In my views millennials are no more and no less ambitious than the generations that came before them, the only difference is that they have access to information in ways that are immeasurably better than ever before, therefore they have much more choice to cure their discontent. I mean, just think of the flexibility such things as Skype interviews have provided the average job-seeker. Gone are the days when you had to get on the next thing smoking out of town to seek your fortune; you can now interview for jobs in LA, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and NYC, all in the same day, from the comfort your home. Employees can walk out from their managers office after a bad meeting, jump online and start applying for jobs right from their smart phones. They know they are stuck in a boring job, because they are literally bombarded with the innovation, creativity, happy stories from other companies… with all that happening out there, how are you attracting and retaining the best?
Great points... its always tricky though to strike the right risk management posture on whether simply retain and run higher risk of flight for key talent, or run the risk to cash-flow of employing key staff on a fulltime basis.
For support staff like HR, Finance, Legal e.t.c, it's almost a no brainer, don't hire until you really have to, and even then, explore other service delivery models.
For the talent creating IP upon which your value is based, it's not such an easy call
I believe the the easy aspect of staffing a new start up is not acquiring the staff but retention of the said staff. This points to two key areas in my mind. One is the location of the business as travel time if unreasonable, can be a great deterrent to staff and the staff are likely to not be around for the long haul. Secondly it is in my mind important that the office( or location) set up should be geared to the type of staff that one will be recruiting. Comfort in the workplace is essential and this can be seen in the layout and amenities available at organizations such as Google which actually encourage employees to spend more time in the office and not be inclined to rush out to "have lunch " off site.
Money does not lead to high retention but quality of benefits does.
What has been the biggest challenge at the start-up phase?