Hiring the right people for the right role is no easy feat. This includes figuring out the best recruiting process for your company, whether a start-up or scale-up. Without this, you’re going to have a difficult time hiring the best of the best.
In today’s candidate-driven market, companies are struggling to find and retain the best potential employees, along with the pressure to showcase their employer brand and culture. However, shooting in the dark when it comes to hiring cannot be an option, especially for start-ups.
Start-ups are using their own unicorn approach of hiring to find, recruit and retain potential employees as well as stand out in this competitive hiring market. So, how can companies use these start-up practices and set their recruiting process standards to find those unicorn employees without sacrificing their company’s beliefs or a hiring manager’s sanity?
The real-deal of diversity and inclusion
Employer branding is no joke. Candidates want to know what makes a company special and culture is a make or break differentiator, especially in this new market of talent. That includes diversity and inclusion.
First things first, companies need to take the initiative to ensure diversity in their hiring practices. Talking the talk is one thing, but walking the walk with diversity hiring is another. Removing any recruiting bias from the hiring process is a must. This could be as easy as eliminating unnecessary questions like birthdate from job applications and removing masculine adjectives from your job descriptions. Making those intentional actions to emphasize diversity will aid in having a smart and seamless hiring process.
The job description
Most companies start their hiring process by writing up the job profile. Makes sense, right? However, there is a crucial step that needs to happen before the job profile can be written and posted. That step is the discussion of the skills and requirements needed. For start-ups, hiring is a fast and high-risk move. They don’t have the time or resources to change their minds after posting a job description. Each position has to be completely and thoroughly thought through. This is essential to understanding what are the must-haves versus a nice-to-haves with new hires. Taking the time to outline these factors can help make sure all hiring efforts are on the same page and keeps from having this conversation when it is too late. From here, writing up the perfect, drool-worthy job description is a go.
The ‘set it and forget it’ approach
When writing the dreamy job description, consider these two things: less is more and set it then forget it. Often, job descriptions will have personality traits written all over them, instead, focus on taking a straight-up approach, avoiding telling people who they should be and just stating the requirements of the role. Don’t over clutter the description with the nice-to-have skills and unnecessary traits. Instead, write up the requirements and take a step back to let the candidates figure out if they can do it.
From there, companies can utilize applicant tracking systems to handle all of the busy work like copy and pasting on job boards or managing their recruiting process pipeline. After that, wait for the applications to flow in.
The customized questionnaire
Once you have candidates, kick off the process with a questionnaire customized to the position. The questionnaire should include both technical questions as well as questions tailored specifically for the role. End the questionnaire with the real kicker of: “why do you want to work here.” Include all of this in a run-of-the-mill pre-screening, and you can (and should) eliminate the need for a cover letter.
Once the pool of applicants builds up, going through their applications starting with the questionnaires can show how much effort they put into their answers and how well they line up with their resumes. When this is done, they are finally and officially a candidate for hire.
The interview process
A successful interview process should be fun and exciting. Get to know each candidate and understand both sides of why you want them and why they want you. For start-ups especially, they don’t have the time or the resources to go through months of recruiting and hiring. Instead, they need the right people right now. Narrowing down and executing the recruiting process in three steps eliminates the waiting game and shows you mean business when it comes to finding the best of the best.
1. Phone screen
A phone screen can be intimidating to a candidate and an unstructured one can go off the rails very quickly, yet, that can upfront narrow down the candidate pool pretty quickly. Most candidates over prepare for the phone screen, so asking questions that are up in the air can help interviewees think deeper into their work experience and show who is capable of taking the lead when needed, dodging text-book answers. Asking the “tell me about…” questions keeps things open for interpretation and lets the candidate direct where they want to go with their answer.
2. One and done interview
One interview may not seem like enough, but for the right candidate, it is all you need. Too many interviews keeps the hiring process going on and on, and for start-ups, that is time they don’t have. Instead, use the one interview to show the top contenders from the phone screen what your candidate experience is all about. Eliminate the questions from the phone screen and dive right into the information you still want and need to know about them and vice versa. Take the pressure off both you and the candidate by only pulling in the necessary people for the interview. Everyone’s time is precious, so don’t overdo it by having six people in the room when you really only need four.
3. Pilot project
You’ve got your top candidate, now it’s time to determine their make or break status as a potential employee, and this is where the best of the best will shine. Assigning a pilot project can help determine the candidate’s skill levels and how they would do in a real-life setting with your company. It can also show them what it is like working for you. Either way, this is key for both employer and employee when determining the best fits.
Try assigning a pilot project that is applicable to their position, such as having a marketing candidate test out a new campaign or a writer draft up a new blog post. Open up your office for them to ask others for help and to get real experience working in the setting. At the end of the day, no one is surprised at the work or the environment moving forward.
The finishing touches
After you have found “the one,” writing up the offer letter is like a kid on Christmas, everyone is super excited for them and you can’t wait for them to open your present and love it. With that, keep the offer letter simple, just cover the basics of salary, stock options, insurance, and other benefits. But, don’t forget what made the candidate stick with you through this process and had you and your company stand out in the first place, your candidate experience. In their offer letter, include a handwritten note from either their new direct manager or a colleague that is personalized for them. It is the little things like this that let a company’s personality shine through.
Moving forward, it is important to keep a strong focus on streamlining your recruiting and hiring process to make sure your company strategy is as efficient and effective as possible. Giving you back the time to focus on other hiring efforts and putting the candidate experience above the rest.
About Breezy HR:
Breezy HR is a recruiting platform and applicant tracking system that believes hiring doesn’t have to be messy. Based in Jacksonville, FL and with customers around the world, Breezy has thrown out the traditional hiring model and replaced it with a set of tools that engage hiring teams, manage day-to-day chaos and ensures teams continue to attract and hire great employees with less effort. To learn more, visit breezy.hr.
