How To Use Your Recruitment Agency Website When Looking To Recruit For Startups

The first few years for any startup is typically tough. You’re working all the hours in the day, you’re working in a half dozen roles, focusing on revenue generation, while building your service or product, marketing the company, and so much more. Hopefully within 6-18 months the business looks to expand by bringing on staff.

Joining a startup is a risk for any potential employee, however there are some big rewards in exchange for that risk, such as growing with a company, accelerated career progression, potential equity, expanded hands-on learning opportunities, shaping a company’s future and so much more.

Recruitment for startups often faces a unique set of challenges and, of course, opportunities when it comes to finding the right talent. On the positive side, prospective candidates often view them as sexy, fast-paced, and innovative. On the flip side, companies themselves are often looking for experienced generalists who are proficient in several areas or highly talented, inexperienced candidates who have the ability to quickly learn and grow. And, of course, salaries & benefits packages can be lower when compared to more established firms (until that private equity money comes in).

During my time in recruitment, I recruited for some of the biggest media companies and advertising agencies in the world but also recruited for several small businesses, even helping a few startups with their first hire. The first hire is always the hardest and the most important for the founder and the business. Get this right and it has the potential to really catapult the business, get it wrong and it can be a big setback, through wasted time, effort, money and it’s of course a big demotivation for any founder.

A startup in the first few years is typically pre-angel investment and/or pre-seed stage, so this is the founder’s money, the shareholder’s actual capital that is going towards an agency fee, which in fairness, can be viewed as a lot of money. Startup founders want to know the money is being well spent, that it’s a service they can’t provide themselves. You need to let them know that if they undertake the process single-handedly, that it’s going to be costly paying for job advertisements and access to CV databases. Especially when savings only come with economies of scale (along the difference between rate card and the real price); time-consuming sifting through hundreds of irrelevant applications (and why they’ll likely be irrelevant); time-consuming interviewing candidates that just aren’t quite right (and only a seasoned recruiter might be able to spot why they’re not suitable); hard pulling together a comprehensive list of questions that they should be asking; and difficult directly negotiating a salary without souring the future working relationship.

Your recruitment agency's website can be a powerful tool when reaching and engaging with this unique talent pool, especially in recruitment for startups.

Case Studies

Case studies are a big selling point when it comes to pitching startups. They want to feel safe and secure in their purchasing decision, much more so than larger firms. Showcase success stories you’ve had with other startups, give the reader details of the startup, how the partnership began, the vacancy brief, timelines, the candidates shortlisted, advice & guidance given and the result of the process.

Testimonials

Dedicate a separate section for testimonials, where you post client & candidate testimonials from the startup world but of course from larger clients too. Startups want to know you’re able to deal with the unique challenges they face but they also want to know you’re good enough to recruit for the largest companies in their industry too. With any testimonial, include the person’s full name, job title and company too - it adds legitimacy to it.

Blogs

Create blog posts on startup culture, trends, and talent needs. If your agency website has a high enough domain authority, then startup founders are likely to stumble across your blog posts when searching for interviewing tips, advice, and guidance on attracting and engaging with talent, etc.

Resources

Offer them downloadable resources such as talent market insights and salary guides. Startups are likely to be more insulated when compared to larger firms and will have less information about current market rates and what salaries and benefits they need to offer to attract the talent they’re after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Startups are likely to want to ask more questions of you but may not know the questions they should be asking. They may not know about the pricing models available (contingent, exclusive, retained), likely fee percentages, rebate periods, the process, terms of business, communicating with candidates, etc. Why not offer a “frequently asked questions” page that covers topics such as this?

Specialist

Highlight your experience in their niche and your extensive database of talent, built up over years, regularly cleaned and engaged with. Talk them through the size of clients you work with, your niche, what makes you an expert and what separates you from your competition.

SEO

Small startup firms are less likely to have extensive experience using recruitment agencies in their particular niche and are less likely to be pitched as recruitment firms just haven’t heard of them yet. So how do they find a recruitment agency? They use a search engine such as Google and that’s why your website will need to be SEO optimised for relevant keywords e.g., "startup jobs," "tech recruitment," "recruitment for startups". Ensure your blog/insights/news pages have relevant content aimed at startups such as “finding an angel investor,” “the biggest VC firms in London,” “hiring your first employee,” etc. Also spend time building up backlinks leading to your agency website to increase domain authority and your search ranking for relevant keywords.

Design

Website design is always important and especially important when appealing to the startup community. Ensure your website is modern, visually appealing, and easy to navigate. Use imagery that reflects the “startup vibe.” Ensure mobile-friendliness. prominently feature text/content that focuses on startup firms and use infographics, charts, or images to break up the text.

Employer Branding

Beyond UX & UI design, I’d also recommend exploring your recruitment agency’s brand, ideally in partnership with a professional employer branding specialist. Through your website images and content, aim to showcase your agency's expertise in the startup sector, highlight your understanding of startup culture and values, and ultimately develop a strong employer brand that resonates with startup talent.

Data & Analytics

Ultimately you won’t know if your website is doing a great job at attracting new startup clients without tracking website metrics to measure engagement and ROI. Use insights from tools such as Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, etc. to refine your recruitment strategies.