THE BOSS, THE TEAM, THE TECHNICAL EXPERTISE: THE ATTRACTIVE TRIO
The manager’s efforts to promote the start-up must be supported from within.
"The team of a startup is generally top level from a technical point of view, but the working atmosphere must follow, that the culture of the company, its projects make people want to join it", underlines Hugues Truttmann.
It is therefore a matter of communicating around these three axes, in a tone adapted to the target audience. And to take the time to develop an authentic and differentiating discourse, which a startup cannot do without at a time when all are snapping up the same profiles. "The balance of power is in favor of the candidates, they are the ones who choose the startup, necessarily the best in their eyes," he concludes.
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT, CRUCIAL IN A MARKET PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE TO ISSUES OF E-REPUTATION
People who are interested in startups have the easy Google reflex. What happens online, where we sometimes find bits of IRL (when we have been filmed, sometimes without knowing it, at a trade show for example), does not usually escape him.
"You have to be able to quickly correct message errors, to think in terms of crisis communication, which is why the function of community manager is crucial", underlines Hugues Truttmann.
This community manager, spokesperson for the leader (when the latter is not his own messenger) before being that of the company, whose function cannot and must not be outsourced, must know how to write and convey a speech strategic.
KNOW THE CODES OF NETWORKS AND MEDIA, OR ENSURE SUPPORT IN YOUR COMMUNICATION
The mistake consists in thinking that a boss is a superman-orchestra knowing the codes of communication on all the social networks, knowing how to speak to the media and controlling the problems of e-reputation, that is to say thinking monitor what others say about the company and its leader. However, he is a human like you (and me), with more or less communicative qualities.
"Each digital platform has its own codes, the leader must ask himself if he knows them enough before starting," he warns. When in doubt, having a personal brand and employer brand professional support is a better calculation than improvising.
The manager's personal branding approach must be part of an overall recruitment strategy that unfolds step by step (from attracting candidates to retaining employees), none of which suffers from improvisation. It's about knowing what to expect from a particular platform, knowing your audience to decide whether or not to be there and how. On a network like Facebook, one of the questions to ask concerns the boundaries to be placed between the private and professional spheres.
HIGHLIGHTING THE PERSONALITY OF THE CREATOR
In a start-up, a small structure by definition, there is a good chance of working directly with the founder and it is he, no one else, who chooses his collaborators. In addition, a fledgling organization is unstable, knows the uncertainty of its financial sustainability, so trust in whoever is at the helm must be strong.
"You have to know how to sell the personality and the strategic vision of the leader (or the management team), his human qualities, his charisma or his leadership, his skills, his organizational qualities, everything that makes him a magnet" , explains our interlocutor.
The attractiveness of a startup is based on three pillars: the boss, the team, and technical expertise. Particular care must be taken in the communication of its leader.
"It is above all for your state of mind that you join a startup," notes Hugues Truttmann, recruiter for digital players, and the best placed to create and promote it is its leader. Around him, all the dynamics of the employer brand are articulated.
