Building an Employer Brand by start-

ups

Individual Project
TH19015 | Vibhuti Agrawal
Content List

Objective and Context ………………………………………………………………… Pg 2

Methodology……………………………………………………………………………. Pg 4

Employer Branding and it’s elements ……………………………………………….. Pg 5

Questionnaire …………………………………………………………………………. Pg 6

Not-for-profit Start-ups: Conversations……………………………………………… Pg 7

Manish Sharma

Pragun Agarwal

For-profit-Startups: Conversations…………………………………………………… Pg 9

Vatsal Dusad

Swarnima Bhattacharya

Vani Thakur

Insights drawn …………………………………………………………………………… Pg 12

Strategies for Employer Branding for start-ups………………………………………. Pg 13

Points of consideration for Blackboard Radio (current employer)………………….. Pg 16

References ……………………………………………………………………………….. Pg 17
Objective
My current engagement is with an early stage
start-up- Blackboard Radio of 6 team
members, where wearing multiple
keeping in mind our natural competencies are
MUST. We struggle in
interns/employees. During this study, the
focus will be to understand the elements of
employer brand from founders and employees
perspective, the challenges faced by start-ups
whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in hiring
first employees and identifying ways to
acquire talent, retain employees and design
benefits for them It also emphasizes on the
reasons of why people get attracted towards
start-ups and what is employer Brand in the
context of start-ups.
Context
Thousands of start-ups launch every day but
only handful of them get converted into
successful business entities. Those become
successful who anticipate challenges in
advance and stand the test of time.
The world of start-ups is full of ambiguity,
aggressive and unpredictable. There’s never a
hats
full roadmap to walk but a visibility of few
months.
hiring
Start-ups struggle for many things out of
which building an employer brand is one
while building a product, simultaneously.
Mostly, product development and technology
take priority as the focus of investors is
generating business and getting their money
back. In the midst of all, start-ups didn't have
the bandwidth to focus on people, they
constantly struggle in designing benefits,
compensation and policies for their employees
at all levels of organizational hierarchy, even
after raising Series-A.
The start-up culture is a workplace
environment that values problem solving
ability, communication and a flat hierarchy
which is way different from a corporate
culture. There are multiple challenges that
start-ups face, few of them are highlighted
here.
Funds: Challenges regarding cash flow
management and finance is one of the top-
most reasons that start-ups wane into oblivion.
You have to spend money to make money.
Without identifying a strong need to spend,
start-ups tend to spend it on marketing
activities to get traction and visibility in the
market which has its long run implications of
losing out financial freedom, if the plan
backfires. Thus, pragmatic use of budget
without with a focus of need and desire will be
a good practice. Start-ups generate funds by
two ways- obtaining funds from an investor or
bootstrapping.
Product and market fit: One of the biggest
challenges for every business is to create a
product that will address the demand, need
and desire of the target audience. A regular
market research is required to understand the
target market. The process of feature
development and getting feedback on it has to
be really fast so as to cater to the needs of the
users and the customers.
Culture, Hiring and retaining right people:
Experienced, energetic and productive
individuals helps you thrive straightaway. As
a growing start-up, people who can wear
multiple hats and are willing to work together
with synergy and teamwork in a team are
required. Finding these people is quite a
challenge. Moreover, in the initial stages
there’s no Employer brand so it makes it more
difficult to find and retain talent. Culture is to
be practiced, thus a team that can align with
the values of the co-founders or with others
can only practice what they preach, which
forms the core of the culture.
Competition: Despite having a great product,
the start-up world is quite fierce and
competitive. Knowing in-depth about our
competitors regarding what they do, how they
do and strategizing our product in a way that it
attracts the user and customer will keep our
game up. It is important to understand what
we are doing differently or wrong and what
our competitors are doing right.
Building trust in Customer: One of the most
important hurdles for any business is to strike
a chord with its target audience and win their
trust. Regular feedbacks with the users
regarding the product help in cementing the
position in the marketplace.
Managing time to interact with the customer,
meeting with the investors or clients or
mentors or consultants to run the company
legally and generating cash flow for the
company are few other challenges that
founders in start-ups face.
Note: Start-ups can be for-profit or not-for
profit. In the whole study we will consider
founder perspective and employee perspective
in identifying the challenges for creating an
Employer Brand.
3. Interactions with people: Interviews were
conducted with people from both the for-profit
sector and the not-for-profit sector working
with/who have worked with both established
startups or upcoming startups.

