So, you have gathered funding for your SaaS-based app idea. And now you want someone to execute this app idea for you. You have some developers in your team, but they have little experience in handling such flagship projects.  And maybe, the stakeholders aren’t ready to risk this project over intermediate tech skills. What’s the surest way to guide your app idea to success?  You can hire some skilled developers, but their knowledge might be restricted to coding. 

 

In such a case, you need a suitable Chief Technical Officer. However, here is another catch. You might lack the technical expertise required to scrutinize a CTO candidate.  In this situation, many companies outsource their CTO hiring work to specialized recruitment agencies.  This approach can help you accelerate your CTO hiring process. Albeit, there are certain shortcomings of this approach if you aren’t cautious enough.

 

Here we bring you: 

 

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Outsourcing your CTO Hiring Work

 

1. You Haven’t Defined the Roles and Responsibilities for Your CTO Candidate

 

So, you are all set to entrust the CTO hiring responsibilities to your external hiring partner. And this recruitment firm already has the right set of qualifications to analyze a CTO. But, does it ensures that you get the right candidate for your business? 

A common mistake businesses make is that they fail to define the reason for hiring a CTO. Unlike some other job roles, you cannot afford to rely on generic job descriptions when hiring a CTO. 

So, before you outsource CTO hiring requirements, you must brainstorm extensively on:

 

• Why my organization requires a CTO?
• What would be the leading roles and responsibilities of the CTO peculiar to my company?
• What type of expertise am I looking for in a CTO candidate?
• What long-term goals do I wish to accomplish with the help of a CTO? 

 

Unless you have answers to these questions, you are likely to hire the wrong candidate. 

You must consult these questions among your team. And must pass on the definite answers to the recruitment company. 

These answers will help them understand the reason behind your hiring decision. And the hiring agency can include these as crucial considerations during the vetting process. 

 

An Alternative Approach

 

In some cases, it would be challenging for a non-technical CEO to validate his hiring decision. Or he might stumble at defining the long-term roles and responsibilities for a full-time CTO.  

Therefore, an advisable approach is to hire an interim CTO for specific short-term roles. This approach can help a CEO understand the roles of a CTO with much clearance. 

You can also hire CTO as a Service solution to achieve your business-specific goals until you plan for a full-time CTO. This solution helps you curtail the risk of wrong hiring. 

 

2. You are offering a Lucrative Incentive for Accelerating the CTO Hiring Work

 

When it comes to hiring campaigns, the incentive-based approach is highly rewarding for businesses. And it significantly accelerates the hiring process. 

But, this proposition might do more harm than good when you are hiring a CTO. Though the established recruitment agencies follow stringent hiring standards, big incentives can steal the show. And an external recruiter may hide some bad cards just to close the hiring process faster. You must understand that a CTO hiring process can traverse over several weeks to months. A CTO is a part of your decision-making squad, and his roles are highly critical to a company’s success. 

 

Moreover, when hiring a full-time CTO, you also allocate a handsome budget towards his payroll. So, a bad hiring decision challenges your business growth and preys on your budget. 

Nevertheless, an external agency can help you hire a CTO for your business. You must focus on drawing the right value from this hiring instead of filling the void faster. 

In situations where the delay in the hiring process affects your project, you can hire part-time CTOs. 

 

3. You Aren’t Willing to Break the Barrier of One-way Communication

 

One major shortcoming of outsourcing your hiring work is one-way communication. You might have communicated your definite requirements with your recruitment partner. But, you are still unaware of a candidate’s expectations from you as an employer. 

This limitation becomes more unfavorable when you hire for your C-suite squad. 

A CTO candidate is most likely to have oodles of questions for you. And limiting this window of two-way communication can undervalue your hiring decision.

 

Some major issues pertaining to one-way communication include:

 

·       Hiring a candidate with limited boss management skills: A CEO must ensure that he stays involved in the hiring process. And he must connect directly with the shortlisted candidates to assess their boss management skills. 

 

·        Hiring a candidate with unrealistic expectations: A CTO is generally employed for a long-term value. And he is likely to have unrealistic expectations about his future roles. So, two-way communication is essential to set the right expectations for a candidate. 

 

• Lacking the tools and resources suggested by a CTO: A CTO candidate is likely to suggest to you some tools and resources that he prefers to use. And he might want you to prepare for these resources before he joins. So, he can deliver good value from the first week itself. 

 

However, if this information doesn’t get to your ears, the setup process is delayed. And it will also delay your return on investments.

 

4. You Haven’t Aligned Your Team with this New Position

 

Making a hiring decision in secrecy isn’t advisable, especially when hiring for an influential position like a CTO. Though you have outsourced the hiring requirement, your team needs to be aware of it. 

A CTO can bring some crucial changes in the team dynamics, processes, and culture.  

He might also:

 

• Establish new vetting processes for the tech talent
• Add a unique array of development tools, project management tools, communication tools, etc. 
• Introduce new performance analysis processes and standards
• Set up new feedback sharing processes 
• Change the reporting managers for some teams and alter the team dynamics  

 

These changes are likely to have a huge impact on your business. And your team must be ready for these changes. 

 

If you do not channelize these changes smoothly, you might witness repercussions like:

 

• Loss in productivity 
• A hindrance in team management
• A backlash from your team
• Increased employ retention challenges

 

Therefore, you must keep your team updated with influential hiring decisions. And must keep the managers up-to-date with the progress in the CTO hiring process. 

 

5. You Haven’t Discussed Your Company’s Goals and Culture

 

The last thing you would want to do is hire a CTO who isn’t aligned with your company’s goals. No matter how obvious it may sound, some CEOs still make this mistake. And they end up hiring a CTO who isn’t familiar or in line with the company’s motive.This mistake is evident in the case of outsourcing the CTO hiring process. You might have shared the roles & responsibilities that you require a CTO to fulfill. But, you are likely to miss upon a brief about the company’s motive and its culture. Moreover, if you aren’t actively involved in the vetting process, you are unlikely to realize this mistake. 

 

And this mistake can bring forth issues like: 

 

• Invalidated long term strategies
• Imbalanced and unproductive team dynamics
• Directionless roadmaps for the tech team 
• Faded tech stance of the brand (In the media and among prospects) 
• A dispersed and unmanaged team culture 

 

How can you avoid the above aftermaths? 

You must ensure that the external recruiters communicate about your company’s motive with the candidates. And they must scrutinize whether a candidate is willing to align with this motive and culture. 

Another viable piece of advice is to actively participate in the recruiting process. And you must establish a two-way communication culture.