Driving a Startup to Successful Organization through HR & Best Practices Date:   Monday , August 31, 2009 Look at the number of startups that are popping up like a bubble in India. Many of them strive to become a successful organization and many of them may not reach even a stage of becoming nearly successful. The reason is plain and simple - "Absence of HR and Best Practices." "A startup is always referred to as a small boat in a big ocean." The journey is not easy in an ocean where you come across high tides, strong blowing winds, well established big ships and uncertainties. When you plan to launch a startup (Boat) what is really required is, "A captain who has proper vision, passion to make it, courage to face the undefined challenges, ability to take calculative risks and team work, without which we sink." Gone are the days when human resources was just considered to be a back end work. Today human resources at a startup is considered as more of a business partner, advisor and mentor to the management. If a startup has to reach the peak of success, it is possible only through out of box and innovating thinking and through a well placed human resources and best practices. One has to be egoless and have a sense of ownership ("I am working for my company" attitude) which will ultimately help in leading the way. Many employees who are working in well established reputed companies are looking forward to join startups, not just because of pay packets but for the work culture and the niche, quality of work they get to do. HRs should always put in their best efforts to accomplish the below listed 5 stages to drive a startup to successful organization. They are: A Captain - Defining a Proper Vision, Goal/Objective: Human Resources at startups should invest a lot of time in understanding the business model, revenue generation model and technology road map. After having a thorough understanding of the business and revenue generation model, one should concentrate on proper resource planning. A proper resource planning is always required be it a services or a product startup. The resource planning should be in correlation with the existing and upcoming projects. At the same time a thorough succession plan is needed at every stage of hiring. Only a proper planning, organizing and scheduling will lead us to reach our destination. Hiring is considered to be one of the challenging activities at startups. You get to meet a lot of people who seem to have good technical knowledge but unfortunately do not make it to the offer stage. The reason is the "Lack of Passion". Human Resources should always look for an ingredient in a candidate during the behavioral assessment interviews - "To work by Choice and not by Chance". Openness to learn, ability to work as a team contributor, value add that one can get to the startup, are the key factors which we look for while selecting wonders who can make a huge difference to the startup. Hence, the point is that the proper vision and goal from Human Resources can build the strong pillars of a startup. Defining a Good work culture: Work culture plays a prominent role is getting a startup to the very next level. According to me, culture is a set of basic assumptions or perceptions. When a job seeker migrates from a well reputed organization to a startup, he/she comes with lot of assumptions, and meeting all of them would definitely be difficult. Having an open work culture, political free work environment, treatment of every one with dignity and respect, and recognizing the good work demonstrated will help us move forward. Restrictions also form a part of work culture. For example, treating an employee as liability and not as an asset, not allowing an employee to take a personal phone call, restrictions of dress code, internet access, discriminations by managers, failure to recognize the effort put in by an employee and not rewarding accordingly, refusal to grant leave when required, getting into ones personal details will not enhance the work culture but worsen the situation. With these restrictions, over a period of time an employee develops a sense of disengagement and gets totally disconnected from the organization. Losing an employee is not the best thing to happen to a startup. The point is, a good work culture set up by human resources makes an employee look at his work place as a home away from home. Implementing well defined Process, Procedures: Well-defined process and procedures will ease the working methodology at any organization be it the technical process, quality process, human resources process or finance process. Without a clear well defined process and procedure, a startup can go haywire. As we build the pillars of a startup, the process and procedures sound interesting, but at the same time it becomes more challenging, to ensure that the process and procedures are followed by each one, and are not deviated from. These processes and procedures, (for example, having a proper budgeting process) have to be rolled down from the top management to junior management. Having a process of collecting a formal and informal feedback from employees is also an effective tool which will help us to understand how we have fared. This will help the startup in bridging the gap. Also having a clear communication process from the management through weekly/monthly meetings will help each one to understand what everyone is doing, their contribution, the technology road map, human resources road map and will create a sense of confidence in employees which can in turn create wonders!!! The definition here is, "Well defined processes and procedures from human resources making things more simple than complicated." Investing in startup branding initiatives: After executing stage 1, 2 and 3, the next important this is to focus on startup branding initiatives. Every startup dreams to make it big, but many fail enormously in the branding strategies. Branding is a continuous process. Hiring an external agent to build the brand will definitely not get be added value. There are two types of branding - internal and external branding. Internal branding is much to do with keeping an employee happy, celebrating togetherness, celebrating events, team lunch and team outings. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your business. This philosophy works, as the same employee at the startup will speak to his ex-colleagues, friends, relatives and his ex-employer about his organization being unique. Simply existing as a startup does not help, but constant awareness and innovation through participation in technology events, campus recruitment events, membership at Technology forums, participating in contests, showcasing the startup products/solutions through media/magazines certainly helps. This is called, "External branding". This external branding, when used through appropriate channels and out of box thinking, can get the desirable results. The definition here is, "Branding a startup is a journey and not an event." Aim at Return on Investment: After branding the start up internally and externally, the return on investment is awaited. This comes through market recognition. This recognition helps a startup in generating more business and revenue as well as attracting and retaining a talent. But, the human resources job does not end here. The journey begins... "Today HR matters enormously in good times, but it also defines you in bad times..." The author is HR Head at NextBiT Computing. He can be reached at Prashant@nextbitcpu.com