The Dos and Don’ts of Hiring – Part 1

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

Part 2

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?