An opinion shared by Mr. Arjun Nijhawan, Director, Nijhawan Group.
Finding seed capital, which converts a “two dudes in a living room idea” into something with considerably more promise, is one of the most thrilling occasions for a startup. Here are some of the areas where we should concentrate our efforts:
Hiring T-shaped people versus specialists
One of the axioms of the startup world is that everyone must wear several hats. Backend programmers might have to pitch in and do some feature development, designers could have to write some marketing copy, and the CEO might have to vacuum the office, to name a few truisms in startup land. Also, if you feel that startups are essentially learning about their customers and the market, you’ll need people who are adaptable and can identify links between disparate topics. So, you’re looking for generalists, but a certain type of generalists.
The first group of people you want on your team will be T-shaped, indicating they are wide in a variety of areas but specialize in one. The range of their skills provides them enough in common that they can talk about anything with anyone in the team, but the depth of their knowledge makes them indispensable to the team.
Make an effort to recruit doers
Early on, it’s critical to hire folks that are execution-oriented. Senior folks or “philosophers” who don’t immediately bring value to the product development process just don’t fit in. When it comes to seniority, prefer to hire people who have recently held positions such as team lead or director, but no higher. That way, you get folks who are used to being in charge of a team but are yet close enough to have an immediate influence. This is why people with expertise in consulting or finance are impractical partners — they are overly focused on strategy and financials while you should be 100% focused on specific products and customers.
More candidate flow addresses several issues
Getting the first 2-3 people for most seed-stage startups is usually not an issue — you’ll have folks in mind or someone in your close circle of acquaintances who are easily available. What’s more difficult is moving beyond your immediate network, where you might come across:
People you desire are employed and uninterested.
As an entrepreneur, you know a lot of entrepreneurs who want to start something, not join something
There are a lot of “OK” people who are interested, but who are difficult to get excited about.
It’s all too easy to get into a trap where limits are reduced, things you don’t want are accommodated, and all sorts of other issues arise. Alternatively, you may have had interviews where the person was adequate but not exceptional, and you desperately need the skillset.
Interview for the actual work you’ll be doing, not skillset trivia
Most interview techniques are ineffective because they do not simulate what it would be like to work together. The ideal interview would consist of merely an interview, followed by two months of collaboration and a checkpoint to assess if everything is going well. However, because the majority of job seekers are unwilling to do so, a three-day “working interview” is a viable alternative.
Don’t place too much emphasis on intelligence alone
All of the young, brash entrepreneurs I know want to hire more people like them — hardworking, high-powered individuals. As a result, you can design an entire hiring process around intelligence, complete with puzzles and brainteasers, and reward everyone who can think swiftly. I’ve discovered that using this as a minimal threshold for recruiting individuals is a bad idea — it’s equally as crucial to consider factors like love for the field you’re working in, their motivations and goals for working at your firm, and so on. The reason you need to analyze this is that startups are extremely difficult and can take longer than expected; as a result, it’s critical to understand people’s motivations from the outset to ensure a good fit.
Conclusion
Rather than taking people who love numbers/data/algos and trying to train them to love a specific product area, the ideal scenario is to locate people who have a passion for the product you’re bringing to market and then train them to be metrics-oriented.
Creating employee shifts is one of the key tasks when you have an expanding business. Employers usually look for a solution beyond creating and managing a spreadsheet, something which can help them save time and streamline the process simultaneously. This is achievable with the help of Employee Scheduling Applications, which although cost more than traditional methods, prove way more efficient than the former.
Employee Scheduling Applications help you access your employee schedule 24/7 in real time with the use of cloud based applications. Moreover, send your employees notifications about their schedule and have the flexibility of making all the necessary changes, all with one application. Employee Scheduling Applications aren’t complicated to use, and can be adapted to use with ease, while eliminating the delay in schedule which the traditional methods cause. Also, such applications offer a general communication platform and simplify work hour records. Having said that, here we discuss 5 Employee Scheduling Applications, and help you decide the best choice for you.
actiPLANS
actiPLANS Employee Scheduling Application
actiPLANS is an Employee Scheduling Application which streamlines the various tasks such as absence management, over-viewing available resources, and manages balance control. Users can simply send a leave request with a click, and the manager can accept or reject it immediately, automatically informing the employee. actiPLANS also offers integration with timesheets, insightful reporting, and a free version for small businesses, and much more.
actiPLANS mobile application helps you with attendance tracking, informing about team presence, and leave requests in real-time.
actiPLANS integrates with its time management application called actiTIME which offers various time management features to manage your absence.
Add comments, calculate overtime, and approve timesheets along with insightful reports and accounting functionality with actiPLANS.
Get Leave time and Balance reports, and manage leave calendar with a detailed balance history to make informed decisions.
actiPLANS helps you in setting up accrual rules and allows you to manually tweak and change balance, and export it to pdf.
