musings...

This one is always a gotcha for new companies, no matter how experienced any one of the team might be.

A lot of the problem can be summed up in the conclusion of the first sentence because, you see, no matter how experienced you are as a recruiter, the need of any new company is going to be different than any other company.

Why is this?

Simply, corporate culture, approach to “doing things” and the skill-set are going to be unique to each company, and start-ups are a breed unto themselves.

I’m going to concentrate on start-ups here, but much of what I write will apply to most (though not all) companies.

Start-ups have a unique outlook because, often, they have a dual core purpose: one, the business at hand (what they do), and the second, to survive while their funding does. Don’t under-estimate how distracting this last bit can be, especially to management. This is particularly acute in early-stage start-ups, because management are probably already doubling or tripling up on duties as it is, to save costs.

This means that all staff are going to have to be more adaptable than perhaps one would like. I’d say the top five things you’ll want to start with on your “skills” list are:

• Self-starter – a team that needs constant micro-management will kill you at this stage of the company development.
• