Recruiting and onboarding are your Number 1 Priority

Recruit The Right People

Recruiting is number one priority if you want to accelerate, transform, inject agility, get ahead of your opposition. Its common sense right? So why do so many companies still get it so wrong. In this article I'll bring to life my approach to recruitment, that's from preparing the approach and outcomes you want to achieve, through the the stages of awareness, interviews, then the 'accepting offer to day 1' journey, to onboarding, and at the end, probation and beyond. That's right, your recruitment process doesn't end when the interviewee says yes, that's only the beginning.

Getting the right people in, with the right skills, mindsets, will elevate your company, put you on the front foot, increase your agility, and will have a domino effect of so many things like up-skilling, self development within your teams, and accelerate you to having high performing teams. If you have the opportunity to recruit, and get new people into your company, you're very lucky, because you are being given a chance to accelerate your change rate.

If you are struggling with landing change, agility, agile mindsets, DevOps mindsets, because the naysayers are the majority, then recruitment is one of your opportunities to build a new critical mass, to land your firestarters, to land people who can then influence the change you want to land and influence others within your teams

How can you afford to get the onboarding wrong?

Here are some stats to bring the message home, the stats below are for a seasoned tech professional

• Roughly the first month:?After training is completed, new employees are functioning at about 25% productivity, which means that the cost of lost productivity is 75% of the employee's salary.
• Weeks 5 through 8:?The level goes up to 50% productivity, with a corresponding cost of 50% of the employee's salary.
• Weeks 9 through 12: In this timeframe, the employee usually reaches a productivity rate of up to 75%, with the cost being 25% of the employee's salary.
• Following the 12-week mark:?Companies can expect a new hire to reach full productivity.

If you add in the cost of your Talent Acquisition team, the cost of the hiring manager and interview process, the cost of the buddy, the velocity of the team being reduced in line with the figure above, the time the team needs to invest in new starters, the HR onboarding, the meet and greets with tech leaders, the question is, how can you afford to get this wrong

BREAKING NEWS: You own recruitment

I'm going to state something that I think is obvious, but may come as a shock to some. If you are recruiting for positions in your team, then you own that. Not HR, not Talent Acquisition, not your Boss, or your Boss's boss, not the CTO, not the CEO. You. You own your recruitment. All the people listed previously are people to assist, enable, help, advise, un-block, help you understand boundaries, but it's you as recruiting manager that owns the recruitment.

When it comes to recruiting new people into my teams, why would I not want to own that. I know the changes I want to make and the people I need to do that, I know my vision for what I want to build that ties completely into my company's Mission, Vision, and Purpose, so why pass that on to someone else. In fact, how can it be anyone except me, or you. Onboarding is complex and its a real collaboration of all the roles I've mentioned so far.

It cuts across and involves the awareness stage (job description creation, advert creation) interviews, offers, onboarding, probation - can HR or one person or team do all that? No, they play a major key role of supporting you to do it, and keeping you within safe boundaries, but its up to you as recruiting manager to drive and put the energy and passion in

This all about collaboration, and not acting as a silo, taking ownership is not to be confused with acting as a silo. You are the driver, the force behind it, and others are there to be involves, not be excluded.

It's also important to see the interview process as a growth opportunity for others in your teams. So think about how you can bring them in to the process, how you can breed succession management into this process. You won't be in the role, or in your company for ever and you have a duty to make sure when you leave, the process doesn't stop

As you read this article, hopefully, you start to realise the cost (effort) involved in getting this right, or the other flip side, is the cost of getting this wrong. Why have such an important process, and cut costs / corners by not doing it right

The Foundations of Recruitment and Onboarding processes

Checklists are your best friend

One of the things I did at The Very Group, TLA, and Gear4Music was create simple checklists for the whole process, from beginning to end, right through to probation period. I even created a checklist for the new starter that they own as from day 1, a list of things for them to do and own, for them to work through once they joined.

