3 critical hires most startups make too late

Every budding entrepreneur will attest to the fact that in the early days of a startup journey, the most important thing is growth. Due to this mindset, you reasonably assume that all your hires should directly contribute to your growth objectives. For example, for a tech startup, engineers and marketers are most important. These people build features and products that will fulfill customers' needs and create a demand in the market for your product. It is therefore a no-brainer that you will stick to hiring as many of them as you can. But there are other roles too that are integral to your long-term success. In most cases, the default strategy is to hire them when you can no longer function without them. For some roles, this logic might work. But for some other roles, you need to hire sooner than you think.

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Here are three critical hires most startups ignore before it's too late.

Operations manager

In addition to bringing new employees on board and measuring and improving employee happiness, an operations manager also implements employee policies like PTO and parental leaves and he/she also administers payrolls and benefits. Most founders hesitate to make this hire as they believe they can handle the responsibilities of this role on their own. Sometimes it is difficult to know what the ROI of employee happiness will be as it only becomes visible when it's missing. The reason this hire is worth your time and money is because once you hire them, you can focus on running the company instead of spending time on the nuances of day-to-day.

Recruiter

A recruiter builds and grows the pipeline of talented candidates for your company. He/she handles the complete hiring process, right from calling candidates for an interview to sending them their offer letter. The reason most startup entrepreneurs are reluctant to make this hire is because they are not sure how much they'll grow in the coming months and whether or not there will be a need to hire. However, it's worth bringing a recruiter on board as having an in-house recruiter is more economical than working with agencies. Also, he/she can work with your team to build a strong referral engine.

Data analyst

A data analyst creates and maintains the infrastructure to collect all the data your company needs. He/she builds dashboards and reports for each team to track their progress and make data-driven decisions. Most founders hesitate to make this hire as they feel like every team should be in charge of their own data. Sometimes, founders are also unsure of the value a data analyst can provide. But it is imperative to fill this role as with an analyst on board, every team can focus on their core expertise and everyone knows how they are faring in terms of key KPIs.

As a founder, you know your company's needs and requirements better than anyone else. But whenever you have the financial leeway, recruit the above mentioned three hires. We promise you will not regret it.