New Talent Strategy: YTU Startup House

The capabilities of each talent in the team are an important parameter for success. It is also very important to have someone on your team who can voice the concerns of individuals and keep a finger on the pulse of cultural issues. A culture of transparency and open feedback helps startups solve problems faster. Building a team that will act on these value propositions is really a difficult task for startups at all levels.

As startups grow, they are unable to reach the talent pool for sudden position requirements due to disadvantages such as not having a brand name yet and not being able to provide competitive salaries. The concept of 'trust' comes into play at this stage in acquiring talent in startups. Entrepreneurs are therefore trying to acquire talent by evaluating people within the framework of familiar or trusted networks and recommendations. Another common theme is that employees believe that startups offer an innovative solution to an important problem in the best possible way. In cases where this belief cannot be established, problems arise such as the motivation of the employees being negatively affected and therefore the needed talents not being retained in the team.

Incubation centres run programmes to overcome the challenges that startups face in acquiring and retaining new talent. Let's take a look at some unique examples around the world that offer startups access to the talent they need and lead the development of that talent.

STATION F is working to establish a strong ecosystem by implementing a wide range of acceleration programmes for the growth of startups on its way to becoming the 'World's Largest Startup Campus' by gathering the technology world in Paris. It organises various events to support entrepreneurs in working with the right team, which is one of the biggest challenges of entrepreneurs, and ensuring sustainability.  With 'Talent Fair', it brings more than 100 startups together with new talents and supports an entrepreneur's growth journey by enabling unique new talents to join the ecosystem.

Y Combinator (YC), one of the world's largest startup accelerator companies, supports the development of talents by creating a free platform for the best startups to share their experiences with the Startup School programme. It offers curriculum that inspires entrepreneurs of all levels. In addition to the development of talents, it also offers the opportunity to find a job in the best startups and provides one-to-one meetings between YC company founders and talents.

What Should you expect at YTU Startup House?

YTU Startup House carries out over 15 programmes to transform out-of-the-box creative ideas into entrepreneurs who build the future. With a multi-disciplinary team, it redesigns the entrepreneurial experience and brings the entire ecosystem together to solve problems that need solutions on a global scale.

The new generation "Talent Management" programme, which takes its place under the roof of YTU Startup House, with the strength of YTU's 111 years of talent development culture, YTU supports startups to

• Stand strong against the most important challenges of the talent wars of the future
• In the areas of providing access to new talents,
• Transforming talents into brand ambassadors,
• Improving employee engagement,

improving digital experience and increasing organisational resilience.

This programme creates innovative solutions by exploring the challenges in retaining and attracting new talent. It is developing new methods to discover what is 'more attractive' to highly qualified employees and to keep loyalty high.

Let's identify some of the unique parameters adopted in talent acquisition and retention for startups.

Understanding employee expectations

We recognise the importance of being the voice of the next generation of workers to accelerate the birth of billion-dollar disruptive startups that will cross borders. For this reason, one of the most valuable aspects of our programmes is to create solutions to the problems by making interviews focused on the needs of our entrepreneurs. This is a fact that startup employees want more. Employees who are focused on rapid growth prefer to know what impact their actions have, and especially the new generation of employees wants to know where they fit in the big picture. We help them to connect the view they want to see with the strategic goals of the startup and help them to reveal their contribution. We fully understand the expectations and build an ecosystem.

Location Independent Working

Environmental variables have affected the traditional work organisation. Expectations have changed in terms of where, how and when they choose to work. YTU Startup House takes centre stage here by focusing on employees and offering remote working opportunities to support their approach to attracting and retaining talent. It creates an ecosystem where employees will be happy. New generation business models that enable remote working are becoming a centre of attraction for young and talented employees without being bound by physical space limits. In addition, by offering co-working spaces and hybrid working opportunities around the world, we facilitate the access of new talents to our startups day by day with our 'Different Continents in the Same Atmosphere' claim.

Becoming a Brand Ambassador

Each of our startups has a brand reputation and personality. When employee values and company values and goals overlap, employee commitment and loyalty to the organisation increases, thus enabling employees to become strong brand ambassadors. YTU Startup House carries out activities to be closer to its members, to understand them well, and to advocate for the masses in order to increase the resilience of startups.
Digital Learning Ecosystem

YTU Startup House strengthens the resilience of our startups by providing relevant learning and networking opportunities for startups in the digital ecosystem it has developed. We develop the human resource profile that startups need within the framework of innovation strategy with programmes including new generation training, seminars and workshops. In addition, YTU Yıldız Technopark is home to more than 550 star technology companies. On this platform, we create environments where founders can share their experiences with new talents.

YTU Startup House has succeeded in making entrepreneurs more agile and economical solutions and creative in their products and services. To drive this forward in a sustainable way, we recognise that the right way to keep up with the increasing frenzy of innovation is to start with the right teams and retain them. YTU Startup House talents who graduate from the "Talent Management" programme, which we carry out in order to create value in the ecosystem, become ambassadors of the institution because they feel a sense of belonging to the institution and act on the road to success with the common value with the awareness of "WE". In terms of revenue and growth, the number of billion-dollar ventures in Turkey is expected to increase to 10 in the next two years. In this context, we believe that YTU Startup House, which has a strong position, will have a place in the global competition by increasing the number of shining entrepreneurs with its programmes.