This lecture covers the human resources policies and practices needed in an entrepreneurial context, including everyone's favorite HR topics: hiring and firing! Find out why it’s so important to plan your human resources early on in the start-up process. Look at the legalities of hiring employees, the process of recruiting and how to manage and pay employees. http://www.marsdd.com/events/details.html?uuid=0cbcbdaa-5d76-442e-861e-7012eb62a403

1. Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

2. business sherpa group
trusted. capable. results-driven
Entrepreneurship 101
Recruitment and
Building Your A-team
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

3. Introduction
GOALS
WHY effective recruitment is critical
WHEN to recruit using a comprehensive plan
HOW to execute an effective recruitment
campaign
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

4. Background
Business Sherpa
 Virtual VP of HR supporting start-ups, early-stage
companies and social venture enterprises
 25+ years of HR experience (10+ years in start-ups)
 HR Professional of the Year Ottawa 2006
 Co-founder of Meriton Networks (optical networking
start-up) from formation to sale 8 years later
 Supporting start-ups in Toronto and Ottawa over past
2.5 years as Business Sherpa
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

5. WHY Effective Recruitment is Critical
Money:
 Always limited
 Over-filling the ranks or hiring poorly will consume your cash
quickly
Geographic Challenges:
 Where you form may not be where your ‘talent’ lives
 Customers will impact who and where you recruit for some roles
Market Window Timing:
 Don’t get multiple shots at hitting the market at the right time –
anticipating vs. reacting even more critical
 Miss-hiring and losing time can be a devastating blow vs. an
annoying inconvenience
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

6. KEY to Effective Recruitment
Recruitment Mantra:
Plan well
Search creatively
Choose wisely
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

7. Financial
Technical
Customer
Milestones
Milestones
Milestones
Milestones
Recruitment
Early Seed Proof of Formation
CEO
PLM
CFO
CTO
(P/T?)
Customer Funding Concept
BD
Lead
HR
(P/T?)
BD/
Series A
Sales
V.1
Customer Product
R&D Sr. R&D
Trials
Year 1
Ready
Marcomms
Company
Launch V.1 GA
Strategic
SE’s
Product
R&D
Revenue
QA Int./Jr.
Strategic
Admin.
Support
Sales
Customer
(Hunter)
Sales Series B
Year 2
V.2
(F/T)
VP
CFO
Sales
Repeat Product
Aim
Sales
+ Margin
Revenue
New
Sales
Accounts
VP
(Farmer)
V.2 GA Year 3
Marketing
Product
Yearly
Accountant COO?
Repeat Revenue
Sales Growth
HR
(F/T?)
Sales
Support
Hire
V.1
New Sustaining
Accounts Series C
Year 4
Repeat Quarterly
Support
Customer
Sales Revenue V.2
Growth Sustaining
PLAN WELL - around key milestones = precision hiring
New
Accounts Year 5
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa
IPO/M&A

8. Ready Aim Hire
Key Observations About Recruitment Milestones
HR Admin.
CEO CFO Accountant COO?
(P/T?) Support HR
CFO (F/T)
Recruitment (P/T?) (F/T?)
R&D Sr. R&D VP
Milestones CTO QA Int./Jr. Marketing
Lead R&D Customer
BD/ Marcomms Sales VP Sales Sales Support
PLM SE’s Sales (Farmer) Support
Sales (Hunter)
Identify Pillar Hires
 Key to success, but timing may differ depending on budget, sector,
market, technology, customers, etc.
Consider Timing
 Recruitment can take from 1 – 3 months; plan accordingly
VP-level Not Necessarily First Hire
 Consider what must get done – do you need a ‘doer’ or a ‘builder’?
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9. Ready Aim Hire
Tight Execution is Key Reactive Recruitment
is not Effective
Position Filled
Recruitment Need
Candidate
Hired
Need arises Job Offered
Ongoing
Ongoing Posting Created References Business
Business Job Posted
Interviews
Scheduled
Resumes Screened Phone
or Forwarded Screening
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

10. Ready Aim Hire
Tight Execution is Key
Focus in on a tight plan in the
context of a big picture
Ongoing
Business
Recruitment
Plan
Market
Knowledge
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