4. Generating Insights: An analysis was

Methodology derived based on the interviews reflecting the
working (or the lack of it) of different
elements of the employers' brand in the startup
1. Defining Employ Branding Elements scenario.

Secondary research was undertaken to 5. Suggesting strategies: Strategies that

understand the varied elements of an would be most effective for startups are
employers' brand. Content from reputed HR suggested based on the insights developed
influencers, management magazines, journals, during the analysis. The strategies are
and academic papers was consulted to develop suggested keeping in mind the constraints of
the understanding. cash flow in the upcoming startups, and
greater resource availability for the more
2. Questionnaire: A questionnaire was
established startups.
prepared by contextualizing various elements
of an employers' brand for startups. A 6. Strategies for Blackboard Radio:
questionnaire was prepared for the founders to Strategies that would be most effective for
understand their challenges, needs, and Blackboard Radio are suggested based on the
perceptions. Similarly, another questionnaire insights developed during the analysis and
was developed for the employees to secondary research done. The strategies are
understand their challenges, needs, and carefully chosen keeping in mind the stage of
perceptions. the start-up.

Employer
Brand and its
Elements
A satisfied customer and employee are the
best business strategy for all.
Employer brand is a part of organization’s
brand. It denotes the organization’s reputation
as an employer. Employer branding is
essential to attracting active candidates,
converting passive candidates, closing all
candidates, and retaining every employee. It’s
the people. It’s the product. It’s the culture.
It’s the chairs. It’s the customers’ smiles. It’s
the customers’ frowns. It’s the office’s walls.
And the tone of voice. Employer branding
accumulates your brand’s impact on
customers, employees, and society at large.
Statistics show that 69% of jobseekers
wouldn’t accept the job at a company with bad
reputation even if they haven’t had a job.
75% individuals research about the firm and
build an image for themselves before applying
for a job.
To build an employer’s brand conscious effort
and investment of time is required. Few
important elements of Employer Brand are
mentioned below which should be considered
while building an employer’s brand.
Advocacy: Businesses can thrive and grow
only because of customers and employees. By
sharing company news, employees can help to
market their employer’s brand, whether this is
to attract new customers, engage passive
applicants, retain employees or simply spread
the word about what a great company they
work for. Employees may be encouraged by
their employer to share company updates
online and, if they’re truly advocating the
brand, they’ll try and appear naturally engaged
with the company through the language and
tone used in their message(s). True advocacy
doesn’t occur for a set period of time either,
it’s an ongoing interest that’s reflected on
employee’s social timelines. Employees
Telling stories about their time at the company
shows how they feel about working there.
Culture: How you make your employees feel
about themselves and the organization defines
the culture. It can be either customer focused,
or employee focused or both. This is the first
thing that potential applicants look out for on
websites or through common friends. A
company culture can only exist and grow if
the vast majority of employees believe in it,
want to be part of it and have a vested interest
in nurturing its growth. Thus, business leaders
must listen to their employees, act as per the
best interest of the organization and the
employees. The foundation element of a good
employment brand is a senior management
team that encourages, measures, and rewards
the development and sharing of best practices.
Talent Brand: How do your employees, both
past and present, feel about the company and
its working environment? Also, importantly,
what are they saying about it online and to
friends and family? The answers to these
make your company enter in the great-place-
to-work lists. Word of mouth can have a major
influence on a business.
Attracting the right attention: Any business
with a strong employer brand is likely to be
talked about, whether online on social media
or offline in conversation.
Advocacy, events, links from websites and
word of mouth, are all ways in which a
business can prove its employer brand, if the
right things are being said about it.
Striving to be an industry leader, while
continually improving your company culture,
encouraging employee engagement and
considering wellness, will attract attention and
is difficult to mimic.
Making sure that your applicant experience
and onboarding processes are optimized will
help to encourage advocacy from a very early
stage, while improving retention.
Diversity: The 2-d’ diversity (inherent and
acquired) enables companies to out-innovate
and outperform their competitors. Diversity
helps a company to appreciate and embrace
cultural differences; this is not only beneficial
for company culture, but also very useful
when speaking with customers and supplying
services. Employees of firms with 2-D
diversity are 45% likelier to report a growth in
market share over the previous year and 70%
likelier to report that the firm captured a new
market. Inherent and acquired diversity are
difficult to fake.
Values: One of the top attracting factors for
applicants is a sense of purpose in what they
do for a living.
In order to attract and retain talent, brands
need to demonstrate a strong ethic and belief
in what they do, along with the values that
they apply to how they do business. Value
plays an important role in decision-making at
different junctures, understanding customer
and educating about the identity of the brand,
competitor advantage and recruiting and
retention. It is important that the value system
of the company is practiced and visible in the
way company does business.
Not-for-Profit
Start-ups
Conversations
Manish Sharma | Co-founder | Youth
Dreamers Foundation
While interacting with him on the lines of
employer brand, he shared that the initial
hiring was project and need based. Field
officers were required to execute the project in
the field, collect data and follow-up with the
requirement of the project. For these people,
there wasn’t much of a challenge as with this
project, employment opportunities were open
at the remote location. They used NGOBOX
as a channel to circulate applications and
through references.
Along with basic compensation, they offered
immense learning and adventure to the
jobseekers. The basic premise was that they
align with the work while applying.
Job seekers find the culture of flat hierarchy
very fascinating where they don’t have to say
‘Sir/Madam’, founders are approachable,
office and accommodation is in same house,
talk about emotions and learning/developing
perspectives through conversations/knowledge
sharing. Way of operationalization varies in
development sector; therefore, the culture
seems to be attractive. He also shared that
from Day 1 we think about people but in the
midst of implementing the need, the mental
peace and wellbeing of employees become
important which leads to understanding of the
‘concerns’ of employees.
Learning from a broader perspective of the
company, diversity and on-the-job-
development specific to the project have been
an important element in forming the culture of
the organization. Through this, people have
opened avenues for increasing their horizon
by either enrolling in a course related to the problem of increasing the efficiency of
job they are doing. teachers by making them simple and effective
strategies to have peer-learning atmosphere in
The trust and ownership have been instilled in
the class so that even the 40th child can learn at
the employees by sharing the reason of not
its pace along with his/her own learning style.
taking an action. For e.g.- not granting leaves.
The fundamental believe that teachers cannot
This helps in smooth functioning of the
be bypassed by technological solutions but are
organization without affecting the personal
responsible for skilling the students in the
lives of the employees.
school resonated with his thought process.
He also shared that strategic hiring is
Another factor that encouraged him to join a
challenging as why a reputed and a skilled
not-for-profit start-up was the genuineness of
individual will work with us while
the founder and the way the thoughts
compromising the compensation. It was found
regarding the idea were communicated seems
that he sells the vision and call to co-design it
promising, thus generated a hope of doing
with them. The entrepreneurial stint is being
something good. He also shared that he was
sold to people, which is still challenging. In
confident of pulling it up by himself along
such interactions, he keeps the weightage of
with the team.
the compensation to be too low. He shared
that skills and requirement are aligned. The most important thing was his life
situation. He had a 1.5 years of work
Pragun Aggarwal | Employee | Khevaiya
experience and was actively looking to work.
Innovations and Research Foundation
He was in the state of ‘Just get started
A 22 years young graduate was very keen to working’. This feeling along with others were
work in Social development sector, preferably enough to at least give a trial to work in
education while looking for opportunities to Khevaiya.
work.
No family responsibility, a strong financial
In an interaction, he shared that his alignment roof from parents were unsaid factors that
was with any organization/initiative working helped him to explore the different path for
at systemic level that helps in solving a root life.
cause of the problem. In this scenario,
Khevaiya happens to be solving a root
He also mentioned that for him along with a Vatsal Dusad | Founder | Blackboard Radio |
decent compensation, the right kind of people Ex-Employee- Avanti Learning Centres Pvt
i.e the aggressive, logical and progressive Ltd.
energy and the potential an idea has will be
A businessman at heart and someone who
important for him from an employee
wants to create an impact, Vatsal Dusad an
perspective while joining an
IITian started Blackboard radio after working
organization/initiative/movement etc.
in Business Development for 4 years in an
education start-up. He was amongst the first
few employees, there. As an ex-employee
upon asking what motivated him to join the
start-up when he could have chosen lucrative
offers from other companies, he mentioned
that first it was the cause of taking IIT-JEE
preparation to low-income level students as
they were leading the volunteering chapters in
their college and secondly, he was confident
to bring business to the company and want to
experience the business development side of
it.

