Scaling a world class team that’s cohesive and operating at a high level is the hardest thing most companies face. There are various obstacles that businesses must face and overcome. One common obstacle is a lack of resources. When resources to scale are low, growth hack recruiting is a viable resource. Growth hack recruiting promotes the scaling of business as fast as possible without high costs that are typically associated with marketing your brand or using agencies.
So what is a growth hack recruiter?
A growth hacker typically refers to an individual with dual skills in marketing (Gorilla Marketing by Jay Levinson is a must read if you’re learning the basics) and engineering. In return, when hiring a recruiter that knows how to growth hack your business gets an individual who is well-versed in recruiting marketing, and also is well-rounded to interpret the data that comes from recruiting marketing efforts. Marketing efforts are not always a high cost when a business face the beginning phases of expansion, referrals, niche job sites, and recruiting marketing efforts are resourceful to promote growth and track efficiency.
Tips for scaling your team on a budget
An underutilized traditional resource within most businesses is referrals. For most companies, referrals can aid in scaling up to 25 employees or more. But what qualifies as an excellent referral? It is essential to rethink traditional coworker referrals. While coworkers are great referral sources, they are not the only source in which a great referral could stem from. What about previous Managers and Executives? Are they underutilized referral sources?
In short, YES! Managers and executives typically have experienced layoffs, downsizing or keep in touch so they generally have referrals in which most cases they will introduce you to them. A great question to ask someone is, “Who would you work with again that might be looking for a new role?” this drives positive referrals. While the process of referrals seems simple, engaging current employees is an essential component that helps referral systems function. Internal employee referral programs are a great way to engage existing employees.
Rewards for referrals are not always monetary based, however. For companies with tighter resources, recognition goes a long way, and getting to work with your friends is still a significant incentive in itself. If you do all hands meetings, either weekly or bi-weekly, recognizing employees who made referrals helps incentivize others to participate.
Another critical component to growth hack recruiting is networking. Get the word out that your business is hiring and educate your network on what you do. Social media is a great networking strategy you should be using a mix of what you find the most effective for your brand and company (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, etc.).
Some businesses form informational or hiring media that is standard and distribute these messages to company employees to upload onto their social media pages (some Applicant Tracking Systems generate the messages for you).
For social media, informational postings and job postings go a long way. My recommendation is for someone on the team to post a job and have most of the company like it on that platform within an hour. This helps broadcast the message more broadly amongst your entire collective network and supports the post go “mini-viral.”
Another source that’s a freemium model is AngelList. This is the best free job application site there is for a startup. You will get the best quality candidates for free out of anywhere on the web with the least time commitment.
In conclusion, obstacles such as restricted budgets are not the end of hiring for your team. By using some basic growth hacking recruiting strategies in this article, you can help to scale your team on a limited budget.