Successful startups don’t just win because they’re lucky. They beat the odds because they get things right a lot, especially the things that really matter. One such thing is hiring exceptional talent. These ventures have clear principles for recruiting employees and go the extra mile to find and onboard outstanding candidates.
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There’s more to this than just guaranteeing hefty paychecks. In fact, it’s frequently the case that excellent hiring helps these startups become the darlings of customers and investors. And these are two places where their cash piles tend to come from.
Would you like to consistently strike gold in recruiting? Here are some brilliant tips for doing so, from the leaders at Paystack, Flutterwave, and Moniepoint—three of Nigeria’s biggest startups.
Hire People Better than Yourself
Shola Akinlade, co-founder and CEO at Paystack, says that he’s always looking to recruit people who outpace him in important respects. This is something he decided upon very early in the life of the startup. According to him, a question he almost always asks when looking for hires is, “Can I find people better than me?”
The point of this is that you cannot be the best at everything. There are always people out there who are better at most things than you. The plan for building a team is to select for competence and self-motivation across every role. Don’t let your ego get in the way of this.
Create and Project a Great Culture
Not many Nigerian businesses take this seriously. And they suffer as a result. Of the few that do want to find people with a value fit, most don’t know how to go about it.
Tobi Fasipe, now Partner Operations Manager at Glovo, had been an employee at Paystack for 4 months when, in 2020, he expressed pleasant surprise at the company’s culture. According to him, the employees clearly practised Paystack’s core values: embracing the mission, pursuing growth and learning, insisting on high standards, and communicating clearly, among others.
But he also noted something else: Paystack’s reputation had gone before it. Techies outside the startup got the impression that it was a great place to work. And that made them eager to land a role there. Exceeding their expectations when they finally got recruited just strengthened its reputation.
Actively Look for People who Fit In
Projecting a fantastic internal culture is only half of recruiting for cultural fit. The other half is actively seeking the right fits. This may begin with specifying traits that are a good proxy for fitness in vacancy notices.
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But much of the screening for suitability in this area is best done through live interviews. And Mansi Babyoni, Global Head of People Strategy at Flutterwave, makes a career out of this for the Nigerian FinTech giant.
According to Mansi, she and her team review candidates based on these questions:
“Do you know why we exist, what we stand for, and what we’re trying to achieve?
“Do you have the ability to handle ambiguity, and the drive to roll up your sleeves to fix issues?
“Do you fit into the cultural sphere that we [Flutterwave] have set for ourselves…the kind of person who works hard, but also has a human side to them?”
She distils the quest for personable employees into something she calls the airport test:
“If I were stuck with you at the airport for 5 hours, will we be able to have a conversation and connect as friends?”
Prioritise Attitude, Potential, and Execution
Khadijah Abu, Head of Product Expansion at Paystack, says that the company prioritises deep knowledge, critical thinking skills, and a solid grasp of its target market when hiring for relevant roles, including product management.
For Khadijah, the ideal product manager should have “product sense, the ability to execute, problem-solving skills, market knowledge, and…the ability to ship the right features.”
They are keen on soft skills, which the company’s leaders recognise as crucial to engaging its target market (merchants). This is especially true for those who are directly involved in building products that these customers will use.
Hire People Who Hunger for Growth
The first thing many Nigerians weigh when considering job offers is the salary package presented by recruiters. Although this is worth thinking about, the most successful careers are often powered by other themes.
Ted Oladele, while VP of Design at Flutterwave, encouraged entry-level job seekers to define their “north star” skill (whether that was design, engineering, or product) and let it guide what they do. Addressing the tendency to determine career moves based on salary considerations alone, Ted advises Nigerian employers to view retention as building lasting wealth and legacy. He says that is will work if the employee’s ambitions are in sync with the organisation’s aims.
“This informs how we hire people,” Ted explains. “I need to make sure your personal goals and Flutterwave’s goals align.”
Flutterwave takes this seriously. Its recruits’ growth plans in the short and medium terms need to align with its own. So it probes for signals of this as it examines resumes and interviews candidates.
Have a Framework that’s Also a Magnet
Recruiting without a framework that attracts the best talent in the first place is like fishing without bait; you will likely get unsatisfactory results.
For Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO and cofounder at Moniepoint, a people-attracting and people management framework is fundamental. He says Moniepoint has one of its own, which he calls the Four Ms: Meaning, Mastery, Membership, and Money.
This is how he applies these in creating an organisation that pulls in top quality:
“If you build an organisation where people find meaning, this [links with] the company’s mission. People want to make an impact and get better at it, so you need to create an environment that challenges people to get better.
“Then, ensure that it’s a place where people are regarded and seen, and you pay them well. Paying them well generally means they can forget about primary needs.”
Tosin notes that if businesses do these things, it’ll be easier for them to fill vacancies with exceptional talent.
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Final Words
The skills and personalities that businesses should look out for may differ across roles. But the best hires are competent and willing to learn and grow. They are also empathetic, even if this manifests in a range of ways. Finding these people should not be hard.
Recruiters can become more successful at discovering exceptional talent if they use some advice from those who have done well at it.
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