Startup hiring is tough

Hitting the right chord in terms of attracting, hiring, and retaining the right candidate is very crucial for any business. But it's difficult nowadays when the gap between demand and supply side of skilled talent is increasing continuously.

Hirings for startups is even more difficult given the fact that they are low on budget, and they have to compete with the deep-pocketed rivals in attracting skilled talent.

Potential employees look for a host of aspects while opting to work for a startup. Alignment with the vision and story of founders, a problem that the startup is solving are some aspects that matter. But they also have concerns for their salary, which remains unpredictable as 90% of startups have a shelf life of 2-3 years.

Current solution and its shortcomings

In these challenging times, startups and SMBs can either opt to outsource their work or hire freshers and train them.

Both options have their flip side. Outsourcing comes with a risk of losing Intellectual Property or the secret sauce of the startup to some outsider. In the same way, it happened in the advantage of Facebook and Microsoft previously.

While hiring freshers would mean startups have to wait for at least six months before getting something out of them. And by the time the freshers become skilled enough, they jump their ships to some other company on getting a good salary offer. 

Employer Branding as a solution

The best way out for startups to attract and retain talent is by branding themselves as a company that will create a positive impact on society. Or by promoting their image as a growth-oriented company for its employees. It works excellent for unicorns or startups with a strong market presence like Paytm, OYO, etc.

But it helps very little for a startup still looking to get its chunk of share in the market. The majority of the candidates with apt skills and experience always look for an excellent monetary hike than their previous job.  

Acqui-hiring and Employee sharing

One of the modern methods of hiring for tech companies is acqui-hiring, wherein a company is acquired primarily to acquire or recruit its employees. 

It leads us to the next best solution for startups. To co-hire a skilled and experienced employee on sharing. The benefits remain somewhat the same as in acqui-hiring. A startup hires an employee from a company at almost half the original salary.

There is no need to scrutinize or verify the background of a candidate. And best of all, a shared employee gets more exposure to diverse projects and skillsets in the market.

Benefits of Employee Sharing

Hiring employees on sharing not only reduces the burden of the entire salary of the employee but also helps in upskilling the current workforce in the startup. While for employees, it remains a full-time job with a salary at par with any corporate-level job.

It also helps in retaining an employee who is willing to jump ship to another job due to salary concerns. Startups can list their existing employees to co-hire with another employer on sharing.

Sharing employees gives the benefits of both traditional jobs as well a freelancing. With the governments of Australia and Hungary promoting it as the third mode of employment, it is going to be the future of jobs.