The Goal
We are hiring in order to achieve results that are far greater than the sum of our individual efforts. (see Values ) To do this we have to find a perfect candidate, not the best, a perfect candidate, and if we don’t find them, we don’t hire. And if we find them, we have to give them everything they need to succeed as quickly as possible. We want their addition to our team to be a multiplier of the team's output, not merely an addition to it, and we want to achieve this multiplication as fast as we can.
Finding the right person and getting them onboard and effective is the responsibility of the Team Lead that they will be reporting to. This is a serious responsibility and it must not be taken lightly or considered something to be done on a context switching, half hearted basis. If the team needs to hire, the Team Lead needs to be all in, and they need to make sure the new employee is a success.
Scorecard
The hiring begins with the Team Lead defining the Scorecard for the new hire and having it approved by their Lead. For a new role within Rise Vision this involves defining the Mission, critical number for the position and salary range for the Role
Hiring Committee
Once the Scorecard is agreed to, the Team Lead forms a Hiring Committee composed of themselves, and 1 or 2 members of their Team.
Posting
Once the Hiring Committee is on-side the Team Lead writes the job outline. This will describe the following;
What we expect from this role - what’s the purpose of this role? What is this role expected to achieve in terms of productivity, efficiency, quality, timeliness, accuracy, talent management, customer service, reporting, etc...? What are the challenges that this role will face? What is the size and scope of the responsibilities and influences? How will the company be impacted when this role succeeds? If it fails? What does this role need to achieve within 90 days of joining us to successfully pass our probation? What does this role need to achieve within a year of joining us to be a top performer in the company?
What experience and qualifications do they need - what do we want a candidate to have already accomplished before considering joining us?
And finally, tell them about our compensation, time away, and benefits. The Team Lead shares the job outline with the Hiring Committee and obtains their agreement. This is shared in our Watercooler Slack channel to give our current employees an opportunity to refer potential candidates from their connections. Our Employee Referral Program provides a $2,000 bonus to employees who refer successful candidates for any job opening.
We also share the outline with our preferred recruiting partners who utilize Topgrading for our recruiting.
Working With Recruiters and Selection
The initial meeting with the recruiters is a review of the job outline. The recruiters will send a Talent Sorter questionnaire that should be completed with our values and the job requirements in mind.
The Hiring Committee should be aligned on these outcomes. This will all be used to generate a job description and competency overview by the recruiters. Once everyone is aligned with the job posting, the recruiters are given the green light to start the search process.
The recruiters will present to the Hiring Committee resumes, a completed talent sorter and job fit questionnaire along with the initial screening interview from candidates that they believe should move forward. The Hiring Committee will review all four pieces and determine if they would like to do a meet and greet call (approximately 45 minutes) with the candidate.
A list of interview questions should be prepared in advance. The questions should be generated based on the scorecard, experience and qualifications identified, the candidates resume, job fit and talent sorter questionnaires as well as the initial discussion with the recruiters. Feedback is then provided to the recruiters as to whom they should proceed with the deep dive top grading interview.
The Topgrading interview process is used to understand the candidates history, motivation, values, and potential cultural fit. When listening to the interview you are looking for weaknesses, reasons to say no, not strengths, or reasons to say yes. You are grading candidates against the criteria that you have for the position to be filled. You are not ranking them against each other.
As part of the Topgrading interview the recruiter will be asking for at least 3 or 4 of their last bosses for reference checks. If they can’t do it for their current employer, they will ask to speak to a current coworker or past boss who has left the company who can talk to you about their current work. If the applicant can’t get the references, their bosses, to speak with you then unfortunately you cannot consider them.
After the reference checks, grade your candidates against your requirements, not against each other, and put your top 2 or 3 up to the Hiring Committee to interview. The Hiring Committee will evaluate the original interview assessment and dig further into the technical capabilities of the candidate. Do they have the skills and experience in addition to the motivation, values and cultural fit to do the job that we need done?
Once the Hiring Committee has completed their interviews they and the Team Lead grade the candidates, they don’t rank them, and if they end up with no one that meets the standards required, they start over. They do not recommend that we hire the best ranked candidate - they are looking for the top performer that has exceeded the requirements that we have set. Assuming they have one candidate in mind they present their conclusions to the CEO. The CEO may request to meet with the candidate. If the CEO can’t find a reason to say no the position is offered to the candidate. Keep in mind that it is the Team Leader, the Hiring Committee, and the CEO’s job to find a reason to say NO. Expect it. No amount of hard work spent trying to hire someone will come close to the amount of hard work and financial loss if the wrong person joins the company.
Offer
Once the Hiring Committee has unanimously agreed on a candidate the Team Lead in coordination with their Boss works out the compensation to offer as per our range for the role. The position and compensation is presented as an offer to the candidate in the form of our Employment Agreement with an expiry date of 3 business days from the date that it is sent, unless some other circumstances warrants extending, or shortening, that duration. We don’t want to lose the opportunity with other potential candidates if our current selection is not sure and taking too long to decide.
Acceptance
Upon acceptance of the signed agreement the hard work begins. The Team Lead must get this person on-boarded and multiplying, not just adding to, the output of the team as quickly as possible. To make this happen the Team Lead creates an on boarding epic that includes at the very least all of the rows within the On-boarding Checklist.