Recruiting talents

How to attract top talents?
Regarding teams, being a challenger, being independent attracts talent and the right kinds of talent for our company. People choose to come to us instead of someone else for specific reasons: we’re ambitious, we like a challenge, I like to think we’ve kept a startup type mindset even if we have a team of over 100 people.

Where to find them?
You have to look far, which we do beyond our region. It’s become commonplace for us to go to Metz or Nancy. So, we go more to Brussels or Paris where the markets and medias are much more developed and skilled people working in sectors much bigger than ours, and there are things for us to learn because the other way around, it may be of less value.

What title for a first hire?
For our first employees, the running joke was “To work here, you need to be a Swiss army knife! You’re hired as a journalist, but you have to take pictures, and don’t forget to answer the door when it rings!” But that’s just how it is! And that’s how 5 people were able to do the work of 10.

About hiring key skills.
I’m not sure there’s a rule that works for everyone. I think if a resource, if a skill is strategic then it’s best to have it in your company. And if it’s really very strategic, then it should be a shareholder.