The people you hire for your team can be the make or break between success and failure. This is particularly true for smaller businesses and startups operating on smaller budgets, tight timelines and in a hugely competitive talent marketplace.

Hiring the right people early on can help boost your company from small fry to big gun, but if you rush the process and don’t do due diligence to your recruitment efforts, you could find yourself hiring the wrong people. This is not only a huge waste of time and money, but could also set your efforts at building your startup back in a bad way.

As a global leader in online recruitment, Monster has been dedicated to innovating new and targeted tools to help employers at businesses of all sizes locate, attract and hire the talent they need. But no matter how you hire, there are a few key tips you should follow if you are a small company looking to expand your headcount.

Are you clear about what you’re hiring for?
In a small business or startup environment, it can be difficult to clearly outline people’s roles and responsibilities. This is often because the culture of startups can be relatively fluid and less structured. It’s an enticing vibe for many candidates, but it can backfire on the business if you haven’t been clear from the start with what you need and what you’re looking for from an employee.

From the moment you list a job vacancy, you need to know what you want to offer and achieve. This goes beyond compensation and soft skills – in a startup, candidates can gain an incredible amount of experience in a short period of time. They get to learn from the top and have direct access to the CEO, and they feel as though they can share their ideas and strategies. Being clear on what their job entails is of paramount importance to ensuring you’re making the most of this niche talent while helping them fit into your culture and company growth plans.

Are you searching in the right places?
The best candidates for your startup might not hang out in the same places as those who would be suitable for an MNC role. Especially if you are a new brand with little awareness, your small business isn’t going to have to same pull as a larger company with strong employer branding and candidate attraction. It doesn’t mean the right talent won’t want to work for you, it simply means you might have to work a bit smarter to locate the talent you need.

As a startup employer, you should be frequenting conferences, networking drinks and other events that could potentially put you in front of desireable candidates. It’s a softer approach, but nevertheless important. Online, job portals can be your best bet, especially if you take advantage of key tools designed specifically to help connect small business employers and niche talent. Monster.com has a range of dedicated tools for this purpose, and also helps customers enhance their job postings with Monster Social Jobs, which targets and amplifies reach across social media channels to connect with the right people.

Competencies are important, but culture is key
Aptitude counts for a lot, but attitude could be the make or break for a small business. Skills and talent are important for a small and growing company – especially in those roles where you really need someone to jump in and get to work right away – but often, competencies can be taught over time. Things like attitude, personality and work ethic are inherent traits within candidates that cannot (often) be changed.

Make sure you have the means the properly assess a candidate’s personality from the get-go. Do their values align with your company’s? Will their personality mesh well with the rest of the team? Are they likely to want to ‘dig in’ and help out in other areas of your startup as it gets off the ground? Ensure you have a process for testing whether a candidate will fit in with your startup. It could be something as simple as getting your team on board for drinks and seeing how they interact, or it could be through a test or set of questions designed to delve into someone’s personality.

The startup space is small and nimble – you might find your best people through referrals as well, but don’t let this overtake a solid recruitment process.

Slow down
The pace of startups is fast, fast, fast… but if you don’t take a step back to view your hiring strategy as a whole, you could end up making some very hasty recruitment decisions. Yes, you might need staff right this second, but rushing the process won’t do you any favours and will likely cost you time and money in the long run.

Take your time and follow a stringent hiring process – and don’t deviate from it. Your people are your most important asset, so treat your recruitment methods with the utmost respect.

Use the right tools and platforms
Take a look at the tools out there designed to help you recruit and use them to your advantage. Build a network of potential talent, interview regularly, and keep a virtual backlog of candidates you can stay in touch with and follow – even if you can’t hire them right now.

Social media is also an incredibly useful tool to complement your online hiring efforts. You can use social platforms to target both active and passive candidates through Monster Social Job Ads, for example, which can help you target and match candidates that fit your specific criteria.

The article was originally published in The Strait Times