In the starting days of a business, due to the lack of capital and brand value, startups face two major problems: - Lack of capital - Lack of manpower  Mr. Yashish Dahiya, the CEO & Co-Founder of [PolicyBazaar.com](http://policybazaar.com/), few crucial tips, best practices and insights on how to build manpower in the initial days of a business.  # **#1 Hiring of Employees in a Startup** Mr. Yashish Dahiya shares his story that in the starting days of his business, he has not given salary to any of his white collared employees (Total 18 people including him) in the first six months.   While hiring, he had told them that he would pay their salaries only when he gets the money. Despite the fact that most of these people were from middle class families, they joined Mr. Yashish Dahiya and worked with him.  After six months, when Mr. Yashish Dahiya got the money, all these employees could get their six months’ salary. _How Mr. Yashish Dahiya convinced the employees to work without salary for six months?_ While hiring, Mr. Yashish Dahiya convinced the people to join him by: - Telling them clearly what they are going to do and what problem they are going to solve - Convincing them that he has the ability to solve a burning industry problem  - Telling them the benefits and growth they will get by joining his company **_Lesson:_** In a startup, while hiring people, you should: - Tell them the vision of your company - Make them believe that you can achieve company’s vision # **#2 Which type of employees should you hire?**  You should hire the employees having the following qualities: ### **1. Non-selfish** Non-selfish means keeping the interest of the company before your own interests. **_For example:_** In army, if an officer keeps his interest first and country’s interest later, then he will never fight for his country. But, officers keep interest in the following sequence: - Country’s Interest First  - Your Men’s Interest Second  - Your Interest last  Similar philosophy should be adopted while hiring the people in the top management. A person who is hired in top management should keep:  - Company’s Interest First - People’s Interest Second  - One’s Own Interest Last ### **2. Believe in the Company’s Purpose** - The people you are hiring should have belief in the purpose of your company. ### **3. Happy and High Energy People** - You should hire happy people and people having high energy. - Happy people keep people around them happy even in tough times.   ### **4. Skill** - While hiring, do not focus much on the skill because skill can be developed through training.  # **#3 How to build manpower that aligns with the company’s interest or vision?** Mr. Yashish Dahiya shares some of the ways through which you can make your manpower align with your company’s interest or vision: - Give direct feedback to your employees, if you feel that they are deviating from your company’s interests. - Tell your employees that they need to move along with the team. - Ask your employees to keep the company’s interest first. Further, Mr. Yashish Dahiya confessed that people don’t actually change even when you try hard for years.  During interviews, you easily identify people who will become your missionaries or keep organisation’s interest first and remain with the company for a longer period. So, you should go on and hire such people because changing employee’s interest later on is difficult. **_You need to cultivate the culture of ownership in your employees._** # **#4 How to build a training culture in your company?** If you are a small company, say 500 people, then managers should train their employees. However, if you are a big company, then you need to design a proper process of training. Training is the most important task in an organisation. Some of the types of training you should conduct in your organisation are: ### **1. Functional training/HR Training** - Skills to interact with the customers - Manage the basic etiquettes of business  ### **2. Product Training** - Knowledge of features and benefits of the product - Superior understanding of the product  ### **3. Process Training** - Skills training  Every month an employee should undergo training for at least 2 days.  # **#5 How to reduce employee attrition rate?** Listening to the employee is the best way to reduce the attrition rate. Most of the employees leave an organisation because of two reasons – they are either not able to adjust with the boss or the office environment.  So, you should talk with your employees. After listening the problems of your employees, you may disagree as both of you may have different viewpoints. However, mutually, both of you can come to an agreement and resolve the issue.  # **#6 How a startup should develop their team?**  In a small organisation or startup, you should try to make your team cross-functional. This means allow your team members to work in different departments like HR, MIS, Business Operations, Marketing and Technology.  It will enable the team members to know how the different departments of the organisation work and how they can manage them. This helps the team members to grow and make the organisation strong. **_For example:_**  As per Indian Army rule, a soldier is transferred from one place to another in every two years so that they cannot form their own groups or armies. Similarly, in an organisation, if you make a person head of the department for 10 years, then he will open his own business with his team.  Thus, you should have job rotational culture in your organisation because if the job of an employee is not rotated, he will: - Become stagnant - Become over-knowledgeable, i.e. he is not ready to learn new things and this will hinder the growth of the organisation # **#7 How you can hire employees at a low cost?** Mr. Yashish Dahiya shares how he hires employees at low salary and makes them missionaries of his organisation. Despite of this, the employees get high growth and progress.    **_Growth and progress of a company are important to attract and retain the talent._** Mr. Yashish Dahiya works on the following philosophy, while hiring the employees: - He tells the employees that they will reach the market salary in 18 months but end up getting much higher salary than the market salary in 3 years. - He tells the employees that they will earn money from equity as he gives Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOPs) to his employees. Up to 70-80% income of the employees of Policy Bazaar comes from ESOPs as the company is growing. They also allow their employees to sell 10-15% of ESOPs every year. **_Lesson:_** - Instead of high cash salary, give ESOPs to the employees  - Allow them to sell their ESOPs every year (in your company or outside the company) > **_“Your manpower can make you a Superpower”_** ## **Outcomes** - Build a team of people who believe in your vision  - Hire the people who keep the company’s interest first  - Give direct feedback to the employees about their work and intent  - Listen to the problems of employees and resolve them - Give product, process, and HR training to all your employees  - Help the employees enhance their skills - Rotate the team members across different departments - Give ESOPs to the employees in place of high cash salary