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Why Your SaaS Company Needs A Good Hiring Strategy

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Why does your SaaS company need a good hiring strategy? Well lets say you run a successful, growing SaaS company. Congratulations. But you’re now at the point where you’ve got more work coming in than your current team can handle; so it’s hiring time. A simple enough process, yes? Well, in theory. But finding just the right SaaS employee is not as simple as putting together some SaaS job ads and waiting for the resumes to come pouring in.

You need a good hiring strategy. But what exactly does that entail?

Why Your SaaS Company Needs A Good Hiring Strategy
Why Your SaaS Company Needs A Good Hiring Strategy

Luckily for you it doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but it does need to be a clear plan that is going to help you to identify what roles you want to fill, who exactly you want to attract, and just how you’re going to attract them.

As with most things business-related, a hiring strategy to fill the SaaS roles within your company isn’t something you should ‘wing’ – certainly not if you want to find the best possible candidates for the position and not waste a load of time and money to boot.

And here are the top reasons why:

  1. One Bad Apple Can Spoil The Whole Bunch

Ok, admittedly this is going to hugely depend on the size of your SaaS company, but whether you have a thousand employees or ten, one bad hire is one too many. The effects of a ‘bad hire’ due to not having a good hiring strategy are certainly going to be more noticeable and devastating within a smaller company.

The cost of hiring someone who isn’t a right fit for the company, someone who makes careless mistakes, or who simply isn’t as experienced or qualified as the SaaS role demands can be astronomical. It’s not just the time and money that you’ve spent on the recruitment process either, it’s also the investment you will have made in training and then the knock-on effect the bad hire has on the rest of your team, such as a negative impact on staff morale, performance and productivity. Too much of this, and you’ll soon see it negatively affecting your company’s brand and reputation – one you’ve spent many years cultivating and nurturing.

A good recruitment strategy can help you to avoid all of this and, whether your SaaS company is large or small, it’s really not worth running the risk of even the smallest chance of suffering these consequences.

  1. A Quick Hire Isn’t Time Effective

It sounds like it would be; someone in the industry gives you a name, they sound great and you’ve got no reason to doubt their word, so you don’t bother looking elsewhere. But, just because someone is perfect for one company and fulfils their needs, doesn’t mean they’re a good fit for everyone. Then of course there’s the danger of ‘haphazard hiring’; sifting through low-quality applicants and interviewing a ton of people who are all unsuitable. If you’ve got no clear plan on who you want and how to find them, this is what you’re going to end up doing. What a waste of time.

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SaaS companies end up employing this type of recruitment strategy all too often – largely because they don’t feel that they have the time to create a SaaS hiring strategy. However, what they don’t realise is that having a decent hiring strategy will make finding the right candidate much quicker than not having one.

If you think that you’re too busy to create a recruitment strategy, then you’re definitely too busy not to have one.

  1. If You Have To Let A New Hire Go It Will Affect Morale

You might think that hiring someone who turns out not to be the best fit for the SaaS role you want to fill isn’t a big deal. Despite the time and money you might waste in the SaaS hiring process and in training, if things don’t work out you can always let them go – it’s not like you’re stuck with them forever.

However, it’s easy to underestimate the effect that lay-offs can have on the rest of your team – especially in a smaller company where people become ‘family’ very quickly. If you’re hiring someone new only to let them go after a short space of time, it might make other employees very nervous about their own position within the company. The oft quoted phrase ‘last in, first out’ might come to mind, and before you know it the rumour mill has gone into overdrive and employees are wondering if the company is in financial difficulties and who might be ‘next.’

The last thing you want as the owner of a company is your employees feeling uneasy and starting to worry about their job security. Staff morale will drop, as will motivation and production. Valued and much-needed team members might start looking for work elsewhere in an attempt to ‘jump’ before they are ‘pushed’. If your competitors start to get wind of this, or become inundated with enquiries from your employees about whether or not there are positions available, they could spread the word, damaging your reputation – something that can be very hard to recover from.

  1. Despite The Old Adage, It’s Not Just Who You Know

Many a successful business has been built on ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’, and for many SaaS startups this is also the case. Your first hires were more than likely people from your immediate network – people you met in previous jobs, people you trained with…maybe even friends and family who are in the same industry.

Initially this works out well – but it’s not a sustainable or long-term recruitment strategy. That pool of talent is going to dry up fairly quickly, and where do you go from there?

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Without creating a SaaS hiring strategy to grow your SaaS company, once you’ve exhausted your network you’re going to find yourself on the ‘haphazard hiring’ track, blindly putting out ads and looking into everyone that applies without having clear hiring criteria in place.

  1. Good Hires Mean Good Vibes

When you have SaaS roles to fill, finding the right candidate to do just that is important when it comes to the success of your company. The perfect hire will have passion for the role, will be motivated and will perform well, helping the company to run smoothly and increasing profits.

But that’s not the only advantage to making sure you employ exactly the right person for the job.

Using a good hiring strategy to find the perfect fit for your SaaS company contributes to a healthy company culture. No one wants to hire someone who does the bare minimum, doesn’t care about the quality of their work and who doesn’t get on with the rest of the team. But a good hire – someone who has been employed thanks to a well-thought out and effective hiring strategy will make your company a positive and productive working environment for everyone.

Spending time and effort on creating a good hiring strategy is going to pay off time and time again for your SaaS company, and with these simple tips you can come up with a strategy that will always yield good results.

  • Filter out unsuitable candidates early by employing a screening process before taking a closer look at applicants. A good way of doing this is to put together a questionnaire to determine what applicants already know about the industry. Those who answer poorly – or who don’t bother at all – can be immediately ruled out.
  • Tap into networks beyond your own by offering an incentive to current employees who can refer people who might be suitable.
  • Make sure your website is top-notch, showing potential employees what you can offer them in terms of flexibility, growth and development
  • Be absolutely clear on what the role is before you post a job ad. If you don’t, you won’t attract on-target applicants.
  • Be upfront and honest about salary, that way you’re not going to waste time interviewing your dream candidate only to find out that they won’t work for what you’re offering. Make sure that you’re clear on the salary range candidates can expect, as well as emphasising other benefits such as flexible working and paid leave.

So I hope we have helped you with a fantastic plan for a SaaS hiring strategy! If you need some support with your hiring strategy then we are here to help.