Skill-based hiring on rise as tech startups reformulate strategies from seed to IPO stage

Building a startup from scratch is like a roller coaster journey. They face several challenges while building the brand or hiring their core team members as it takes time, money and effort. As businesses continue to speed up their digital transformation journeys, there is a rise in demand for tech-related functional areas and industries.

A survey conducted by Hirect, a chat-based direct hiring platform, has revealed that leading tech startups are reformulating their hiring strategies right from the seed to IPO stage. For startups, hiring is essential since building a core staff will guarantee effective productivity within the business. Employers re-evaluate their staffing requirements as they move toward their growth phase.

The survey, which covered over 1500 senior and mid-senior recruiters across the country, aims to help startups, recruiters, employers and decision-makers to understand how to adapt the current talent acquisition landscape to remain competitive in today’s employee-driven marketplace.

Raj Das, global co-founder and CEO, Hirect India, said that employers in the employee-driven market must quickly adapt to the current reality of talent acquisition to remain competitive in today’s labour market.

"This includes creating a workplace that aligns with jobseekers’ needs while also leveraging the right system, tool, and channels to effectively grow their organisations/startups,” Das said.

The hiring process in startups also relies on referrals and that is why startups formulate referral policies. Around 88.2 per cent recruiters believe that referral is the best way to hire people with the right talents, the survey revealed, adding that the referral policy helps in enhancing the organisation's employee retention rate.

The survey said that 96.5% of recruiters believe that the use of AI is one of the best ways to improve the recruitment process and eliminate bias from the hiring process. Around 50% of recruiters said that AI will become a regular part of the recruitment process in the coming years.

The survey also said that more than 50 per cent of the recruiters believe in building a diverse workforce to address the huge disparity in the representation of women in leadership roles. As many as 97.4 per cent of the recruiters said that skill-based hiring is the future.