cutting down the traditional hiring process, the video interview can help founders connect personally with top talent faster, saving time and money in the process.
Before we look at some of the ways using the video interview can help successful entrepreneurs, let’s first look at some of the hiring challenges facing startup companies:
Startup Companies and Finding the Right Candidates
Successful entrepreneurs know you need more than great business ideas to grow into a strong company. Eventually, success will require bringing on a team to help with the day-to-day functions of your new startup.
- Know when to hire. One of the biggest mistakes made by startup companies is premature scaling. All the business opportunities in the world won’t matter if you rush into hiring before you’re ready. A recent survey discovered 74 percent of startup companies failed because they decided to scale too soon. Before jumping into the hiring process with both feet, ask yourself if it’s really time to bring more people into the company.
- The startup recruitment forecast is looking sunny. There’s not a cloud in the sky when it comes to the startup recruitment forecast, especially for tech startups. A survey found a whopping 87 percent of tech startups planned to hire new people in 2013.
- Tech talent in-demand. Among startups, tech skills are the most highly sought after. Of new businesses looking to expand their workforce, only 17 percent were looking for management, marketing, or sales, while 40 percent were searching for tech experience.
- Desperately seeking highly skilled candidates. The biggest problem facing successful entrepreneurs looking to bring on new talent is the skills gap. In fact, nine in 10 of the survey respondents found it hard to find candidates with the skills needed for their open positions.
The Video Interview: Creating Business Opportunities for Startup Superstars
So how can the video interview help startup companies hire the best without missing out on important business opportunities? Here are some ways:
Video Interviews Save Money
Good company leaders are always looking for new business opportunities, especially when it comes to funding. You might end up spending much of your time looking for angel investors or navigating complicated business startup loans.
After the funding shuffle, you certainly don’t want to lose money in the hiring process. And startup recruitment doesn’t have to be an endless process: Video interviews save valuable time and money by shortening the traditional hiring process for cash-strapped founders.
For instance, one-way video interviews can save plenty of time in the recruitment process. In a one-way interview, written questions posed by employers are answered on video by candidates. Studies have shown employers can watch 10 video interviews in the same amount of time it takes to do just one phone screen.
In a startup environment, time is money. Spending less time connecting with candidates all wrong for the job will save founders plenty of cash they can invest back into the business.
Connect Personally and Focus on Company Culture
Company culture is essential when it comes to startup recruitment. As a founder, it’s your job to create the personality, environment, and company culture of your startup. Whether you’re just beginning to hire or you’re a recruitment pro, it’s important to keep company culture in mind while looking at top prospects.
Why? When it comes to small businesses, 46 percent of new hires fail within the first 18 months and 89 percent of the time this is due to poor company culture fit. Knowing how expensive employee turnover can be, it’s important to focus only on the candidates who can make a positive contribution to your startup.
Video interviews allow you to connect faster and more personally with great candidates. If someone doesn’t impress in a one-way video interview, you can easily move onto the next talented candidate.
Plus, video interviews allow you to cross great distances and still connect. With live video interviews, you can talk in real-time with talent all over the globe, helping startup founders easily jump the skills gap.
Finding the right candidates for your new company isn’t easy, but you need the best and brightest to turn your business idea into a thriving company. Video interviews can help startup founders turn into successful entrepreneurs by helping you assemble the very best team.