The Dos and Don’ts of Hiring – Part 1
Joshua Dion
Chief Technology Officer | Hands on executive | Change agent | Helping teams deliver the most valuable features, quicker to market
Hiring the right people is one of the most important responsibilities of a manager. Who we decide to bring into our team dramatically impacts how successful the company will be and how happy our teams will be. Given the importance of hiring, how much effort are you putting into ensuring your organization has a well-oiled hiring process?
In this two-part series, I’ll reveal some tips and tricks that I’ve learned over many years of hiring experience.
Part 1 <--- You are here
Up-level your recruiting game
A good recruiter is worth their weight in gold. Ineffective recruiters will waste hundreds of hours of the interviewing team’s time. How much time have you spent hiring the right recruiter?
Do…
- Hire recruiters with a strong, industry-specific, local Rolodex of talent. The best recruiters have a stable of candidates that they have built a relationship with over years.
- Incentivize your organization with referral bonuses. Loudly communicate with your organization about the referral bonus program. Applaud team members who provide great referrals.
- Share open positions on LinkedIn and encourage others to do the same.
Don’t…
- Assume that any recruiter will suffice.
- Overburden your recruiters; A recruiter with 30 positions to fill will do very little actual recruiting.
Train your interviewers
Have you ever found yourself invited to interview a candidate, only to realize you know nothing about the position being filled, nor anything about what the hiring manager is looking for in a candidate? It’s happened to me MANY times. As a result, when I am hiring, before any interviews take place, I get my interview team on a call so we can discuss the interview process.
Do…
- Explain the role/position that is open and what an ideal candidate would look like.
- Discuss what traits, behaviors, and experience are valued.
- Discuss what traits or behaviors are red flags to look out for.
- Discuss what questions should never be asked (i.e. teach your team about discrimination in interviews).
- Ensure the hiring team understands all steps of the interview process, and how a decision will be made.
- Consider delegating the final hiring decision to the people that will work directly with the candidate. E.g. When hiring a new scrum team member, I often delegate the hiring decision to the team.
Don’t
- Surprise your interview team.
- Assume that your interviewers know what you’re looking for in a candidate.
Thoroughly coordinate the interview process
As a job searcher, how many time have you been asked the same question over and over in an interview? As a hiring manager, how many times have you got to the end of long interview cycle, only to find out that none of your interviewers asked a critical question? An unprepared interview team is, at best, inefficient. In a worst case scenario, an unprepared interview team can result in hiring the wrong candidate.
Do…
- Be deliberate about how much of the interview will be focused on technical skills vs behavioral.
- Give each interviewer a focus area for their interview.
- Discuss who on the interview team will ask specific questions.
- Consider panel-style interviews for more experienced candidates. Panel interviews streamline the interview process and can reduce total interview times from 5-6 hours to 2-3 hours.
- Consider scheduling a group candidate review. Discussing in a group setting may reveal interesting details of the interviews. E.g. I once had a candidate bomb an interview question, only to completely change (falsify) their answer to the same question later on when asked by another interviewer. This wouldn’t have been exposed had we not been in a group candidate review discussion.
Don’t…
- End up asking the candidate the same question five different times.
- Interview someone for hours and only then discover you need to bring them back because you didn’t ask the right questions.
- Hire candidates solely based on technical ability.
- Forget the importance of cultural fit.
What say you?
What are some of your tips for hiring?
Senior Release & Tools Team Member at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
4 年I like 2 or 3 on one interviews and have used this successfully in the past. Ideally each small group also knows what they should focus on for their part of the interview process as well. Re: Team fit: Include your interns when/where it makes sense too. In the past one candidate was disqualified because of their "who are you to ask me questions?" response to this. Notice how the candidate treats the person who greets them in reception as well.
Senior Full Stack Software Engineer | Go| Python| Java| Docker| Kubernetes| OpenAPI| Microservices| GRPC| Protocol Buffers| CICD| DevOps| Helm| ArgoCD
4 年Nicely put together. Looking forward to read Part 2. I agree for all the do's and don't of hiring. Its important to understand the job requirements you are hiring for as well as to hire the right candidate that fits your team's culture.
Systems Administrator/Architect
4 年Very solid advice on all points.
Vice President, Growth and Transformation Programs, IBM Systems
4 年Great advice Josh. I look forward to reading part 2. One important thing is to make sure you have a diverse set of interviewers reflecting the culture of the team/company and different points of view.
Head of Business Analysis
4 年Ensure you have a solid job description that fully encompasses your needs, as it will need to be well circulated to ensure adequate knowledge of expectations for your recruiters, interviewers and candidates!