Role of Human Capital in Growth Enterprises in Finland: Recruiting and Retaining Talent

Abstract

When a small business grows, one of its key challenges is to find personnel who will enhance that growth. Earlier studies indicate that in many fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises, the main problem is finding and retaining high quality employees. Knowledge of human capital, comprising human resource processes and leadership, might help an owner in personnel matters because growth entrepreneurs must begin to increase staffing and learn how to develop and implement human resource management (HRM) practices. The faster the growth the small firm is facing, the more likely it will experience human capital problems. The research question of this study focuses on the experiences of Finnish entrepreneurs with regard to recruiting and retaining personnel to enhance company growth. This empirical study focuses on twenty-nine Finnish growth-oriented entrepreneurs’ views on issues related to human capital. Most of the entrepreneurs were interviewed face-to-face, and a couple via Skype or phone. The interviews were semi-structured and took approximately one hour each. They were then transcribed and read through several times. Qualitative content analysis was applied. The results support earlier studies, indicating that there are many challenges in finding the right personnel. Especially, employees with international experience were highly valued but especially hard to find. A company changes as it grows; therefore, personnel need to be flexible and able to learn new skills. These changing requirements were one of the more challenging issues in recruitment. In order to retain personnel, entrepreneurs apply mainly modern leadership skills and generous remuneratation. To support growth entrepreneurs, it is important to recognize personnel needs at different stages of growth.