For him, the learning experience was

important as starting an entrepreneurial
journey at some point in time was always in
his mind.

For-Profit Start- As a founder, while building the initial team,

the first thing he looked upon were people on
ups Conversations
whom he can trust therefore he relied on the
referrals. He believed that people want to
work hard and feel good about themselves and
that they are contributing in the growth of the
organization. Thus, people with right attitude
should be brought. By right attitude, he means
go-getter, someone with people skills,
someone with process-oriented nature, etc. He
also mentioned that need of the organization at
the early stage is an important factor to be
considered. For eg- a developer, a designer,
etc. He shared that initially the most important
thing is that there’s no time to build trust or to
scout for people on job portals. Either it
should be transferred from someone else or in
a hue.
He wants to build a team which can deal with
ambiguity, disciplined w.r.t their tasks and
enjoy working what they do. He very clearly
stated that a start-up cannot fulfill all the
requirements of the employees. If we founded
something, the first 5 team members brings
their value system with them that makes the
culture of the organization. He understands
that flexibility and ownership needs to be
given thus, there’s no leave policy as such in
the organization.
An intelligent, humble and caring champ who
wants to make big, make the lives of children
better by giving them a platform to speak
English without being judged and leave a
legacy behind.
Swarnima | Ex- employee- Inshorts| Founder-
TheaCare
An ex-employee of one of the reputes start-
ups Inshorts shared her experience as she was
one of the first members of the team when the
founders were Bootstrapping. As an
employee, her major reason to join them was
her own ambitious nature of getting exposed
to
- From junior level to middle level,
people are attracted by the fancies of
the company’s infrastructure, attractive
compensation and a basic work.
- Jobseekers, especially the fresh
graduates believe that start-ups can
give them growth and learning curve
and give good compensation packages.
They don’t ask right questions.
- They know about their rights but are
unaware of the duties and
responsibilities that are required to be
fulfilled to be eligible for certain
rights. There’s a huge temperament
mismatch in the regard of a start-up.
- 2 important reasons to join Inshorts
were: a) Motivation to help a person
with same age and middle class
background and support siblings for
their growth, b) a young ambitious
graduate was attracted to the different
 world of start-up than academia where
value system was different and had an
immense possibility of learning and
exposure.
- Reasons of quitting: Initial value of
diversity was getting lost gradually. It
was visible in the team and product as
well. Personal value clashed at a
certain point.
- As a founder, she took extra care to
have diverse people. The impact was
that the product made by the company
is applicable for majority of the
women.
- The impact of diversity is that the
product development caters to variety
of people and increase your customer
base.
- Initially, with start-ups its an informal
setting to keep cost down and have
more learning opportunity.
- The achievements of start-up matters.
Vani Thakur| Employee |Avanti Learning
Centres Pvt Ltd | Fellow at Gandhi
Fellowship
4 years back, after completing Gandhi
Fellowship Program – a residential program to
enhance leadership capabilities of young
individuals by bringing changes in the
education sector, I did not feel as such to join
a start-up. I was looking for a team to work
with that can give me a feel of similar people
said Vani Thakur.
She mentioned that website created the first
impression. It is the online presence that
attracts one’s attention and gives you the feel
of how the organization, the work and the
people are. Asking upon on seeing what, gives
you the feel of the organization, she replied
that it’s the choice of the content w.r.t the
team, the activities done, the values shared,
retreats and other things that make you feel
connected, welcomed and left you with a
wanting feel to join. In short the presentation
of the organization’s culture along with the
work they do and the believable value system
they share, attracts the job-seeker to even
apply for the positions.
While choosing Avanti as her first employer,
apart from above she felt that it would be fun
to work with a young and flexible team. It was
a believe within that the wavelength can be
matched and the environment with flat
hierarchy would be interesting to work with.
She also shared that she liked the idea and
vision of the company but couldn’t see herself
growing there while teaching Math’s and
Science even above things helped her to take
that plunge at least for a year.
The plunge was successful, and she completed
th
her 5 year in Avanti.
She also expressed that whether
organization or its people makes you feel as a
newcomer or is open to make you feel a part
of it is an important factor of the culture you
practice. On asking about diversity, she shared
that bring 5 people together, in some way or
the other the crowd is a diverse entity. The
wavelength can match, and the intensity of
diversity can be different but as personalities
diversity always exist.
What is important work completion i.e
ownership of your work or the number of
hours you stay, shows the culture you want to
practice.
Insights drawn
1. Employer Branding of an start-up in its
initial stages are the founders, the idea
and the small team that they gather.
They don’t have the bandwidth to
consciously invest time in Employer
branding.
an
2. Points of Parity within every startup
remains same w.r.t the culture
development but the way of doing it is
different.
3. Points of Difference between start-ups
arises as soon as they jump from
bootstrapping stage to seed funding to
raising Series A.
4. Points of Difference majorly lie in
assigning the priorities w.r.t people.
The investment of time can vary with
the stage a start-up is in.
5. To build initial team, psychodynamic
segmentation helps start-ups as they
majorly look for a combination of
attitude and skill set.
6. In start-up culture, the core values tend
to reflect the personalities and ethos of
the people who work to build the
business in the initial years unlike a
 corporate culture where the core values
are informed by the identity of the
company.
7. Jobseekers perceive start-ups as a
learning and earning place- a general
notion. Every start-up doesn’t fall in
this category. Being incubated in a
reputed centre, getting some online
presence, or seed-funding etc adds a
lot of weightage in the way start-ups
are seen by the jobseekers.
8. At junior and middle level, job seekers
are attracted by name, the company
has built in the market and assume the
culture to be good enough to survive.
At the initial stages, the majority
questions are regarding the need and
survival of the job-seeker. Major
questions regarding growth came with
senior-level management employees.
9. In general, start-ups do not invest in
marketing activities to get their
employers or build any kind of
employer brand. They rely on their
networks to get initial employees.
10. Mental well-being of the team is of
utmost importance to founders in the
initial years of the business thus
forming the core team.
11. The benefits, compensation and
rewards that a start-up can offer solely
depends on the stage they are in.

