Landing your dream employee

So once you have gone through the hassle of finding the perfect employee who has passed all the Eligibility and Suitability tests you throw at them (see earlier post); the work doesn't stop there. If you find them, rather than the other way round, then it is likely that you have to persuade them to leave their nice comfortable job, and join your risky new venture. On paper it doesn't seem like an easy task.

For the potential employee, there are many things to take into consideration. The first of which is Family Responsibilities. If the person you have found is some hot-shot wonder-kid, then this shouldn't really be a concern. However it is likely that you were looking for someone with some experience. And with experience usually comes a family, who play a major role in decision making.

As I said previously, the employee may already have a job to which he is committed (career commitment) and is financially committed. A lot also attributes to a person's attitude towards uncertainty as new ventures are very uncertain. This also couples with the person's fear of failure and financial loss as both factors are distinct possibilities.

So to get your man (or women), one needs to offer substantial material rewards including equity, salary, bonuses and the potential to gain new "toys".
But it is often the non-material rewards which are more powerful. After all, someone can easily get the above material rewards working for a major corporation and play the stock market to gain equity in a venture.
The non-material rewards include the flexibility and sense of personal achievement that are associated with new ventures. The chance of recognition, prestige and power are big drivers for new venture creation. And finally a lot of people see new ventures as a fun challenge.

So the challenge is to make the rewards worth it for the risk of barriers to people joining the team. Or at least minimise these risks. One potential way is to allow the employee to work on the new venture part-time. This immediately removes all the potential barriers to them joining the company and they can join the venture full time when success is more certain.