Unconventional Hiring

I recently posted a poll to LinkedIn to see what the community would like to see me write on next.?I really anticipated it would have been one of the first two options on either third-party identifiers or one on artificial intelligence.?I added a third that I am passionate about, but never thought would get picked.?Well, it did.?This is my commentary on hiring.?Please don’t read it as a set of instructions; I intend this to a set of ideas that you can turn over, think about, and use to evaluate your own hiring.?I am not under the impression that I have everything right, but these methods have worked for me.?If you are approaching this with rigidity or complete confidence in your own process, then keep that.

Hiring is a process, one drastically aided in most organizations by the recruiting teams, HR, and the company’s employees (especially through recommendations).?Depending on your company though, that can either be a lot of help, or practically no help at all.?I have been in both situations, but what I am about to share I believe is helpful no matter which.?What I share will also be controversial; not everyone is going to be onboard with these recommendations and not everyone can even implement them.?

Today as managers we are dealing with “quiet quitting,” giant paychecks offered by competitors, and theoretically two jobs for every seeker, so how do we find the best people??I would venture that practically none of these matter all that much.?Maybe you are thinking that this assertion is bold? or arrogant? or misguided??Maybe.?Maybe it’s all the above, let’s explore.

The Role

Let’s start with how to find great people.?Well.?Actually, we need to start with how to win people.?Have you written your job description (JD)??Does it tell the potential candidate all the job functions??Does it tell them all the requirements??Does it tell them how awesome your company is??Do you think that those things are what is going to win you the best person for your role??It might, but it probably won’t.?“But that is just to get good people in the door,” you say.?Okay, fair point, but does it always work??

I want to find the best so, what if we start with the role you are trying to fill??Why are you trying to fill it??Did someone take on a different role??Why did they leave??There are a lot of reasons someone might leave, but unless it is under your encouragement and support to move on to something better, there is something you probably should take to heart about why the person left.?People say they leave for a variety of reasons: pay, company direction, management, better opportunity, time off/need a change.?Heard any of those??Every single one points back to something under your control.?If someone cites one of these as their reason for leaving, you should be deeply evaluating why they left as you think about their replacement. ?

Pay – if they get a raise greater than 15% elsewhere, you are probably falling enough behind fair compensation for it to be a reason people will continue to leave.?OR the person is overqualified, and you have not moved them to what’s next for their career, so they found it somewhere else thus increasing their pay.?

Company Direction – might be iffy on being within your control, but either you need to help that person catch the vision, or if it is actually that bad, then maybe you need to be helping them leave.?Helping them leave??Gasp! ?Yeah, if it is bad, or you can’t progress them, or you can’t change the culture/direction, I am suggesting that you have a responsibility to help them leave the company and move on to something better.?Told you I was going to be controversial.?On several occasions I have written recommendation letters for people who were still working for me because I could not correct their challenge in the role.?Why would I do that??Well, I will write one on leadership at some point, but just know its because I think being a leader means that you have a set of responsibilities to those you lead.?If what is best for them is to move on, then you should be the one helping them do so.

Management – assuming that they do not mean you (because if they do, you should start with self-evaluation), then they mean those above you, or your peers.?Why did they feel that way??Could you not understand the decisions being made by your leadership and thus are not able to communicate them clearly??Are you holding information from your team like it is gold??Could you not protect your people from an overly involved and micro-managing leader??Was it other departmental leads??You need to think about that in the context of the next person too.?Have you addressed these issues with the relevant people??Someone good leaving is the best context you are ever going to get.

A Better Opportunity – is usually code for there was a gap in what you were able to do for the person and what they were capable of.?Are you engaged with you reports enough to know what drives them, or what they want next for their career??Is the role very junior and always going to see turnover as people use it as a steppingstone? ?Understand the role, understand why people take it and what they generally want out of this role.

