Your first full time hire should be a talent person. Let me tell you why.

For some context, I have worked in talent and recruiting for close to a decade. I have advised 30 startups, led the talent function for a major startup that invests in hundreds of startups, led commercial talent strategy for a Series D startup, and currently, I lead the talent acquisition strategy for a specialty group for another Series C startup. The below are some of the best learned lessons that I give co-founders I work with because in the long run, you will save tons of time and money by hiring your talent person first.

1. Hiring a talent person means you unlock dozens of hires. Most of us have been in the talent world for a while — which means that our friends are also people who are hiring and want to hire; or have referrals. We are made to look at a spec and go aggressively towards it. It is our full time job, rather than something we do off the side of the desk.
2. Most of us got into the field because there is something about recruiting we are passionate about, whether that is diversity and inclusion, or creating a best in class process for recruiting. We all want to make the process better in some way. For me personally, I am driven by how impactful diversifying your pipeline can be, and healthy funnel metrics for a more inclusive and rewarding experience at work. As a woman and a person of color, it is important to me that the workplaces that I am a part of reflect a multitude of backgrounds and perspectives.
3. Slow and bad hiring costs you way more than time. They cost you team morale, inefficient drag on the business, and damaging employer brand during the process. We have all been there — an opening we should have started working on months ago, and limited bandwidth. Running a structured process here will not only save you time, but resources when you are already running extremely lean.
4. You will never generate the same amount of volume as someone who knows how to recruit. This is not a personal attack, but this is just a testament to the reality of bringing in a qualified pipeline. I say this because it takes sourcing, a high touch talent communication plan, and knowledge of how to generate passive pools of talent for a long game in employer branding. If you are someone who wants to get the extra leg in on recruiting, hiring someone who knows the landscape better than you is key to having a diverse team, metrics on why you can’t close candidates, and developing a tried and true recruiting methodology for your needs.

What has your first talent hire done?

Cheers,

Reth