How Houston startups can hire top talent amid 'The Big Stay' trend of 2024

Guest column

Here are some tips to help startups and small businesses break through to candidates who are content in their current position or afraid to jump to a smaller business in today’s market. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

Attracting “A-plus” talent when job candidates are favoring "The Big Stay” is a challenge for small businesses today. This is especially true when small businesses are competing with larger corporations for the same top talent.

To help startups and small businesses break through to candidates who are content in their current position or afraid to jump to a smaller business in today’s market, small businesses need to strategically position themselves as an attractive, viable alternative.

The following tips can help small businesses increase their appeal and attract top job candidates.

Employer branding

The employer brand or managing your reputation among job seekers and internal employees, plays a crucial part in attracting talent. Your internal workplace culture influences current employees and potential job candidates, but it also includes your digital presence. You want to ensure your digital footprint – website to social media – reflects your values, culture and successes. Your career page is a first impression for the job candidate. Including testimonials, day-in-the-life videos and clear job descriptions enhances the appeal of your organization.

Online reviews are another area that needs attention from an employer branding standpoint. Managing your reputation on review platforms like Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn, exhibits how you address concerns and take any corrective action. It is also a barometer for many job candidates regarding employee satisfaction and potential areas for improvement.

Unique selling points

Your product or service has a unique selling point (USP) for customers and your company has a USP for talent. Small businesses usually trump larger corporations in flexibility and innovation. Small businesses can make quick decisions and employees can make a big impact on the company’s direction and success. When job candidates desire to make a substantial impact and have a more dynamic work environment, this is a definitive USP.

Learning and development programs that offer greater opportunity for leadership, cross-functional work and rapid advancement than your larger competitors can be appealing to top talent. Many high performers desire to move up the ranks and make a notable impact as quickly as possible, which is quickly attainable with startups and small businesses. The pathways to career advancement are many times less rigid in small business.

Compensation and benefits

Startups and small businesses usually cannot compete head-to-head with salaries, but there are a number of other ways to make your business more attractive to top talent. Starting off, you need to do your market research to ensure your compensation package is competitive, but other desirable benefits to consider include work-from-home or flex work options, health and wellness programs, financial wellness programs and robust retirement plans. Offering flexible benefits packages that can be tailored to meet the needs of employees at different life stages can be a considerable draw as well.

Candidate experience

When you are trying to recruit candidates who may be content with their current positions, it is important to make the application process as straightforward and clear as possible. This shows attention to detail, tells the candidate that you know what you want in an employee and it is respectful of their time. Once they apply, being responsive to their communication, establishing clear timelines and providing constructive feedback further elevates the candidate experience.

Referrals

Employees are your best recruiting tool. A personal referral speaks volumes since very few recommend candidates who would not fit the culture or the jobs available. Additionally, encouraging current employees to share their positive experiences with the company on social media can help cast a wider recruiting net.

Even though many employees are choosing to stay in their current roles, startups and small businesses can position themselves as attractive employers of choice. When you intentionally position yourself in an authentic manner, top-tier talent looking for career-growth opportunities, influence and meaningful work can be lured away from large competitors that may offer more traditional stability and name recognition.

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Jaune Little is a director of recruiting services with Insperity.

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Rice University lands $18M to revolutionize lymphatic disease detection

fresh funding

An arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $18 million to scientists at Rice University for research that has the potential to revolutionize how lymphatic diseases are detected and help increase survivability.

The lymphatic system is the network of vessels all over the body that help eliminate waste, absorb fat and maintain fluid balance. Diseases in this system are often difficult to detect early due to the small size of the vessels and the invasiveness of biopsy testing. Though survival rates of lymph disease have skyrocketed in the United States over the last five years, it still claims around 200,000 people in the country annually.

Early detection of complex lymphatic anomalies (CLAs) and lymphedema is essential in increasing successful treatment rates. That’s where Rice University’s SynthX Center, directed by Han Xiao and Lei Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, comes in.

Aided by researchers from Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the center is pioneering two technologies: the Visual Imaging System for Tracing and Analyzing Lymphatics with Photoacoustics (VISTA-LYMPH) and Digital Plasmonic Nanobubble Detection for Protein (DIAMOND-P).

