The Most Important Step in Hiring

When you're in a rush to hire, what steps actually matter the most?

During my first year hiring, I quickly learned how tempting it can be to skip steps in the recruiting process when you need to fill a position quickly. With so many different approaches to hiring, it can be tricky to decipher which steps matter the most. In this first newsletter, I want to share the most important lesson I learned — the approach I believe is the most crucial when looking to bring on a new team member who will stay with your company long-term.

After reading the book "Who" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street (FYI if you are interested in learning about hiring, start with this book!!!), which provides a hiring approach designed to minimize the risks involved in bringing on new talent, I felt clear on where to start. But, when reality sets in and a position urgently needs to be filled and (thankfully!) you’ve found a candidate everyone likes, it’s tempting to go straight to the offer letter. Do you really need to delay your new hire’s start date to wait for them to send over 2-3 professional references and have them all call you back — can’t anyone find a few people to speak positively about them? Are background checks really helpful or necessary? While trusting your gut can sometimes pay off, deviating from a process can come with significant risks, ones that growing businesses cannot afford to make.

Over the years I noticed most current team members come to an interview to assess a new candidate wondering first, how well will this person get along with our team? Identifying if the candidate is a long-term cultural fit in your organization is undoubtedly an important part of the interview process for employee retention, however, when we consider this question first, and their ability to perform the specific tasks of the role second, I think we increase our risks. Additionally, how do you know if your current team members agree on what the real day-to-day tasks of the role are? I think the first step we need to make when approaching a new hire requires reframing our priorities ahead of the interview process.

Before the group interview begins, it is imperative that you have all identified and agreed upon the true needs of the business and of the position. What tasks will the new hire realistically be performing on a day-to-day basis? What projects will they need to complete first and by when? Once you have drilled down into exactly what the day-to-day needs are of the role and timelines of their most urgent tasks, use that as your guide throughout the rest of the interview process. The majority of your team’s questions should surround this shared agreement of the true needs of the position.

Now that your team is aligned on the priority of the interview, how do you ensure a candidate is accurately reflecting their ability to perform the role? Unfortunately, we can never 100% guarantee any candidate is accurately reflecting their professional experience. However, we can reduce the risk of hiring a candidate that cannot perform the role in a few ways. First, consider your approach in questioning. When meeting with candidates, start with open-ended questions about their professional background. Are they naturally bringing up tasks that align with the role’s primary needs without you prompting them? When we avoid revealing too much information about the priorities of the role early on, we get the opportunity to see if the candidate naturally aligns with the role you are hiring for. Earlier on in my hiring career, I would ask candidates questions like, “How comfortable are you with [specific task]?” before I realized that the answer was almost always, “Very comfortable!” Open-ended questions will help the candidates who truly align with the needs of the position reveal themselves naturally.

Once the candidate shows alignment with the responsibilities and day-to-day needs of the role, dig deeper. Ask them to describe their process. Does it align with how your current team members approach those tasks? Will they be able to fit in their process seamlessly? Once you’ve confirmed their ability and comfort level with the role’s primary tasks, then you can move on to assessing how well they might fit with the team and the company’s culture. By sticking to the specifics of the role you need urgently, you will significantly reduce the risk of hiring a candidate who seems great, but cannot truly meet the needs of the position.

Throughout my time hiring, we encountered several candidates who team members connected with on a personal level and walked away thinking they were undoubtedly the strongest candidate. However, when I noticed the candidate didn’t address certain aspects of the position directly, and instead talked around it or we found ourselves talking about another subject in the business, I had to remind our team members we were making an assumption about their ability to perform the task, which opens us up to additional risk. This is where professional references can come in handy — can their reference speak to their ability to perform a specific task? Can they provide clear examples? Utilizing any resources we have at hand to confirm the candidate is accurately reflecting their professional experience will significantly improve your chances of finding a hire that will work with your business long-term.

When you’re looking to hire a new team member in your organization, I think the most important step is accurately identifying the true needs of the position and assessing the candidate’s ability to perform those tasks first, and their ability to fit within your team second. I hope this reframing helps clarify your hiring process and leads you to finding new team members that support your business in the long run.

Happy Hiring!

Devin

devintrevino.co

PS. If you are a business in need of hiring support, send me an email! I don’t take a salary percentage of the hire or have any hidden fees or contractual obligations, just a transparent hourly rate to help businesses find and retain the right new hire for their business. Hope to connect with you soon! Recruitment@devintrevino.co