Time Off/Need a Change – yeah, this one is not code.?Something was either going on at work that was too much, or there is something deeply personal happening.?If it was the second, there is often little you can do.?If it is the first??What is going on in your org that would inspire this person to say that??There could be too much work, a dangerously negative person around them, lack of support.?When you have people who clearly had a reason to work choose to quit without somewhere to go??This is the one that should tell you something BAD is going on and that you have to fix it, like now.?

We were supposed to be talking about hiring right??We are.?Understanding why the previous person left, if you are backfilling, IS the first step.?It could mean you have something to get corrected before the new person starts, or maybe that you have been thinking about the wrong type of person for the role.?Either way it influences the process.?All of this is to get you to a point where you can describe the vision to the next person in the role of the role.

The Vision

Now that we understand why the role we are filling was vacated, or if we are creating a new one, we need to be ready to convey the vision of the role to the potential new-hire.?What does vision entail??What is the job intended to accomplish.?What success looks like.?Where they fit in the org.?Who are they going to depend on and who is going to depend on them.?The role’s impact to the business.?What is next for the person who takes the role.?These are the things the best candidates really want to know; they want to know that you have a vision for them and where they fit.?Don’t believe me??Ask someone you trust if they know these things about their current role.?If they don’t, I bet they are in some stage of discontent with their role.?You need to be ready to answer these questions proactively for candidates.?I guarantee this will set you apart from 90% of hiring managers.

But you are able to hire today without doing this, right??Maybe, but are you confident that your candidate pool is the very best it can be??Because what I am about suggest next – being confident that you DO have the best candidates – requires you to articulate that vision.

The Right Candidates

So, if depending on the recruiting team and/or HR is not what I am about to suggest, how do you find the best candidate for your role??So far you should know why the previous person left, and you should now have a clear vision prepped and are ready to articulate it, now for the search.

Before we begin this part of the process, I would suggest engaging your recruiting team to let them know that you are going to be taking an active hand in the recruitment process.?I will acknowledge right up front that I am suggesting that you invest a fair amount of time and energy in the hiring process.?I also understand that it is far easier to let the job posting or the recruiting team to do the work for you, but if you are reading this either you are probably not happy with what you are getting from those, or you are looking for a new way to find the very best people.?We are really getting into the search here, but I assure that my experience with doing it this way has shown me that the effort is worth it.

LinkedIn is an amazing tool for so many reasons; when hiring, it is my primary tool.?When I have an open role, I start with who the right type of person would be to fill the role.?Things to consider are technical aptitude, experience, time in grade, and cultural fit.?Technical aptitude is pretty straightforward, are you looking for a product manager, marketer, sales manager??Start with a search for people that are second tier connections that are in the same type of role today or previously held the role.?Why second tier connections??Because with second tier connections you have a direct reference possible from someone you (likely) know. ?For our example in this, I am looking for a product manager. From the search we have 342 results. ?Next to consider is what am I hiring for??What amount of experience do we feel the role needs??I am hiring for a Senior PM in this example, so I narrow my search further to those who are SPMs or those who have been PMs more than five years.?Down to a list of 124.?

The last layer is cultural fit, but 124 potentials is a lot to review in serious detail, so maybe I throw in a secondary requirement.?I need this SPM to be able to engage constantly with my marketing team and maybe even occasionally talk to a customer.?So, I add a search parameter of either a degree or experience in marketing.?That gets us down to 31 people who fit our parameters.?31 Might still sound like a lot, but when you start reaching out to people, two in three are not going to respond at all; of the ones that do, you will only have maybe one in three that are willing to entertain changing companies.?Before we start reaching out however, I want one more round of narrowing.?I look to see if the person has written any recommendations.?I have a whole article written on the value of recommendations, so I will just say briefly here that someone’s willingness and commitment to writing recommendations says a whole lot about how they work with others.?I do read others’ recommendations of the person in question too, but the ones they wrote are more important – it shows the character of the person, and this is a senior role so they should know the importance and value of these recommendations.