Having checklists builds in repeatability into your process. It helps remove human error, and also helps others you need to pull into the process know what needs to be done. Lets face it, you can't work every working day (holidays, sickness), so you need checklists so the whole process continues when you are off. There are also possibilities to automate some of the checklists and completion of into slack, or MS Teams

A few checklists I create are as follows:

• First stage chat
• Second stage chat
• 'Congratulations' chat
• Yes to Desk External (Candidate) - also covering off things like coffee / tea / fridges / microwaves / stationary
• Yes to Desk - Internal (What we need to do) tasks that need doing before starter starts
• What role the team they are joining plays
• Day 1 - what do we need to do Day 1
• New starters own checklist - They own this and the sort of things we put on these are putting in one to ones themselves with key people, getting specific systems set up by XX day, any additional paperwork, familiarisation with systems, processes, and we set some fun challenges
• Week 1 - we create a timetable for each day at high level and a check list what we need to do for week one
• Week 2
• Probation - the preparation, the review session itself, and the celebrations afterwards

* Caveat - this looks different for graduates, apprentices, interns

Flexibility

While using checklists are great, don't forget to be flexible around your candidates. SLA's are great for driving your performance within the process, don't lose sight that your candidates are people with their own challenges, especially in the current landscape. At TLA I went at great lengths to work with the agency to ensure the candidate felt it was the right time for them, due to childcare issues. The interview ended up being 2 weeks later than I'd initially wanted, but that's OK, because it meant we got the full candidate in the interview, rather than a distracted, unprepared one

What a bad recruitment process looks like? The anti-patterns

In creating my checklists to help me through the process, I always a create an 'antipattern' wiki page, what a bad process looks like from a recruiting manager perspective, from a candidate perspective, from a team perspective, and from the company perspective. This is really valuable exercise to do with others, and your own teams, as it allows you to shape what great looks like and the anti-patterns, and allows you to hold a mirror up when you start seeing the anti-patterns emerging

Map out your candidate journey

Sounds obvious to do this, but it's a really good exercise. Many companies and teams map our Customer Journeys on their websites so why not do the candidates recruitment and onboarding journey, it's just as important. I like to map out the touch points a candidate will have, and who with, and the outcomes we want to achieve. It also allows for discussion as to who does what at what stage, hence you are discussing ownership. Here is a fantastic article I still refer back to on Candidate Journey Mapping

Interviews

This feels like a separate post I need to write for this section, at high level, here's some considerations I take into account

• Have a 'pre-interview' session with others to align, think outcomes, and put each other at ease
• Have a realistic SLA to feedback on CV's and feedback on interviews to agency or internal TA
• Have constructive feedback if its a no at CV or interview stage. Feedback is a gift, so take a bit of time to give feedback to the candidate
• If in a room for the interview, think about the room, the setting, air con, lighting, windows, whiteboards, pens, TV screen and connecting cables, refreshments. If remote, test the tech, the online meeting app, sound, backgrounds etc
• Plan plan plan - who asks what, who does introductions, who closes things down. What do you want to achieve.
• Really think about relaxing the interviewee and not going hard early on and always offer them a drink, and put thought into how you make it a two way interview
• If anything changes around the interview, tell the candidate. Shocks can send some people into a wobble, and that's not fair on them
• Question asking is a skill: You must plan, as you need to be able to ask the right questions to see if they are right for you. Reviewing the CV in depth before the interview, I usually also check them out on social media to see if I can pick up anything
• How you close is really important, next steps, SLA's on feedback, who will contact them, what happens if its a no - will they get feedback. On this note I have called people to see if they want to come in for a brew and have a feedback session. Whenever I've done it, I've always had really great feedback on how its gone, but the main thing is to help the candidate move forward
• I always start the face to face interviews with a tour of the office, again, to relax the candidate. If you have a wow factor for your office, make sure you land it early doors.