Simply put, VISTA-LYMPH uses photoacoustic tomography (PAT), a combination of light and sound, to more accurately map the tiny vessels of the lymphatic system. The process is more effective than diagnostic tools that use only light or sound, independent of one another. The research award is through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program, part of the U.S. HHS, which saw the potential of VISTA-LYMPH in animal tests that produced finely detailed diagnostic maps.

“Thanks to ARPA-H’s award, we will build the most advanced PAT system to image the body’s lymphatic network with unprecedented resolution and speed, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis,” Li said in a news release.

Meanwhile, DIAMOND-P could replace the older, less exact immunoassay. It uses laser-heated vapors of plasmonic nanoparticles to detect viruses without having to separate or amplify, and at room temperature, greatly simplifying the process. This is an important part of greater diagnosis because even with VISTA-LYMPH’s greater imaging accuracy, many lymphatic diseases still do not appear. Detecting biological markers is still necessary.

According to Rice, the efforts will help address lymphatic disorders, including Gorham-Stout disease, kaposiform lymphangiomatosis and generalized lymphatic anomaly. They also could help manage conditions associated with lymphatic dysfunction, including cancer metastasis, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.

“By validating VISTA-LYMPH and DIAMOND-P in both preclinical and clinical settings, the team aims to establish a comprehensive diagnostic pipeline for lymphatic diseases and potentially beyond,” Xiao added in the release.

The ARPA-H award funds the project for up to five years.

Houston doctor wins NIH grant to test virtual reality for ICU delirium

Virtual healing

Think of it like a reverse version of The Matrix. A person wakes up in a hospital bed and gets plugged into a virtual reality game world in order to heal.

While it may sound far-fetched, Dr. Hina Faisal, a Houston Methodist critical care specialist in the Department of Surgery, was recently awarded a $242,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to test the effects of VR games on patients coming out of major surgery in the intensive care unit (ICU).

The five-year study will focus on older patients using mental stimulation techniques to reduce incidences of delirium. The award comes courtesy of the National Institute on Aging K76 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging.

“As the population of older adults continues to grow, the need for effective, scalable interventions to prevent postoperative complications like delirium is more important than ever,” Faisal said in a news release.

ICU delirium is a serious condition that can lead to major complications and even death. Roughly 87 percent of patients who undergo major surgery involving intubation will experience some form of delirium coming out of anesthesia. Causes can range from infection to drug reactions. While many cases are mild, prolonged ICU delirium may prevent a patient from following medical advice or even cause them to hurt themselves.

Using VR games to treat delirium is a rapidly emerging and exciting branch of medicine. Studies show that VR games can help promote mental activity, memory and cognitive function. However, the full benefits are currently unknown as studies have been hampered by small patient populations.

Faisal believes that half of all ICU delirium cases are preventable through VR treatment. Currently, a general lack of knowledge and resources has been holding back the advancement of the treatment.

Hopefully, the work of Faisal in one of the busiest medical cities in the world can alleviate that problem as she spends the next half-decade plugging patients into games to aid in their healing.

New accelerator joins the Ion and more Houston innovation news to know

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Editor's note: The Houston innovation scene is buzzing with big news this month, from a new accelerator joining the fold at the Ion to pre-IPO funding and national expansion plans. Below are the five most-read InnovationMap stories from Feb. 1-15, 2026:

New accelerator for AI startups to launch at Houston's Ion this spring

The new AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator is expected to launch in March. Photo courtesy of the Ion

The Collectiv Foundation and Rice University have established a sports, health and wellness startup accelerator at the Ion District’s Collectiv, a sports-focused venture capital platform. The AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator is scheduled to formally launch in March. Continue reading.

10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events in February

From recurring monthly favorites to the return of annual celebrations and summits, here's what not to miss in February. Photo courtesy the Ion.

February may be a short month, but its event calendar isn’t. From recurring monthly favorites to the return of annual celebrations and summits, here are the Houston business and innovation events not to miss — and how to register. Continue reading.

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