11. Ready Aim Hire
Excellent Recruitment Begins and
Ends with an Excellent Description
Job
Descrip,on
 Provides clarity around what you need
 Becomes an essential filter for automated and
manual search mechanisms
 A guidepost to keep selection on track
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12. Ready Aim Hire
Features of Excellent Job Description
 Clearly articulates ‘table steaks’ skills
 Paints a real picture of the ideal candidate – know what success
looks like and describe it
 Sells the opportunity through role, technology, industry, etc.
 Has a deadline to match recruitment plan
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13. Ready Aim Hire
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14. Ready Aim Hire
SOURCING: Finding Talent – time & $$$
High Cost
Process
Executive Search
Head Hunters Spending more $$$ does
not necessarily reduce
time nor improve results.
Internal HR
Employee Referral
Program
Job Board
Social Networking Employee Trusted Individual
Low Cost Recommendations Word of Mouth Endorsement
Process
Low Credibility High Credibility
Sourcing Sourcing
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15. Ready Aim Hire
Typical Approach: Only reaches individuals
actively looking
Website (maybe?)
Job
Descrip,on
POST Job Boards
Paper
Engage Recruiters
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16. Ready Aim Hire
SEARCH CREATIVELY – can be a strategic advantage:
 With social networking – you can easily reach “passive”
candidates
 Contemporary methods fundamentally change the game plan:
 FROM: Those that cost a lot and reach millions of candidates
 TO: Those that cost little and reach targeted audiences
 User groups
 Business/professional networks
 Professional associations
 Alumni associations
 Etc.
 Print ads – very costly and have limited effectiveness
 Web site – may or may not be an options (stealth vs. launched)
 Word of mouth – ALWAYS USEFUL – employees, advisors, board,
investors, colleagues
 Social networking tools are critical
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

17. Ready Aim Hire
Social Networking has completely changed the game…..
 Previously company phone lists were a protected asset
 Now – access to everyone
 Problem is the clutter has multiplied
 One network can access millions
 Everyone is a ‘friend’ and can recommend a candidate – with no way of
validating the quality of the reference
SO how do you
find and reach
your stars? Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

18. Ready Aim Hire
Best Professional Networking Tool
Pro’s
 Access to millions of professionals in all industries, professions
and geographies
 Career focused
 Provides access to contacts useful beyond recruitment
Con’s
 Access to millions of professionals in all industries, professions
and geographies
 Unreliable filtering of quality candidates
 Adoption just picking up in Canada – network is still light
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

19. Ready Aim Hire
Tips on effectively using Linked In
 Post opportunities – about $150/posting
 Push out to relevant user groups
 Tweet it!!
 Let your contacts know
 Take every opportunity to build network in all geographies and
industries
 Use search capabilities
 Reach out to candidates – customized and personal
 Leverage common contacts, or marquee roles/industries/
technology
 When searching – think about other key hires you can fill
 Update company’s profile – update key events
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20. Ready Aim Hire
Google Ad Words
Pro’s
 Can reach even further
 Can bring candidates right to your career page
 Can measure effectiveness of campaigns
 Very cost effective
Con’s
 Need to understand and learn how to develop solid campaigns
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

21. Ready Aim Hire
CHOOSE WISELY
 Biggest failure in recruiting is to have one to choose
from
 THIS IS NOT A CHOICE!!
 Never stop at the front end of the process (filling the
funnel) until a candidate is hired
 Do not be left in a default position of ‘settling’ on a
candidate
AIM FOR A CHOICE
OF 3
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22. Ready Aim Hire
Choosing is the biggest challenge of all!!
 Who YOU like the best may not be best for the company
 Interview – a balance of asking and selling – hard to know what you
are seeing
 Comparing candidates over a protracted process is difficult to do
 Interviews easily drift off course
 Interviewing is mentally exhausting
 A tendency to like or dislike or suspect or make candidates
comfortable can take away from the evaluation process
 A highly faulty process!!! Be aware of this and plan accordingly.
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

23. Ready Aim Hire
Mitigating the Risks:
 Prepare questions based on the job description – ask questions that tell
you something
 2nd round of interviews can be very telling
1st
Interview:
2nd
Interview:
Company
–
asking
Company
–
selling
Candidate
-­‐
selling
Candidate
-­‐
asking
 Interview several candidates over a couple of days – keep it very tight
 Know your biases and plan around this
 Interview with someone else – so you can mentally rest and evaluate
during interview
 Big believer in ‘testing’ – or putting candidate in-situ as much as possible
 Finally – put your concerns on the table….in fact force yourself to find
some to put on the table
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

24. Ready Aim Hire
Making an offer:
 WAIT – check references first!! ALWAYS
 Do your homework
 Understand where they are at/expectations
 What can you pay
 What is the ‘bundle’ you offer (salary, benefits, options, role,
opportunity, sector, technology) – this is the offer – not just $
$$
 Provide verbal and written offers (make sure you have a solid
employment contract) with a deadline to accept – so you can go
back to other candidates
 Once offer is accepted – keep connected to the candidate until
they are in the door and in seat
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

25. Best Recruiting Tips
PLAN WELL
 know what you need to hire and when
SEARCH CREATIVELY
 $$$ spent ≠ saved time or quality results
 Use all the tools available – be creative
and aim to reach passive candidates
CHOOSE WISELY
 Most effective recruitment has a clear job
description, a tight execution plan, and
results in choices at the end of the process
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa

26. THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS or COMMENTS
Margo Crawfordbusiness sherpa