Finding company fit for your startup team

by Startacus Admin
Finding the right company fit for your startup team...
Last month we finished our 'Recruiting for your Startup’ series with a post on the options you have once you’re at interview stage.
One of the previous posts featured key pointers you’d want to consider when creating a job description, including identifying the main criteria that you’d deem to be necessary for your job vacancy.
Apart from the main criteria, you’ll often hear recruiters and HR folk talking about the importance of the 'company fit' when finding a new employee.
But how do you measure company fit? And how do you make sure that your new recruit adheres to this?
It’s pretty important to get this right - especially since as a startup, you may have fairly limited resources on the HR side of things. With this in mind, here are a few of the basics you should consider:
Company fit does not equal discrimination
Let’s get this clear - matching the right person to your job requirement, also means having and keeping an open mind. It certainly doesn't mean discriminating or shortlisting out a certain type of person. The best types of companies are the ones that fit all the best people into their company - now that is a company fit! Go into this process with pre-conceived ideas on the type of person and personality that you are likely to recruit and you are likely to be recruiting...to fail. If you aren't familiar with the what the legalities of employment law and what constitutes employment discrimination, then, no matter where you live in the world - get on the case with this now.
Do their values match yours?
If you are looking for a new recruit for the long term and someone gives the impression that they are in it for the short term, you have to really consider if this person is the best company fit for you, regardless of their CV, skills, experience etc.
Salaries in many startups are also typically often lower than the average salary you could find being employed by an established business. Therefore you’ll need to work out what motivation and incentives you can offer the chosen applicant to work for your startup and also that potential candidates can demonstrate passion, drive and interest too.
Matching gaps and key skills
As a startup you most probably have only a handful of staff. There is a strong chance therefore that you will all be pretty adept at multitasking. As well as finding someone who is flexible and willing enough to do this, you’ll also need to identify what key skills and talents are lacking in your current team and in turn recruit a new team member based on what your company needs most.
Within such a close knit team, it can be really useful to have a person on board who is proficient in passing on skills and knowlege to other members of staff. There are special 'train the trainer' courses available which ensure that someone in your startup is professionally trained in how to do this effectively.
Working culture
If you love to go out and party as a team 3 nights a week and you are considering recruiting someone who openly admits to being a total home bird, you’ll need to work out if this is fine with your team or whether it may result in alienation. Of course for many of us that should not matter, but to others it might. You might also need to consider how said new recruit might fit in with the rest of the team - could there be personality clashes, or a lack of chemistry that could affect the current team and its work balance?
Letting your staff shape the company fit
Best possible solution to this ol’ ‘company fit’ melarkey is just to realise that your staff are responsible for shaping the overall company fit. The moment you start to try and shape the characters that work for your company is the moment that you could potentially miss out on a new hire who despite being very different from your existing team, could end up adding that extra little spark that could help make your startup fly.
If you like what you see here on Startacus, why not become a member of our growing community? It's free! And you'll get all this - exclusive access to our Business Toolkit, discounts and offers galore for your business via our member only business deals, the chance to network and connect with loads of fellow self-starters, and maybe even become our celebrated 'Self-Starter of the Week' and tell the world your startup tale! Join right here for free
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
How to select your best ideas and take them forward - Chris Thomason, Founder of Ingenious Growth shares 5 tips to help you do just that.

Early stage VC fund Anamcara led by Female Solo GP Closes $10.6M Seed Fund to Invest in Founders Building Defining B2B Software Companies

Want to ensure your startup runs smoothly? Hamid Bagherzadeh, Legal expert and Co-Founder of LegaMart shares insights on the legal contracts that will help you do just that.

Koala, the innovative travel insurtech startup, secures investment to fuel its growth in Europe, expand its team and build additional travel protections.

The best early stage tech startups from across the UK revealed in Tech Nation’s final Rising Stars competition.

Over 100 organisations come together via The Micro Business Alliance to help provide a voice for the UK's startups, micro businesses and small businesses.

The lowdown on London-based hearing wellness startup Mumbli and its mission to help businesses provide inclusive spaces for all hearing abilities and preferences.

Tech Nation calls for tangible support to secure capital, talent, growth and exits needed to accelerate the growth of UK tech in decade ahead.

Glasgow-based This is Milk seeks investment for Neve Learning, its cloud-based Ed-Tech platform that has inclusivity and accessibility at its core.

With the UK facing a clear digital skills gap, Amy Caton, Digital Talent and Impact Senior Manager at BT Group shares some insights on what businesses should do to close that divide.
Published on: 17th December 2013
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.







- Anamcara launches $10.6M seed fund to back new wave of business tech 30th Mar 2023 Early stage VC fund Anamcara led by Female Solo GP Closes $10.6M Seed Fund to Invest in Founders Building Defining B2B Software Companies
- Travel insurtech Koala raises €2m to accelerate its growth 29th Mar 2023 Koala, the innovative travel insurtech startup, secures investment to fuel its growth in Europe, expand its team and build additional travel protections.
- Tech Nation announces the 10 winners of its latest Rising Stars competition 29th Mar 2023 The best early stage tech startups from across the UK revealed in Tech Nation’s final Rising Stars competition.
- Micro Business Alliance launches to represent 75% of the UK’s businesses 28th Mar 2023 Over 100 organisations come together via The Micro Business Alliance to help provide a voice for the UK's startups, micro businesses and small businesses.