Dear startuprenuers, make your talent count

Startups are growing exponentially and so is the aspirational value of working in a startup. Freshers from top engineering and management institutes consider working in a startup and not with the MNCs of the world. Seniors in management are also opening up to experiment with the roller-coaster ride of startups.

While many ‘Startupreneurs’ are unfamiliar with the jargon of HR, they are pretty consistent in why someone should come and work for them. Clearly the opportunity to take part in building something new and a creative problem solving is arousing and unsettling people working in steady state companies.

Since for many of the founders it is the first professional experience, they have no norm or a precedence to follow. They are seditious towards the conventional ways of managing people and that is a big differentiator. This is helping them to be innovative and fresh in their thinking of HR strategy and delivery. While large established players are cautiously questioning the relevance of bell curves, the startups have no legacy and easily adopt new practices to get the best from talent.

The biggest future challenge they need to watch out for is how will they sustain this as the teams gets larger, growth explodes in multiple cities, equity becomes sparse and investors get more real with their demands; how will they continue to thrive on the startup culture, which has been their biggest value proposition so far?

Here are a few observations from my experience of working with several startups in India:

What type of energy are you putting out? You attract a mirror image of the energy you give out, so when you complain about attracting the wrong person, you have to thank those people for shedding light on something you may need to change about yourself. It’s about the questions you are asking. It’s about shifting from, “what do you do in your current job” to “what is your biggest passion in life”; from “what is your compensation” to “how do you define growth and success”. It has to be purpose driven, inspired by long term value creation, the pride of building something that does not exist.

Change the focus from “compensation & benefits” to “compensation & experience”. While the money part is important, it is rarely a differentiator in the long term. Every startup will have to respond to “what’s in it for the employee” question. It has to distinguish the organization’s value proposition. This is the shared intent that needs to be established before you start hiring beyond the founding team. Think about what parts will remain consistent as you grow from a ten member team to a thousand member team. People don’t come to work calculating the value of their equity every day - if that is the case then you are setting a dangerous culture.

Diversity needs to be your biggest advantage. Your employees need to reflect the diversity of your customer base, rather than simply mirroring the personality type of the business founders. To build a successful business, begin by understanding the personalities and personas of your customers. Corporate culture needs to value respectful debate, conflicting voices and differing perspectives. Employees who take the initiative, challenge the status quo and collaborate to get the work done are your rockstars.

Stay small in your head. There is a fundamental difference between an “Owner” and a “Founder”. Your biggest pull is the fact that you are a startup. Preserve that as you grow big. Most organizations tend to become cautious and risk averse as they grow and lean on the conventional wisdom to solving problem.

Running a startup is a marathon and not a sprint. The startupreneurs, with their spirit and risk taking ability, are inspiring us and making us chronically optimistic about the future of India. We need to make sure that we build our ventures to grow into the large caps of today and not just get them ready for a great valuation and an eventual buy out. How you invest in people capability and culture will be one of the important things that will make this journey more rewarding and long lasting.

(The article has been authored by Sandeep Chaudhary, CEO, Aon Hewitt)
(Image: Thinkstock)