The mental burden of hiring the right people is high!
This week’s guest had a really interesting journey into the world of recruitment. She initially got rejected for her first role with an agency for being “too corporate”. Undeterred, Neeta Sharma called them back the next day and said, “I wanna work here!”. Neeta then guided us through her thoughts on the key requirements for hiring the right people and hiring well for start-ups. She tells us,
“In a start-up, what you need from your people changes very quickly.”
Neeta’s journey to the UK tech start-up scene started in Canada. She worked for enterprise-scale investment management companies and a prominent consultancy. This period was very valuable as she learn’t from “True HR Business Partners.” Fast-forward to 2020. Neeta has worked with a host of start-up companies including YoYo Wallet, JudoPay, Cloudbanter, miDrive, and EdgePetrol, and is now the CHRO for a successful InsurTech called INSTANDA which has over 80 employees.
We ask Neeta what she thinks are the main differences between large-scale corporates and start-ups. Neeta’s answer
“You need crazy people to join you in the first 4-5 people, once you hit 10 people, you need people that understand emotions and learn from those emotions. You don’t need people that are emotional”.
In the start-up environment, her opinion is that “people think all start-ups are the same, that would mean all companies are the same and that’s just not correct!”.
You want attributes that are excellent!
As we delve further into the topic, Neeta expels a few other myths about start-up life. “The amount of work you do in a corporate or a start-up is the same, if you’re a person that innately works hard, you’re going to work hard – it’s the type of work”.
On start-up leadership “you need a leader that see’s the long game and understands the value of 1). Training people and equipping them for success 2). Recognising when it’s time to go”. Some might think this is a controversial statement, however, Neeta argues that self-awareness is so important, and that promoting an environment where “you want people to realise the best version of themselves” is a key to successful scaling of a business.
As a final piece of advice for in-house recruiters in start-ups, Neeta tells us that you need to
“Love people, and be really organised!”.
If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Neeta talk about:
- Self-learning and curiosity as keys to success
- Recruiting for infancy teams
- Recruiting assessment tools for start-ups
- Tips for values-based interviewing
- The importance of hiring for emotional intelligence
- Promoting health and well-being in a start-up