Finally, we are down to 19 potential people which will net us 2-3 who are going to complete the hiring process.?Before you get to those few people though, you need to reach out to the 19 and start a conversation.?I find the easiest way to do this is either through your connection to the person if they are still in the same orbit, or just sending them a message directly on LinkedIn.?I do tend to run out of messages, I have had some great recruiters who have been willing to use their messages sometimes to reach out on my behalf- another great reason to partner with recruiting for this.?In my message I tell the person that I saw their profile and I thought that they might really match well to an open role I have, that I am the hiring manager, and that I would like to setup a call.?I always point out that I am the hiring manager because I think it adds weight to the request.?

Would I really do 19 calls with potential candidates??I actually talk to them twice if they are willing, yes.?Again, I acknowledge it is a time investment, but I will maintain that is worth it.?I am the initial screener.?I am not going to push someone through my process if I do not feel that they fit – it is unfair to both them and my team.?I am also the visionary for the role to this person.?Remember way back when in this piece I told you that you need to be able to first know, then cast the vision for the role??Now is when we need it.?The person should walk away from your conversation with a clear understanding of the role and with an excitement for what it could be.

We are down to our 2-3 now because I have contacted and spoken with all the ones who will talk to me.?Now it is time to send them through the gauntlet.?Sounds ominous right??Maybe, you be the judge for yourself, and again, use what you think fits for you.?After I have screened these people, the next call for each person is recruiting. ?Assuming everything checks out from a pay perspective and so forth, they then talk to my “second.”?This is someone who does not work for me and has veto power.?Could be my Marketing partner or a Sales leader; it is someone I trust.?If that person is positive for them, they have two more two person interviews with team members.?If the candidate is clear from all the above, I give them another half hour with me where they can ask any questions they have.?I also lay out the last step…?I have every candidate do a task-based presentation to a group of twenty or so stakeholders.?I want to see how the person thinks and how they work.?I have had “overqualified” people faceplant on the presentation more than once.?This is the most telling step in the process.?

The twenty stakeholders in the presentation are not decision makers, but I want them to feel excited about the person coming into the role and for them to see what the person can do.?This presentation gives the hiring team the ability to see how they think and how they will approach the job.?I try to get all presentations done in the same day and after they are all done, I circle up the team of twenty, including the hiring team, and we do a debrief.?Based on the presentation, feedback, and input, I offer the next day to the top person.?No waiting, no second guessing, no BS.?

So, all in all our candidate went through five calls and one presentation.?It might seem like a lot for the person compared to some, but using this whole process, I have not made one bad hire in more than a half decade.?I do understand that for a candidate the process can be a bit much, but hopefully we have conveyed the vision and the why I do this to them clearly enough that they can buy into the process.?I have gotten the feedback that it was “long,” but “it showed me how you think as a leader” and that they “appreciated the consideration that went into it.”

That’s it, that’s my process.?It is unconventional because it requires you to do several things that you might not be doing today.?It requires you to be very involved in the process.?It is more time out of your day, but if you find one of those great people, would it not save you a lot of time on the long run?

Some Closing Thoughts:

Do I really do this? ?Yep, and I have really hired many people this way.

You are going to make some great connections though this process.

I love hiring, love it.?I am a bit of an extrovert, so I know that this process leans that way.?It is so interesting to meet all these great people and when you can share a vision with someone, and they can get excited about it??I love working with people like that.

To be clear, I am talking through this entire piece about those that directly report to you.?This would be too much to do for reports of reports.

Not every candidate is going to be willing to go through the process, but if you clearly explain it up front, then it says a lot if they are not committed.

Sometimes your limitations on the search will not net you enough people.?Then you have to widen your initial search and start over.?Second tier is great, but sometimes it is too tight.?It makes the filtering work harder, but it is still time well spent.

I ALWAYS put someone through first stages of the interview process that is a proactive recommendation to the role from my network (as in one that I did not solicit), first because I trust my connections and second because it shows respect to that person.

Thank you for your time reading this.?I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.