Live @ Seminar 3: Recruiting for Early Stage Companies
First tonight, Bruce Edmond, Corporate Recruiters.
1980 - 20% of corporate value from intangible assets. 2007 - 70%
Current market conditions are strong. In BC, overall unemployment is 4.1%. In the scientific/technical sector, 2.7%. The dot com bubble has resulted in people leaving the industry and fewer graduates coming into the field. It’s only going to become more difficult to recruit talent.
Recruitment Process (of a recruitment agency). Build a recruitment plan by understanding the business, detailing a position description (early stage companies rarely give a description), and build criteria for the search. Sources used to find people include local contacts, use database (28 years), research, and web research. Mr. Edmond reminsces about his early days, that His job was a lot harder before the web. ZoomInfo and LinkedIn are two major directories of employees. “Who here knows about LinkedIn?” Many hands raise, laughs. Someone in the audience says “It’s the Web Two Point Oh!”.
What can you do as a new entrepreneur? If you’re in new territory, use a trusted advisor who has hired before. Keep an open idea of what you’re looking for. Use a recruitment plan and start early. In Mr. Edmond’s opinion, the most important qualities are, in order: cultural fit, experience, industry knowledge, product knowledge. Where do you find people? Peers and collegues, advisor/investor network of contacts, job postings, and schools.
Final tips: Hire someone who can bring a team. Have multiple interviews, with different people and settings. Have a sense of urgency. Testing is an option, and good for high ranking positions. Follow up references in detail. Don’t underhire, have high standards. Hire for the right stage of the company.
Question: Contract vs. Permanent employment. Which is easier to attract?
Answer: In his business, he only deals with permanent positions. Often early stage companies will have trial periods for new hires
Second speaker: Lorene Novakowski, Fasken Martineau, talking about the laws of employment.
Employment is a contractual relationship, distinct from others. It triggers right and obligations that exist including tax payment, IE payment, Worker’s Compensation coverage. Companies are liable to third parties for employee actions on the job.
Independent contractors vs. employees. The terms of a contract don’t necessarily specify the relationship, under the law the nature of the relationship is considered. Contractor: sets own hours, pay usually based on deliverables. Contractors are still required to be covered under Workers Compensation.
Question: Does it make a difference to have an external companies
Answer: Yes, that is a good way to do it, but it doesn’t change the relationship.
Question: What events could trigger a WCB audit?
Answer: Doesn’t happen often, usually would only happen because of a complaint.
Employment Standards Act; covers things such as minimum wage and work hours. Certain professions are overtime except, including high tech professionals. This includes engineers and developers, but not technical support. Hours still cannot be excessive. Break regulations also don’t apply.
Frequent employer errors: incomplete record keeping. Miscounting of commission earnings and other forms of pay. Overtime claims. Penalties are mandatory and increase exponentially.
Basic IP Law: need contractual protection in place to ensure proper ownership of works. If a work is made by an employee during the course of employment becomes the work of the employer. The best way to protect yourself is a well written contract.
Employment Contracts. Ensure terms don’t violate any laws. Have employees sign the contract early. If the employee is hired to be an inventor, ensure that IP terms are clearly stated. Employees should provide employers with a list of past inventions and patents. Confidentiality provisions should be included in an agreement and specific. Non-compete agreements need to be narrowly defined, restrict to time and geography. A non-solicit agreement can be more effective.
