How Can I Leverage HR Skills to Boost Success in a 50-Person IT Startup?

Dear Members, please suggest how I can utilize my human resource skills to contribute to the success of the IT startup company I represent, which currently has a headcount of around 50. Apart from recruitment, what other HR practices and policies can be implemented in the initial stages?

Best Regards,
Gangadhar M
"Nothing is written until you write it"

Addressing Employee Retention Challenges in Small IT Companies

Since your small company of 50 employees is in the IT sector, first identify the challenges that confront companies of your size in IT. To my knowledge, employee turnover is a nagging problem for you, and thus, retention of employees is a challenge for you. Develop a plan to address this problem. Initiate employee engagement activities to promote a sense of belonging and motivation among employees. Ensure that employees receive their statutory benefits like P.F., ESI, and gratuity. Design a proper incentive and reward scheme to recognize the performance of the employees. Listen to the employees to make them feel part of the business.

Regards,
B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Mumbai

I request you to consider the following areas as you build the HR in your firm.

1. Streamlined Processes

The processes should be few, with a short workflow. Ensure that you keep them agile. Suppose the recruitment might be initially sourced by you and then delivered by the top management. Try to train a next level of interviewers and a parallel decision-maker so that nothing stops when one leaves.

2. Focus on Attitude

Stay focused on the attitude of the talent you hire. A small organization would require fewer people managing tasks in every area, often in more specialized areas. A candidate who joins your firm for a fixed task list might not be able to fit into the mold.

3. Entrepreneurial Viewpoint

Look for talent with an entrepreneurial viewpoint. This would make it easy to develop them further. Check how many training programs the candidate might have attended, investing on their own budget.

4. Potential and Trainability

Check for potential. Identify the trainability of the candidate rather than past records.

5. Transparency and Engagement

While managing your existing employee base, please stay completely focused on maintaining transparency. You will require a very high level of engagement with your employees. This can only be achieved if you make sure they trust you.

6. Training and Development

Training and development will work entirely based on requirements. Constantly look out for cross-training. Skill gaps are lethal when you are managing fewer employees.

7. Respectful Employee Exits

Employee exits will perpetually remain sensitive. Please make the process as respectful as possible, no matter what happens. Your employees will never become your ambassadors if you don't make one out of them.

8. Compensation and Motivation

Compensation is a requirement. Motivation often comes from the job content and the option to work up to one's best potential. An employee is destined to leave; make sure you have helped the employee grow during the tenure. This will help you more than it will help the employee.

Please share if these suggestions are a misfit for your requirement. I look forward to your feedback.