How to Build a Startup Team — Course Highlights
Fred Wilson, a successful venture capitalist based in New York, once said, “Building product is not about having a large team to manage. It is about having a small team with the right people on it.”. This manifests the importance of building the right team for a start-up to be able to move forward.
The team of a start-up is integral to ensuring its success. It won’t be easy to get far without the right team, even with a great idea and solution for society. The company will progress further and find itself on the right track to success with the right team. The right team will support and motivate one another to further support each other along the way. Being able to press on in the face of difficulty is an important quality to have. If the team cannot hold on tight and work well with each other, they will be phased out by other competitors in the industry.
The 1996 Mount Everest disaster where nearly a whole team was wiped out is one to remember. Rob Hall, the expedition leader, had wanted to redeem himself as he had a previous failed expedition. Additionally, he had wanted to boost his brand and yearned to be revered in the world of mountain climbing. Unfortunately, the wrong people were sourced for the expedition. They were poorly trained and had little to no prior experience in mountain climbing. There were also various logistic issues from the team who failed to prepare well and help one another. As a result, eight people had died in a single team from the original team of 19 individuals.
People are studying how an expedition could have gone so wrong and hope to improve on it. Therefore, hiring the right people is important to avoid unimaginable losses. Undercover Recruiter found that a start-up can suffer up to USD240,000 losses when a bad hire is made. The expenses are spread across training, hiring process and pay. Thus, for a start-up to avoid such unbearable costs, it is important to be familiar with the process of hiring.
Frictional unemployment is a challenge to overcome, but it can be done. Through this course, we hope to equip managers better to hire the right applicants into the company.
In this course,
01. Understand the importance of having a well-structured process for hiring and recruitment
Without paying attention to the hiring process, the start-up can suffer from unnecessary high financial costs. Additionally, time and effort were put in to train the wrong person for the start-up. It is even worse if they choose to leave the company because its efforts have come to nought. This will lead to delays in organisational growth and the completion of projects. The company will appear unable to handle any projects and seem untrustworthy.
02. Identify the correct gaps that your company may be facing
We will first look at the core members of the start-up as they are the main drivers of growth. The responsibilities they have will differ from that of the regular members, and they have the responsibility to ensure that the start-up becomes a scale-up.
Next, we will delve into the different roles a member in a start-up play. We will use the Belbin model to explain. The Belbin model has been revered by many start-ups and is highly used. It has helped many companies to be able to identify gaps and hire the right person in the team. The Belbin model also enhances the company’s communication process and helps people be able to get the right message across.
03. Be familiar with the recruitment process
By using the Belbin model, the company can conduct a needs analysis that outlines the knowledge and skillsets that the company needs. Then, using the information at hand, craft a job description to be advertised and posted on various job portals. Upon receiving the resumes, we can start to filter based on the ideal qualities to have. After studying the resume, we can also craft the interview questions and ask the right questions to understand the candidate better. Lastly, we offer the ideal candidate and reject the rest only upon receiving confirmation of onboarding.
04. Learn when to dismiss and reward an employee
You will learn how to use KPIs for both the team and employees. KPIs are a great way to track how the team is doing and take the appropriate actions for the company to propel itself forward.
Using the KPI, we can access the employees and look at who should be on the team. To show what type of rewards should be given, we use Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to show the different levels of rewards an employer can give to their employees.
Only by giving the right rewards to motivate can we persuade the employee to stay on. On the other hand, a reward is meaningless if it does nothing to incentivise the employee to work harder and stay on. The employee may leave the company without appropriate incentives, and another start-up could be reaping your profits.
What is going to be covered
- Importance of the right team
- Costs of a bad hire
- How to recruit and select team members
- Understanding the core team
- Understanding team roles
- Conducting interviews
- Managing team performance
- Various KPI
- How to reward and retain talent
Learning Resources
- (Excel) spreadsheet — Offer Letter Template
- (Excel) spreadsheet — Rejection Letter Template
- (Excel) spreadsheet — Interview Checklist and Scorecard
Suitable For?
- All business owners or entrepreneurs currently intending to start hiring their team
- Managers who are looking to embark on a recruitment process
- Aspiring entrepreneurs or start-up founders researching how a start-up process should be like
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:
- Understand how to recruit the right people to have a formidable team
- How to choose the right people
- How to manage your team’s performance
- Giving the right rewards to retain your talented employees
Visit this link on Xprenia to enrol in this course today!