Pricing for actiPLANS
actiPLANS offers a custom pricing plan which depends on the number of users. The free version can be used by up to 3 users with some limited functionality, while the paid plans cost $1.5 per user per month for up to 40 users, $1.2 per user per month for up to 200 users. Beyond 200 users, actiPLANS offers fixed cost.
Connecteam
Connecteam
Connecteam is an employee application which helps users to communicate with, operate, and collaborate with non desk employees. With the help of different communication tools, directories, and chat groups get employee feedback, and simplify workflow. Moreover, automate various management tasks with a checklist, to enhance compliance and standardize operation procedures, and track employee work hours, all in one application.
Features Offered by Connecteam
Simplify team communication with Connecteam with newsletters, announcements, and updates, and also get feedback from your employees with live polls.
Track your employees’ work hours through mobile punch-in and punch-out, and manage timesheets and payrolls efficiently.
Create an employee schedule and deploy it quick, with all the information in one place. Also show real-time updates and notifications with remote schedule management.
Manage shift related tasks up till their completion with an organized communication to with specific messaging boards and in-app chats.
Delegate different tasks to employees seamlessly and get real-time updates on execution and completion.
Pricing for Connecteam
Free Plan
basic Plan
Advanced Plan
Expert Plan
Enterprise Plan
Is free of cost for up to 200 users
Costs $29 per month for up to 200 users
Costs $59 per month for up to 200 users
Costs $119 per month for up to 200 users
Custom plan for more than 200 users
Basic features for communication and management of team
Allows media file attachments and custom work contacts
Allows users to change conversation settings and user field display
Allows you to add in-app links to group descriptions
Unlimited schedules, categories, and dedicated in-shift tasks
Basic plan allows you to create checklists and forms and offers free templates
Automatically share and export entries in different formats such as pdf or excel
Allows you to set form fields and control image source
Allows users to set reminders and email triggers
Offers up to 100 trigger based summary reports for each form
Sling
Sling Employee Scheduling Application
Sling is a free employee scheduling and communication application. It allows you to manage employee shifts, time offs, availability and shift trade requests all in one place. Sling lets you handle any unexpected leave or trade requests, and ensures seamless teamwork by keeping everyone informed of the schedule. Moreover, Sling only charges for the employees who you it; and for those who deactivated after paying for the plan, you are given a prorated credit.
Features Offered by Sling
Sling allows you to track employee hours and manage timesheets for efficient employee payout management.
Employees can clock in and out with the help of their phones using their location and a dependable geofencing.
Manage shifts by adding tasks and align employees with their to-dos to ensure all the work is getting done on time.
Sling offers a number of integrations such as Square, ADP, and Shopify along with various others for efficient working.
You can also schedule tasks and shifts at multiple work locations and allow employees to clock in and out from different workplaces.
Pricing for Sling
Free Plan
Premium Plan
Business Plan
Offers all the basic features free of cost
Costs $2 per user per month and offers all basic features and more
Costs $4 per user per month and offers all features of premium plan and more
Offers shift secheduling, templates, alarms, and offers
All features in the free plan and timesheets, history and approval
Offers all features in premium plan along with reports, PTO tracking and Salary Support
Allows for time off requests and news sharing
Allows for auto clock outs, geofencing, and shift trades and swaps
Lets the employer handle sick leaves and late arrivals
Allows for the handling of umlimited employees, managers, and locations
Lets employers manage overtime tracking, holiday pay, and budgeting
Allows you to impose conversation restrictions and dedicated account management
Shiftboard
Shiftboard Employee Scheduling
Shiftboard is an employee scheduling application tailored to your specific needs for both, employee set rotation as well as regular scheduling. It offers ScheduleFlex and SchedulePro scheduling applications, for customer specific needs. Shiftboard has proven a valuable tool in different industries ranging from manufacturing to healthcare to public safety, and has over 245 million in shifts scheduled to date.
Features Offered by Shiftboard
ScheduleFlex, the scheduling application, built for organizations with constantly changing shifts and schedules helps you manage work chaos.
SchedulePro, the scheduling application built for regulated industries to help maintain compliance with standards and laws.
Shiftboard schedules workforce in accordance with your strategic business goals, hence optimizing task management.
Shiftboard offers configurable solutions which can be tailored to your business needs, hence offering you adaptability for your unique needs.
It also allows API integrations as well as automated flat file integrations, and other common integrations such as CRMs and payroll applications.
Homebase
Homebase Employee Scheduling
Homebase is a free employee scheduling software for small businesses to help employers keep track of time and manage teams. Homebase offers users a suite of features which helps in scheduling and tracking time with real-time schedule sharing, hiring new employees and onboarding, along with team communication with real-time updates and notifications.
Anagha S
