Where do startup companies find employees?

**staufs** · 08-01-2007 03:04 PM

I'm looking for the best strategies for finding people for my startup company. What have you found was the most effective?

**anuragsharma** · 08-02-2007 12:31 AM

Do you have enough funds to hire people? If yes then I guess there are lots of job sites that you can check out as an "Employer". If not, then probably you can talk to freelancers around and keep them in buffer so as to whenever there is work you can spill it over to them and get it done.

But a lot depends what kind of startup company you have.

**sniping4dummies** · 08-02-2007 01:35 AM

Here is an article I wrote about finding help through online job portals:

http://www.ucbjournal.com/?p=125

As far as finding talent, it really depends on your industry. I'm going to look a very different place for a programmer than I'm going to look for a forklift operator, etc. So what kind of employees do you need?

**zoobie** · 08-02-2007 03:18 AM

It depends if you want to hire full time or freelancers and pay them on per output basis. That depends on your fund for your future staff, too. Best of luck!

**staufs** · 08-02-2007 08:30 AM

In general, I'm trying to stay away from the standard job sites (Monster, Careerbuilder, HotJobs, etc.) and there are a thousand other niche sites out there, but none that seem to appeal to startup-minded people. Any thoughts on the best places you find them (maybe colleges are the best place)?

Thanks,
Jeff.

**criniit** · 08-02-2007 12:14 PM

When my roomate started up his business, he went to the local college and arranged an internship for students there. Was a source of cheap labor, and plenty of people to choose from.

**sniping4dummies** · 08-02-2007 09:25 PM

I tried using college as a hiring source. Maybe the college I'm near (TN Tech University) just isn't up to scratch, because I interviewed, either in phone or person, 30 people for a programming position, and never found ANYONE with the skills qualified to be a part of my team.

I'm a firm believer that the absolute best place to find THE PERSON is on the internet.

**tsbales** · 08-03-2007 05:28 PM

In our business, we advise our owners to look for people that give them good service in their local community. We are a service experience business.

As mentioned in posts above, it depends on what line of work you are looking to hire for. No matter what industry though, referrals could be huge as you start up. Find that key person that you would like to hire and if he/she can't come to your startup, ask them who else might be available.

**Terra Andersen** · 08-04-2007 07:27 PM

Agreed, it depends on your business. A large portion of anyone I have ever used has come from word-of-mouth from my own networks. This helps, because referrals usually turn out to be the best employees. (make sure they aren't friends or family though!)

**tsbales** · 08-06-2007 12:13 PM

I read an interesting article awhile back about several hotel chains who would only hire family and friends...and they were getting really great results. It seems that family groups at work in that environment encouraged each other to show up and work really hard. It's an interesting concept of getting that first really great worker and then seeing if they have any family who might want to come along side and help with the growth of the company. This seemed to have special merit if the labor pool you are hiring comes from a culture that values hard work and family.