When they say yes act immediately

As soon as someone says 'Yes' to an offer I don't wait till the day before they start to reach back out to them, or even expect HR to do that. I reach out as soon as possible (same day) in order to:

• Congratulate them, to tell them how pleased I am they are joining. Make them feel special. Give them feedback on why they got the role, what did you really like about them
• Land their purpose, explain next steps
• State you'll have regular touch points / follow up sessions leading up to start date to take any questions they may have (even more important if notice period is 3 months)
• Paper work - although covered by HR, still be aware how the paper process works, when contracts are sent out, if any additional paperwork is sent
• Let them know how to get in touch if they have questions
• Make the commitment to them that you will be building an onboarding plan that you will share with them before they join

The outcome of mapping out this specific example above is the new starter feels valued as an upcoming new employee, they feel engaged, they feel like you care. The period of 'Yes to Desk' where they say yes, to the point they start day 1, can be really stressful still as they prepare for leaving their current role, saying goodbye to colleagues , and mentally preparing to start a new job. Why wouldn't you want to to make that period as stress free as possible for them. Also consider the current employee might be preparing a counter offer. If you've reached out almost immediately to go through those bullet points above, you may have just averted losing someone.

'Yes to Desk' period

Lots of experiences I've been through myself have been poor from the moment I've said 'yes', to walking through the door. Focusing on this specific period I call 'Yes to Desk' (stolen from Google I think) is something I really nailed at The Very Group, TLA, and Gear4music. Not just by doing the points raised in the 'Map out your candidate journey' section above, but making sure the internal events and actions were lined up so when the person does walk through the door it all looks calm and planned. Things to consider, obvious to some, not so obvious to others are: Chatting with the candidate throughout the 'yes to Desk' period, and planning, planning, planning for their start date

Chat to the candidate throughout the 'Accepting the offer to them walking through the door' period

It's really important to keep communication going through out that period of once they accept, right through to walking through the door (or starting, as it might be remote) I tend to have video chats with the candidate throughout their notice period. This serves many purposes.

• It re-iterates that we are over the moon they are joining, as I state it in every comms we do with them from Yes to Desk period whether that be written or video chat
• It keeps the wolf from the door around counter offers. In these video chat I try to make it sound as exciting as possible that they are joining us
• It shows we care. I tend to take questions they might have there and then, and if I can't answer them, take them away and get answers asap. This again shows great engagement from their perspective
• Help them if they ask around areas they want to up-skill in before starting. They might want some pointers however, I am always clear that working a notice period and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues can be really tough, and stressful, and they should focus on that rather than add to the workload of up-skilling for the new start

Depending on notice period, I tend to do 2 video chats if they are on a 3 month notice period, and a single video chat if they are on one month notice

Yes to Desk for the Candidate

As well as communicating throughout the 'Yes to Desk' period as stated above, the below points are also important to consider and action:

• If any of the plan changes, let them know, nothing worse than been told you are joining team A, and then on day of arrival, told they are joining team B with no explanation. I actually went to Manchester one night to have a coffee with Simon Long (now at Co-Op) because I felt the plan for what team we wanted him to join had changed. I wanted to land this message face to face so Simon could see I was genuine in why the change had come about
• Set expectations for day one. I always get new starters to start at 10am on day 1 and finish 4pm. I do this for the first day (or even week) because it can be stressful starting a new job and tiresome taking on new names, building new relationships, learning new systems etc. At Gear4Music we make the first week 10am till 4pm and the feedback has been its really helped from a wellbeing perspective AND its helped the team that they have gone into especially the recruiting manager. It means they get time either side of 10am - 4pm to get stuff done early doors, clear the path for the rest of the day, then have some time back at the end of the day to catch up with others
• I've started sending out a week 1 and 2 rough plan to them as it shows we are planning for their arrival. Letting them see the first couple of weeks gives them confidence, puts them at ease, and allows them to understand what will be expected of them
• State their purpose: Everyone wants to know and understand their purpose I've found. Its something that came out of the recruitment and onboarding retro sessions I held while I was at The Very Group with new starters. "I wasn't clear on my purpose". That direct feedback led to me changing and adapting, taking the feedback on board and now at every opportunity in the Yes to Desk phase I make sure their purpose is clear, I re-enforce why we want them to join
• More feedback from the Retros for new starters while I was at The Very Group was basic logistical stuff people wanted to know before they joined. Stuff I assumed wasn't important, and I was wrong. Things around coffee, tea, milk, sugar, hot water for drinks, cold water, microwaves, fridges. Was the canteen open? Bring your own mug, water bottle. Was anyone taking them for lunch day 1? I now cover all this in the Yes To Desk period, as I now know its important to know this stuff.

