When you decide to venture out of the box and start a business, whether it be a new innovation or a long dream of owning a bakery, there’s a lot of important considerations to make about what goes into making your business be a success. Of course on that list of considerations is employees, but what you might not realize is how important your employees, and specifically their talent, are to the success of your start-up. So, in order to have a strong and prosperous start-up you need to attract the right kind of talent when hiring employees and from there you need to know how to hold onto those talented individuals. There are many proven ways to hold onto talent in your business, especially as a start-up, such as having a strong culture and a purpose for employees to get behind, having a work environment that motivates and matches your purpose, and knowing how to incentivize your talent and continually be the most attractive workplace to your people.
Have a Purpose and a Culture
One of the most vital aspects of any business is culture, as an established firm or a new start-up having a strong culture that resonates well with your employees is key. Culture itself is in large part affected by your company’s purpose. Making both essential, and not only essential to good business, but also to retaining your talented employees. Research shows that people are attracted to start-ups because they feel they will be a part of something bigger and something good. In the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2016 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report, they found that employees that feel they are a part of something that is working for the greater good and aren’t just looking forward to the monthly paycheck, have significantly higher levels of satisfaction with their job and company. Having a culture that shows your business has purpose and a mission is appealing to people, especially in younger generations. As a start-up chances are you can’t provide the hefty paychecks that many people desire, but you can offer something big to employees, you can offer a mission and purpose to their work and allow them to see a company grow before their eyes while they say they were a part of it. That right their is what will keep the talented people you need working for you, which makes keeping the purpose strong and culture clear so crucial to your success.
Create the Proper Environment
Culture is very closely tied with the work environment. Employees that are happy and feel connected with their peers and company because of a strong culture are very likely to create a better work environment. Most of the things that will make your company’s work environment better and desirable will also do the same for your company culture. For example, having a collaborative and friendly environment that encourages questions and suggestions from any employee, you will also encourage a culture that supports and values those things. Those things will be what attracts the talent you want as a start-up, and also help retain that talent as the company and your employees grow.
Use Incentives and Create an Attractive Workplace
Having the proper work environment and culture will also help in providing an attractive workplace to your employees. Environment and culture are top priorities in helping your business hold on to the talent your company needs, it’s not always enough. By adding incentives to your employee package you’re covering all your bases for attracting and maintaining talent. Incentives can be many different things, from incentives to join to incentives in the work of your employees they’re all important and beneficial to your people and your company. Some incentives to join the company could be good insurance packages or a signing bonuses. Although as a start-up you may not be able to provide those kinds of motivators. This makes incentives for completing work and projects or reaching company goals essential to your business. These incentives don’t need to be big, especially as you’re building your company. They could be as small as bringing in lunch for your employees after hitting a sales goal or getting needed funding. All in all, incentives complete the package of what you need to do as a start-up to attract and maintain the talent that will allow your company to flourish.
Overall, owning a business can be a very exciting and rewarding endeavor, but if you want that business to succeed your employees are key. In order to have the best employees possible for whatever you’re trying to pursue, you have to provide an attractive place to work. Once you get those employees you need to hold onto that valuable talent by having a strong and supportive culture in a friendly and forgiving environment, and incentivize them to stay in whatever way works best for your company and employees. Always keep in mind that your business is only as good as the people that build it.
Works Cited
Bagley, Rebecca O. “7 Tips For Startups To Attract And Retain Top Talent.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 Sept. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccabagley/2014/09/08/7 -tips-for-startups-to-attract-and-retain-top-talent/.
Elfond, George. “3 Ways for Startups to Hold on to Talent – Village Capital – Medium.” Medium, Augmenting Humanity, 3 July 2017, medium.com/village-capital/https-medium -com-elfondg-three-ways-for-startups-to-retain-their-human-capital-6b47e293dd24.
Tank, Aytekin. “9 Ways to Recruit the Best Talent for Your Startup.” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 15 Feb. 2017, www.entrepreneur.com/article/287574..