Strategies to build an Employer

Brand for a start-up

The best employer branding comes from a trusted resource you already have: your employees.
Online Presence is the only way that a start-up can build it’s Employer’s brand. The question is
on individual preference of investment of time. Below mentioned are the ways to do it:

For upcoming start-ups i.e. at Bootstrapping/ Seed funding stage:

1. Company pitch and vision: The first and foremost thing is to communicate company’s
vision to the jobseekers or passive applicants or to the investor. A founder while pitching
 it to a prospective employee might not know how to build that vision but invites a
prospective employee to build it together.

2. Make recruitment everyone’s job: The need for employees in an upcoming start-up is
very specific. Either it could be skill-set based or for a very specific role along with a
diverse personality. Everyone might not have time to take interviews or do psychological
tests, but it is required that everyone is partially involved in recruitment process. The
least employees at start-ups can do is to refer people. Pitch them the exciting work they
do and bring them to a point of being interviewed.

3. Define the culture early: Culture is practiced. It exists from day 1 and can only evolve.
When two people come together, they bring their set of values and habits, that gradually
define the direction in which culture can be taken. It is imperative that founders spend
some time in understanding what culture they would like to have in their organization.
Experimenting and failing, keeping in mind the employees’ career-growth and
aspirations, a weekly team meet, flexibility w.r.t leaves and ownership w.r.t work are
few elements of a culture that can be implemented and practiced.
4. Online presence: Unlike the older days, today the first thing any jobseeker or investor or
customer does is ‘Googling’ the company or the product. Not finding anything in the
results doesn’t encourage anyone to trust or put their faith. Even to build trust in your
own network, sharing through online media is MUST. The least any founder or a
company can do is write weekly emails to their friends, family, investor community, etc
or publish LinkedIn/ Glassdoor articles sharing what transpired in the previous week
and make them a part of their journey. Other things that can be done are having a
Facebook Page that gets updated weekly or fortnightly or sharing on the personal wall.