Yes to Desk for Internal Logistics

• Team: The team they are joining play a huge part with the day 1, week 1 and 2, and how the new joiner feels with joining their new team. Engage the team early, ask them their ideas how they want to welcome the new starter, give ownership and empower the team to come up with events, techniques to onboard the new team member
• Kit - sounds stupid, but how many of us have started day 1, and had no kit. What I Bundle under this topic is access to systems as well. Most companies you get generic systems set up on arrival, and then the team has to coach the person through set up of team specific systems and set up. This can be lengthy and if not explained before the person starts, can be frustrating for the new starter. Sometimes going through team specific system setup can be a great pairing exercise and chance to get the new starter to know people
• Communication. Make sure all the right people know that there is a new starter, their name, the team they are joining, why they are joining from a company perspective. Plan pre day 1 comms, and then day 1 comms which should be a welcoming and celebration type comms
• Plan with the team the new starters first day, week, and week 2 in a timely manner. What I mean by that is not the Friday before a Monday start date. This planning will involve taking delivery managers on that journey if they already aren't. Make sure everyone knows their role in those first two weeks, and their roles before the person joins. What preparation do people need to do prior to day 1. Remember - checklists are your best friend. I always have a 'Yes to Desk' checklist, a 'Day 1' checklist for myself / internally, a 'New starters' checklist that I give to the new starter themselves to own and do, a 'Week 1', and 'Week 2' checklist. I also give the new starter before they join a timetable for each day with roughly a key event or thing for them to achieve in the AM and PM for each day, just so they can see the shape of the first two weeks
• Part of that planning should include a team lunch of breakfast in week 1, how the team get to know the new starter, one to ones with the team, bringing them into agile ceremonies / events from day 1 so they don't feel left out, who the buddy will be, who the mentor will be. Really important, Day 1 - who is going for lunch with them if they want someone to go with
• The plan also need to focus on work. My experience is every new starter is different, but every new starter wants work to do pretty quick as that's how they feel they are adding value, so plan how they can get into work mode quickly, but at the right pace for them. Having that honest and open conversation with the new starter before they join to discuss this is important
• Important to plan according to role and experience. A graduate coming into their first ever role will need a different plan to a person with 20 years plus. Context is king. This will drive the whole recruitment process, the onboarding, the pace of day 1, week 1, week 2, month1, right through to month XX if you are going through graduates, interns, straight from college, and then building in diversity needs of people may shape a different recruitment process

Day 1 / week 1

• Block out your dairy well in advance, this means you can give the new starter your attention. Also worth pointing out I insist on the new starter doing 10am till 4pm for the whole of the first week. This gives the people buddying / welcoming them into their role some time either side of that to do some work
• Be flexible, adapt. All battle plans are great until you go into battle. So with all the planing in the world, the day 1 / week 1 plan can change the moment they walk through the door. What I've always done is made sure there are plenty of space fillers, or back up plans in place for the new starter
• I dove tail their first week, each day, with a friendly 5 - 10 minute chat in the morning to cover off the days plan, and then end of day catch up to see what went well, what we need to tweak for the next day
• Put the new starter at the centre of everything you do. Think of them as a customer on your website. When you plan value add to the website, you put the customer at the centre of those plans, do the same with the whole recruitment, 'Yes to desk', onboarding, and probation period.

Retro for the onboarding process

I've found these absolutely vital for myself, the onboarding manager, the new starter and the team. I hold a specific retro and get key people to attend to discuss the whole recruitment and onboarding process. That's the interviews, Yes to Desk, day 1, weeks1 and 2 etc. This has always been powerful as the new starter sees from the managers eyes what's gone well, and what hasn't, and what needs to change, and then visa versa.

