Building a better working world starts with an inclusive interview process.

Below is an overview of our three-step interview process to attract and convert high-potential applicants with enduring human capabilities to our growing organization. Read on to learn how to leverage this process to grow your team(s).

First, let’s cover logistics. The entire process can be done across three one-hour sessions in as little as a week and a half. You could complete this more quickly, but we like to give applicants time to reflect on the previous step to prepare for the next.

What are the outcomes of this process? Our offer acceptance rate with this process has been 80% in the last 24 months, and all hires have been top performers relative to their peers. Most applicants that do not move forward thank us for the self-discovery and leverage what they’ve learned to win other interview processes (I generally offer advice or make book recommendations to candidates if they ask for feedback).

Some might say the below is a lot to ask of an applicant — it is! However, we believe that work and life are integrated, and our job is as important to our well-being as our relationships. Therefore, this process is a bit like dating!

Right … let’s get to it!

Round 1

The first round focuses on Vision and Purpose. We share our unit?vision?and core values, then ask the applicant to share or explore their purpose for work. This is the best time for the team or department leader to join to communicate the vision.

What we're looking for: We want to see if applicants can express compassion, vulnerability, and curiosity to connect with our?vision. This is necessary to understand if they've plumbed the depths of their reasons for working and are self-authoring in their professional life. We look for an overlap between their purpose and?our vision.

How we grade: This round focuses on inclusion by putting it front and center. We view inclusion as a two-way street: to get trust, one must give it. We explain the data and intuitions behind our vision. Purpose can be challenging to articulate, so we coach applicants in this step to show them the kind of support they'll get once they join. If applicants are not ready to open up or need to do more introspection on their purpose, we encourage them to reflect and apply again in the future.

Round 2

We ask applicants to complete a SWOT exercise where they present their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats if they were to take on the role they're interviewing for. This is an excellent time to invite our technical interviewers to participate and ask questions.

What we're looking for: We give applicants three simple rules: Be sincere, be objective, and show off a little — we want to see your superpowers. We're assessing baseline critical thinking and getting a feel for the extent of their compassion for customers and collaboration skills.

How we grade: This round is intended to explore the limits of the applicant's abilities (we're all finite as humans) and shows whether or not they've learned to collaborate when facing challenges in the past. If they lack self-awareness of their development edges, we encourage them to spend time reflecting and to apply again in the future.

Round 3

We ask candidates to complete a Working Backward exercise where they present the job description for the role they imagine themselves in five years after joining our team. This helps us (and them) explore their creativity and pulls together the key learnings from Rounds 1 and 2.

What we're looking for: We want to see if the applicant has genuinely taken on the feedback from prior rounds. We assess their willingness and creative approach to prioritize their professional pursuits ahead of what they think we're looking for.

How we grade: Generally, it is a good sign if we can link their future job to the job we're asking them to take on today. It gives us plenty of data to link their aspirations to their learning & development journey, performance management, and rewards (e.g., variable compensation).

Several friends and professional contacts have borrowed some or all of this process for their team and achieved similar outcomes.

If you want to try this for your team, there is some pre-work. This process's prerequisites are (i) a unified team vision and (ii) shared core values. Ideally, there is a 1, 3, and ten-year plan to reference throughout the process.

For background, our team runs a Vision & Core Values Workshop once annually to refresh these human-centered assets. In addition, we run an Inclusive Leadership Activation Lab for all team members to develop their future leadership capabilities and support them when encountering less-ideal leadership styles.

In addition to sharing this process with all of you, I'm keen to get your input on improving it. My desired outcome is to attract more fantastic people to our cause, so let's co-create together in the comments below.

To learn more about this interview process, our workshops, and other leadership topics, you can message me directly or email [email protected] to learn more.