5. Retaining Employees: While there is a crunch of cash-flow, retaining employees

becomes difficult. Hope and possibilities of growing together are important ways to
make people retain at the early stages. ESoPs i.e Employee Stock Option Plans or Pay
for performance or giving them full ownership of their work, covering expenses before
taxes such as giving food cards, Sodexo/zeta cards are few ways to retain them. If they
 relate to the cause/idea/vision, they will stay, else they will go. Founder’s must know that
staying in start-ups is difficult. It’s chaotic, unstructured, unorganized and ambiguous.
Every individual will not be able to survive in this culture.

For established start-ups i,e. after raising Series A/strong cashflow

1. Establish Employee Value Proposition: ‘What’s in it for me’. A view of what an employee
can expect from the company in exchange of coming to work for you is important to define. A
complete EVP package needs to be defined. This could be as simple as flexibility and giving
ownership of work. Few things that can come under EVP:
a. Alignment of vision: Give the employee a reason to join the company and work either
for a cause or for the profit generation. This alignment will always help the employee to
have reasons to stay unless the situation is really bad.
b. Training and Development: Training of managers is must as it keeps them
exploring new things and also helps them to broaden their horizon. Generally, the
learning and development is done to make the work easier and to equip them with
the tools to be used in the current and upcoming scenarios. But, it is always a
good practice to allow employees to train themselves in their interest areas and
leadership attributes keeping in mind their career growth. As employees cannot
commit to companies for rest of their lives, similarly no start-up can commit to
an employee for rest of their lives, thus importance of training and development
is relevant.
c. Compensation strategy: Design a decent compensation strategy with ways to get
incentives and bonuses.

2. A strong career page: This is must. This is one thing that a start-up should invest their time.
Majorly jobseekers get the feel of the organization’s culture by viewing the website in and out.

3. Be proactive on Glassdoor and LinkedIn: Reviews from CEOs and others help in building
a view regarding the organization. Suggested ways through which an online presence can be
made stronger is:
 a. Videos: Make videos of employees sharing their dreams, or what they want to accomplish
or what they believe in or what failures they faced and how are they carving their way
out.
b. Inter and intra-team interactions: Avenues to be found to have inter and intra-team
interactions. Company bonding takes employees a long way to stay.
c. A focused blog on life at the company: how you celebrate failures or how you celebrate
b’days or what you do when the team get’s frustrated with failures or not cracking the
product or how your founders keep your motivation up day-to-day life motivation- all
these and others show our belief system and values that we hold, which further shares our
culture.

Suggestive Strategies for

Blackboard Radio

Blackboard Radio is an early stage start-up with a cash flow of around 9 months. At this stage,
the product validation is done but we are identifying the scale mechanism. Therefore, there’s no
focus on Employer Branding. Also, the need for employer branding doesn’t arise as we don’t
seek to expand the team now.

We strongly believe in let’s do things the right way for our customers and then do expansion.
Few things that the founders of Blackboard Radio can do are:

1. Start an fb page with the focus of sharing the progress made by our users and how our
employees work hard in making things work- the idea is to make our user a part of our
journey.
2. Designate an employee or do by yourself: start writing atleast 3 emails in a month to
friends, family, team, etc.
3. Show appreciation and recognize efforts.

Bibliography:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290083

https://www.hellotalent.com/blog/employer-branding-for-startups/

https://hiring.monster.com/employer-resources/recruiting-strategies/talent-acquisition/employer-brand-
strategy/

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/how-can-startups-work-towards-building-their-employer-
brand.htm

https://www.inc.com/john-boitnott/use-these-5-effective-strategies-to-keep-employees-happy-long-
term.html

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/333948
https://hbr.org/2018/07/7-compensation-strategies-for-cash-strapped-startups