In the dynamic world of start-ups, the hiring decisions you make can significantly impact the trajectory of your business. One of the key early decisions you’ll face is whether to hire a generalist or a multi-hyphenate. Both bring their own set of skills and strengths and understanding when to hire one over the other is crucial for the success of your start-up.
Generalists: The Jack-of-All-Trades
Generalists are professionals who have multiple specialties and variety in their work. They bring a wealth of knowledge and adaptability to your team, making them valuable assets who can flex in and out of various functional areas in several scenarios.
Multi-Hyphenates: the Versatile Visionaries
Often known as Generalising Specialists, multi-hyphenates are individuals who are focused on one specific skill while they are trained in other areas. They can collaborate between their general skills and the specialized skills they have.
how DO you know when to hire a generalist or a multi-hyphenate?
Strategically assess your start-up’s specific needs, objectives, and problems to solve
Specialized Skills vs. Various Skills: A generalist will be of value if you are looking for someone to support multiple projects in various areas such as marketing, public relations, and operations. They will be excited to have variety in their work and take on new challenges while learning new skills. If you need a specialized skill but want a unique perspective you may hire a multi-hyphenate. For example, a multi-hyphenate engineer might use machine learning algorithms to analyze marketing data, automate advertising campaigns, or personalize content for users.
Time & Budget: Both generalist and multi-hyphenates can save you time and money, depending on the nature of the challenges you face. When a single generalist fulfills multiple roles, resources can be allocated more efficiently. Generalists typically exhibit self-starting qualities and demand less hands-on supervision, which translates to time saved. If you need a problem solved quickly that needs specialized experience that also feeds into other areas of your business, a multi-hyphenate might require less training and be able to contribute quickly.
Rapid Problem Solving: Generalists are skilled at problem-solving across different domains and are known for their adaptability to learn new skills and take on different roles as needed. With their diverse skill set, multi-hyphenates can support challenges while maintaining their area of expertise to keep the quality of the work.
Leadership & Team Cohesion: Start-ups require clear leadership and teamwork. Generalists can provide connection and evoke confidence in a project when their team gets asked questions and they need broad knowledge. Because they have their hands in multiple areas of the business they can easily predict challenges and problem-solve ahead of time. A multi-hyphenate helps their team perform better by using their specialized knowledge across the board and offering additional perspectives.
Depth of Experience: To support your growth you need individuals who can collaborate cross-functionally and use their area of expertise to connect with the team. A multi-hyphenate can share their experience and knowledge from their deepened skillset, while generalists can pull insights from those experiences and connect the dots.
Why This Works
Understanding your needs, goals, and objectives informs the hiring decisions you make, And as we don’t have to tell you, hiring the right people is a pivotal factor that can make or break your start-up, especially in the early stages.
You can evaluate when flexibility and versatility are needed to get your business off the ground and when more focused expertise will help take it to the next level. By assessing your specific needs and aligning your talent strategy with these factors, you can assemble a team that not only effectively tackles challenges, but also fosters innovation, adapts to industry changes, and contributes to your success.
Why Do This Now
Whether you’re in the early stages or ten years in, understanding your unique needs, objectives, and problems will help you hire the right people and establish a solid team to help you grow and scale.
As with everything in start-up land, the quicker you can chart a strategic path forward, the more informed and decisive your decision-making will be. By taking some time to focus on the type of people you want to embed into your team, you will significantly streamline your people operations while avoiding bloat or the dreaded need to re-hire, as the costs of recruitment are significant.
how We Do: Build a position analysis framework to clearly identify hiring needs that align with your company's overall mission
A well-structured framework sets the foundations for success. By understanding these elements, you can align the roles you intend to hire with both short-term and long-term goals and strategies. While it may require some extra initial effort, the benefit of establishing clear identifiers ensures that you attract individuals with the right skill set.
Tools 🛠️
Notion can be an easy tool to get you started in documenting all the different roles needed to scale.
Lean on ChatGPT to assist you with comprehensively considering the skills needed as well as any potential tasks or responsibilities you may have failed to consider.
Folk can be a great tool to track candidates so you can make clear, data-driven decisions.
Rules (Process) 📝
Identify your company’s specific needs, objectives, and problems you want to solve. Consider how the roles you're hiring for align with your short-term and long-term business goals and strategies.
Conduct an analysis of the job you're hiring for and the problem you are aiming to solve. Identify the specific responsibilities, skills, and expertise required for the position and any cross-functional areas that need to be considered.
Create a list of projects and responsibilities for the position and prioritize them based on their importance and impact. Evaluate whether a generalist or multi-hyphenate would better contribute to these objectives.
People 🫶
Work with the executive team to identify the needs of the business and ensure they are included in the hiring process.
Review your current team to provide clear visibility into the makeup - how many generalists, specialists, and multi-hyphenates are in your org?
Ask current employees for feedback on the recruitment and hiring process as well as current company needs.
Review your org charts and implement a roles and responsibilities chart (RASI) to identify gaps and blind spots in your org.
Actually Actionable
Nice article. Now what?
We’ve taken the ideas above and created an action plan for you and your team.
Objective 1: Talk with current leaders, collect data, and analyze
Meeting 1: Meet with the team members involved in hiring and identify current objectives, skill gaps, and problems that need solving. (1 Hour)
Task 1: Identify the specific responsibilities, skills, and expertise required for each role and determine your criteria for hiring, thereby establishing the core of the job posting. (2 Hours)
Task 2: Review the information above to confirm that all gaps in your operations have been considered from a people standpoint (1 Hour).
Objective 2: Enter information into Notion or Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Task 1: Input the job description and relevant data into Notion or your applicant tracking system. (30 minutes)
Task 2: Determine whether the needs of each role require the skills of a generalist or multi-hyphenate and how those traits fit into the greater makeup of your org. (30 Min)
Objective 3: Review and develop a hiring plan
Meeting 1: Meet with your hiring team to develop a plan that incorporates specific questions and identifiers in consideration of the requisite needs of the role and your pre-determined strategy to consider a generalist or multi-hyphenate. Your hiring plan should identify the positions to fill, a strategy for each type of role, the creation of the job posting, and the development of an interview plan. Further, you should consider the best places, potentially beyond LinkedIn and Wellfound, to search for candidates. (1.5 hours)
Before you go
Having a clear understanding of the reason you're hiring for a position and the impact you want that position to have will help attract the right candidates capable of elevating your company. In a world where the professional landscape is ever changing, priorities have shifted leading to people no longer having a straight path when it comes to their careers. They want connection, impact-driven work, and the ability to create space for their interests beyond work. As a founder, embracing this and establishing your company as a place that supports and seeks out folks who approach work differently puts you in a position to draw in the brightest candidates. Beyond that, seeking out individuals who want to diversify their skill set and have multiple passions only enhances their adaptability and makes them a better fit for the rapid change and uncertainty that is inherent in a start-up.
Writer: Jen
Interested in working with Jen through of All Trades to transform your marketing and talent operations? Email founder@weofalltrades.com for more on how to bring her in as an embedded operator in your startup.