初创企业招兵买马需要新思路

    光听到“现金流”这个词就足以让初创企业的首席执行官心惊胆战。企业家们常常会听到这方面的训诫，即在企业成长期做好现金流管理非常重要。热门公司如果资金短缺，无法满足公司扩张的需要，就会因压力过大而崩溃。

    然而，在企业创始人为实现梦想而打拼、历尽千辛万苦建立起来的公司终于开始起飞的时候，如何管理“人才流”也非常重要，而且同样具有挑战性。要找到合适的、有技术专长且愿意在初创企业工作的人才，是一件相当费时的事情，而且争夺非常激烈。公司未来是成功上市，还是沦为一家普通企业？人才管理方面的做法对此将产生直接的影响。

    利亚•布斯克是跑腿网站TaskRabbit公司创始人。这家位于旧金山的公司旨在帮助业务繁忙人士与愿意代替他人处理琐事和其他服务来获取收入的人实现对接。他说：“发布招聘启事，然后坐等接收简历，这是不够的。我们的做法是让应聘者与公司团队相处一段时间，并进行若干轮由团队成员参与的面试。我们要找的不仅仅有技术能力的人。是否能够融入公司才是最重要的。”

    布斯克说，跟大公司比起来，小型公司的招聘可以说是双向选择。求职者要向公司高管证明自己的能力，公司同样需要向心仪的应聘者证明公司的实力。对迫切需要找到新员工的公司来说，招聘任务显得尤为艰巨，部分原因是现有员工的工作负荷已经到达极限。

    TaskRabbit公司现有35名员工。这一类的公司没有足够资源来保有全职的人力资源职员，所以为了发展壮大，公司不得不采用创新途径来招兵买马。

    布斯克利用旧金山湾区的编程员和工程师社交网络来招聘工程师和设计师。TaskRabbit公司还制作了宣传视频来展现公司最具价值的卖点之一，那就是公司的办公室文化。

    该视频用摇镜头拍摄了公司的办公场所，画面包括人们三五成群聚在休息室里吃午餐，狗狗们无忧无虑地卧在桌子旁边。视频内容还包括员工探讨如何平衡工作与生活的关系（一位工程师身着运动服正在进行马拉松训练，告诉人们，员工拥有工间外出锻炼的自由度）、公司面临的挑战以及同事间的氛围。

    布斯克说，“这段视频确实能帮助应聘者了解公司的环境。在就业市场上有很多优质的工作机会。我们期望找到杰出的人才，而应聘者同样也期望寻找出色的工作机会。”

    很多小公司因为收到的简历太少而烦恼，但也有很多小公司担心收到的简历过多。因为从这些从纸面上看起来大同小异的应聘者之中进行筛选，也是一桩令人泄气的烦心事。

    Just hearing the words "cash flow" can send a startup CEO into a panic, and for good reason. Entrepreneurs are frequently lectured on the importance of managing cash as their businesses grow, and hot companies can implode when they run out of money to support their expansion.

    But "talent flow" can be just as important -- and as challenging -- to manage when a founder's wildest dreams come true and the company she has risked everything to build is finally taking off. Finding the right people, the ones who have the technical skills and the desire to work at a startup, is both time-consuming and competitive. How a company approaches this task can mean the difference between an IPO and a plain old P.U.

    "It's less about putting up a job posting and waiting for resumes to start flowing in," says Leah Busque, founder of TaskRabbit, a San Francisco-based company that puts busy people in touch with others willing to do chores and a variety of other services for a fee. "Bringing people in to spend time with the team, doing rounds of interviews with team members is what we do. We're not just looking for technical competencies. Fit is the most important thing."

    Perhaps more than in the corporate world, recruiting at smaller companies is a two-way street, Busque says. Companies need to prove themselves to potential employees as much as job seekers need to prove themselves to executives. This can be particularly daunting when a company has an immediate need for new workers, in part because the current staff is already being pushed to their limit.

    Companies like TaskRabbit, which now has 35 employees, don't have the resources to bring on a full-time human resources staffer, so they need to get creative when they want to grow.

    Busque has used Bay Area programmer and engineer social networks to recruit engineers and designers. TaskRabbit also created a video showing off one of its most valuable selling points, its office culture.

    With panning shots of the company's offices, featuring a game room, groups of people eating lunch together, and seemingly happy dogs sitting next to desks, the video includes interviews with employees discussing work-life balance (an engineer training for a marathon and dressed in running clothes mentions the freedom to go for a run during work), the challenges the company faces, and the collegial atmosphere.

    "It really provides context for people who are applying," Busque says. "There are so many great jobs out there. We're looking for someone who is unique, and those candidates are looking for something unique as well."

    While many small companies fret about getting too few resumes, many also fear getting far too many. Wading through dozens of candidates who all look similar on paper can be a disheartening exercise.