How to Recruit the Best Talent

Recruiting a solid startup team is a difficult job, especially for startups that are just starting their first year. It's not easy to recruit foreigners who don't know your company at all. It requires certain knowledge and skills that you need to master beforehand.

In a panel discussion held by Plug and Play Indonesia entitled "How to Attract and Recruit Top Talents" at Binus University Jakarta, presenting Kevin Darmawan (Coffee Ventures), Sukan Makmuri (KUDO), Lius Widjaja (Wantedly), and moderated by Nayoko Wicaksono (Indonesian Plug and Play), explores everything about finding the right recruits for the company. Starting from when a founder need to recruit new people, what are the techniques, what should and should not be done, and so on.

Recruitment is about the process of building good relationships

Speakers agreed that the right time to recruit the team really depends on the needs of the company itself. When a company's business starts to grow, it definitely needs additional new personnel to support it. However, what needs to be emphasized is that recruiting is about building rapport.

Whoever recruits you meet, even your own friends, you don't need to convey technical things as is done during the conventional recruiting process. The technique you need to use is to tell a moving story based on your own experience of starting a company.

What kind of dreams, vision and mission do you want to achieve in order to change the lives of many people, as well as the solution you want to offer to an issue that occurs.

"You have to find out how to prove that dream with the business model that you have proven before. That way, you will get the best recruits for the company," explained Sports.

Not only that, you need to have an open conversation even if it's the first time you meet a prospective recruit. You can provoke them by talking about family circumstances, why they are interested in joining your company, if they are accepted, how long is the commitment to work at your place, and others.

Things like this should be discussed from the start, the aim is to provoke an open attitude and two-way conversation. According to Kevin, speaking openly is indeed difficult. But it needs to be needed so that in the future both parties are equally comfortable with each other.

"The point is an open conversation, this is the most important value of a two-way form of communication. Thus, both parties will not worry if problems occur in the future," said Kevin.

The problem that often occurs in startups, Kevin continued, is bickering between people founders. In the end, one of them resigned from the company. Therefore, open and two-way communication should always be applied.

Offer work time flexibility

Even though your startup is just starting out, it doesn't mean you can't provide attractive bargaining power to potential recruits. When the company was bootstrap and the salary is not tempting, you can offer flexibility in working time.

Sports explained, flexibility is an interesting thing for people who have office work time. They can devote their expertise to the company outside of working time.

Beyond that, you can offer about the distribution of shares. This strategy is considered to attract your prospective recruits to help build the company because there is a sense of belonging that has already bound them.

Most importantly, for Sports is that you have to be transparent with everything. Whether it's the distribution of shares, company finances and so on.

Use all sources to get the best recruits

Sukan continued, when recruiting new people, especially to target professionals, his party applies a strategy through referrals from the network they have built, such as recommendations from KUDO employees themselves, or acquaintances. KUDO is also still recruiting through the LinkedIn platform as one of their channels.

"We always take advantage of connections and establish a good relationship with them. We find out for ourselves the criteria for the people we want, they have passion strong with a common vision and mission."

Kevin did the same thing. They often implement strategies through personal connections, then contact prospective recruits directly. This step is quite effective because it can establish a good relationship in the early stages.

Meanwhile, Lius applied the passing way social media referrals has now become a trend to attract millennials. This method has been proven to be used by Wantedly clients in Japan because it is more effective and efficient.

"Social media referrals It's interesting to apply if startups target millennials as potential recruits. This has been proven in Japan, where Wantedly's headquarters are located. The number of workers recruited through social media referrals has increased quite a bit," he concluded.