Successful Start Up And SME Staffing Strategies

28/08/2019

Successful Start Up And SME Staffing Strategies

Starting a new business is not always as easy as you might think. And launching a startup can be even more challenging. It’s one thing to have a great idea – for instance – but we don’t all have the right skill set to make it successful.

At least, not without the right support…

Maybe things are fine right now, but what if you want to scale up operations, diversify – or your business hits unforeseen challenges?

Is there the breadth of knowledge or experience in your start up or SME to deal with that?

You might have a strong operational workforce – but could anyone employed at your business full time really help?

Accessing specialist advice and staying agile

SMEs regularly need to recruit or access legal or financial advice.

Do you have the right support in place to deal with that? And how can your business stay agile – in terms of basic manpower capacity – and expertise?

What would happen if you needed to complete a big project at short notice?

Your business might struggle without enough staff on board – or worse still – lose the opportunity completely. That would be absolutely disastrous – both reputationally and in terms of potential growth and revenue.

So what can you do to mitigate against this?

Hire the right key people

23% of startups fail due to lack of expertise, skills and motivation. So hiring the right people is really important. It’s a great idea to get the right staff in key roles in your startup as soon as possible – and to retain them.

Have extra manpower at your fingertips

Then you’ll need to have extra manpower at your fingertips – to provide specialisms and additional support.

But what are the options…?

Hire agency staff

You could contact employment agencies, of course, but this can prove very expensive, if you’re not careful. And it’s not always possible to source the right number of people with appropriate skills quickly.

Use hiring platforms

You could also try using hiring platforms – these provide access to candidates with a huge range of skill sets nowadays. And support in very specific aspects of running a business. They also screen and test applicants, which is really helpful for you, as a start up or SME owner.

Your area of expertise is not necessarily in HR after all – its in being an entrepreneur – and an ‘ideas person’.

What could this help with?

One area where small businesses can really fall down is in underestimating the need for legal expertise. And that can be a very expensive mistake, believe us…

One option is to employ inhouse lawyers – larger organisations will often do just that. But most startups and SMEs won’t have the finances, or workload, to justify employing someone full time. This gap can, however, be bridged by using, for example, legal recruiters on Recruiterly.

It’s an effective solution that also chimes with current thinking about business agility. So it’s definitely worth considering – as part of any successful staffing strategy.