As a senior manager at The Very Group, I'd have the test manager in there, the new starter or starters if we did a mass intake, myself. When I first did them, I was worried the Test Manager would see it as throwing them under a bus if there was anything that comes out that wasn't great. Don't forget what I stated at the beginning, I also own this process as well as the Test Managers, and I want to learn, to make it better for the next person that comes through the door. It turned out the Test Managers actually felt exactly the same, that they saw it as an opportunity to learn. Another benefit was the new starter felt listened to, and felt they play a part with other new starters moving forward

At Gear4music we made it wider and our TA / HR function was present and took place in the retro

The Probation Period

It's really important that the new starter fully understands the probation period early on. Passing probations are massive for most people, not just from a relief perspective. On top of that, they usually release other benefits to the new starter, so why would you not plan it? Every single company I've been at has been poor at this. No single person seems to have the answer as to how it runs. Well, make that person you. Own it, document it (lightly), and of course, make sure that document is a checklist so its repeatable going forward. Also put an invite in their calendar really early doors for the probation review session itself. It sends out a clear message that its important to you, and therefore important to them

Think Outcomes - what outcomes do you want to achieve by having the review. Obviously there should be no surprises coming up to and during the probation review date, feedback loops are king. Ensure the new starter gets all the feedback they need to pivot or carry on in the direction they need. There is a great book called Radical Candor that can help with feedback, really good book. Regular one to ones with the news starter are really important obviously. If your culture is a culture of feedback then hopefully the new starter will have received feedback from others as well to re-enforce where they are at on their new journey

For the probation review session itself, ensure the settings are right, time of day, all of this matters. Set a good time aside - sending the invite out early doors means others cant steal that time, and don't rush the session. Too many times I've had a letter given to me and told I've done a great job, and then my manager has 'had to rush' - didn't leave me with a great impression. Plan the session, plan any key messages you want to land, but again, these shouldn't be surprises. Also state how you plan to celebrate (if they pass) outside of the session, state what comms will be going out, any additional paper works, be clear what perks are now enabled and next steps for the perks (pension is a great example)

Diversity

Obviously mega important and still really hard to get right. Something I did at The Very Group was have a session with our women in the Test community (that doesn't nail the whole diversity spectrum, but it was a start) around our interview process, and around diversity. Someone passed a remark to me before I did this session, "you're brave". 100% wrong, I was doing what's right, thats not bravery.

Lots came out of the feedback, and words were highlighted in our adverts I hadn't given a second thought to, they fed back some words came across as aggressive. Also the feedback was bullet points are seen as quite masculine. As someone who is dyslexic bullet points actually make it easier for me to read, but I hadn't associated with them being masculine. The best bit of feedback though, I was asked if I spent the same time reading a male CV to female. The answer was most the time I didn't look to see the name, but yes, I did spend the same time. Men are very good at stating what they do or know. Women on the other hand tend to under sell themselves. So now I slow down with CV reviews in general now and I feel I have a far more open mind when doing so.

I start every singe interview with a 'please tell us about yourself from an outside of work perspective, but to relax you, we'll go first' type kick off - usually 2 minutes per person'. The reason for asking this at kicking off with this is many fold. The most important is I genuinely want to know about the person I'm talking to, I want them to relax, but it also allows me to use my emotional intelligence to see if there is anything I can pick up on which means I need to change my approach in the interview.

Everyone comes from a different back ground, everyone ability to speak into a screen these days as first chats now tend to be on video, are different. Emotional intelligence is key in interviews to assess quickly and see if you need to change due to the diversity of the the candidate. One woman informed us early on she was autistic. On working with HR, we worked on a format that we felt would work, we ran this past the candidate, and then we did not divert from that plan. The feedback was really great, and made me feel really proud.

HR teams have always been really good at helping me think differently around diversity. I also attend a number of meetups that discuss diversity in depth. This isn't enough though, this isn't nearly enough to help me crack the diversity challenge. I've discovered there are tools that you can run your adverts through to see if there are any masculine or feminine words in them. This really helped us when creating our adverts at The Very Group. I've worked with a number of great companies that work with getting kids who may not be an obvious choice for a career in tech, in front of people like me, hiring managers. When working with Agencies, its worth asking them their approach to attracting diverse candidates. One person who I really value in this area is a good friend, Amy Newton - check out her LinkedIn profile

My advice here is right at the beginning of the process when embarking on a recruitment strategy, in your agenda for the kick off meeting with others, big bold letters, put "What's our diversity strategy and approach" and ask for help from those that can help

Wrap up

A long article, but one that I hope helps. Please get in touch if you have questions, or any feedback

This post represents my own views, and not that of any company mentioned