7 Hiring Hacks Your Startup Should Be Using in 2023

Every business wants to hire talented employees who can take them to a new level. However, hiring new staff is easier said than done. Especially if you’re a startup or a small company with a limited budget and time, recruiting can be a big challenge.

Let’s look at the stats!

According to a survey by the society of human resources (SHRM), recruiting a candidate takes 42 days and $4,000. Can you compete with other employers and leading enterprises with dedicated hiring teams and a budget at your disposal? It’s not possible.

How do you hire good candidates while not spending your entire time and budget filling several positions? The best approach is to be creative with recruitment and follow the hiring hacks that leading startups use.

This blog lists 7 hiring hacks for startups that will help you improve your recruitment process and recruit talented employees faster. Let’s begin:

Top hiring hacks in 2023 to improve your recruitment process as a startup

1. Leverage social media for hiring qualified candidates

Startups primarily use social media marketing strategies to spread brand awareness, promote brand values, and share the company culture. However, you can also use social networking to attract, nurture, and hire top talent because social networking is insanely popular.

The following research shows how using social media for recruitment makes sense:

Do you know what these stats mean? Whether you’re a startup, SMB, or a large enterprise – there’s no shortage of job seekers. If you play your cards right, social media recruitment can be one of the hiring strategies for recruiting high-quality candidates.

Social media recruitment can also be an effective hiring strategy if you’re looking to hire passive candidates. Job seekers are the most active on social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter and can be valuable hires.

Here’s how to leverage social networking for recruiting:

Besides social networking sites, you can use job sites to access remote talent worldwide and hire the right candidates.

2. Optimise your hiring process with data

Each wrong hire can cost you anywhere between $17,000 and $250,000, a significant amount for startups. Hence, you can afford to make a mistake while hiring individuals. You have to find the best talent. Otherwise, it’s game over for you.

But how can you find the perfect candidate? The most efficient way is to leverage data like a candidate’s work history, technical skills, and personal skills to make informed decisions. This information can give you enough idea of whether you should select the candidate.

Another way to leverage data in making informed hiring decisions is to give job seekers assignments to see how they perform under pressure. This way, you can quickly weed out individuals not the right fit for the role.

Always remember that suitable individuals are out there. However, finding them takes work. Data can help you see through the fog, optimise recruitment, and zero in on individuals who fit your organisation. Hence, pay attention to the data, as it can help you make the right recruitment decisions.

3. Use an applicant tracking system to streamline your hiring Process

Some startups believe that applicant tracking systems (ATS) are irrelevant to their type of business. They think these tools are for enterprises receiving thousands of applications on an opening, not for startups where job seekers seldom apply.

It is far from the truth. Hiring is a complicated process. Finalising a candidate for the role takes months of effort, hours spent scanning resumes, and a lengthy interview process. Without an ATS, you would be lost. Your team would have to put their energy into hiring staff, and only a little room would be left for innovation. Hence, you must invest in an applicant tracking system (ATS) to streamline recruitment.

Here’s how an ATS can help you:

Are you looking for the right ATS software? Here’s a helpful guide on  system. Check it out, and you will find the ATS software that best suits your business requirements. 

4. Work on Employer Branding

Employer branding is the best way to attract and hire talent as a startup. Here is how a strong employer brand can help you hire people:

Here are a few tips to help you create a great employer brand that attracts the best staff into your organisation:

5. Schedule Video Interviews for Initial Screenings

Scheduling video interviews for initial screening is becoming increasingly popular in recruitment. It is because using video interviews for initial screenings offers many significant benefits, such as:

Here are some tips for scheduling video interviews that you can follow to nail video interviews during the initial process:

6. Build Talent Pools

A talent pool is a group of qualified professionals and young talent that a company has identified as potential employees for current or future openings. Here’s how building talent pools in your organisation can help:

Hence, it would be best to build a pool of qualified potential staff who’ve already been pre-screened and assessed to fit the organisation’s culture and values. It would help you create your dream team.

Here’s you can create a pool of bright employees:

In short, you must be proactive to create a talent pool in your organisation. It’s not a one-time task but a long-term strategy that can save your startup time and effort in candidate recruitment.

7. Automate the job posting process

Job posting consumes the most time and effort for startups. If you can automate the posting process, you can save a lot of time as you don’t have to post openings to multiple job boards and socialmedia platforms manually. This way, your HR team can focus on critical tasks like candidate screening and assessment.

Additionally, automating the job posting process can:

Here’s how you can optimise the job posting process to save your time and effort while recruiting staff for your company:

Step 1: Identify Platforms for Job Posting

Identify the job boards and social media platforms most relevant to your organisation and where you are most likely to find talented individuals.

Step 2: Choose a Job Post Automation Tool 

Various tools such as recruitment software, applicant tracking system (ATS), and social media recruiting tools can automate postings. Some of these tools are designed specifically for automating the posting of vacancies, while others offer job posting automation as one of many features.

Step 3: Configure the Job Posting Tool

Once you choose a job posting tool, configure it to post openings on your platforms. It may involve setting up platform integrations or manually entering the job posting information into the tool.

Step 4: Create a Custom Job Posting Template

Create templates for your job postings that include all relevant information, such as titles, job descriptions, duties, qualifications, and application instructions. It will ensure that all posts are consistent and have all the necessary information.

Step 5: Schedule Job Posts

Use the job posting tool to schedule your posts in advance and automatically post them on designated platforms at designated times. It can ensure you post jobs at optimal times.

Step 6: Monitor and Optimise Your Job Posts

Monitor the performance of your posts using the analytics and metrics provided by the job posting tool. Use this information to optimise your strategy over time and increase the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts.

In Conclusion

Startups are cool as they offer everyone a lot of exposure and avenues for personal and career growth. However, recruiting can be challenging if you’re a startup owner. It’s like walking on a minefield where one wrong move can cost you business and your brand reputation. Your staff is the backbone of your company. They need to be solid and reliable if they want to achieve success.

The quick hiring strategy hacks we mentioned above gave you enough idea of how you can find and recruit great employees faster. To recap:

Now that you’ve learned how to hire employees as a startup, implement these learnings practically and use them to recruit qualified employees quickly. Best of luck!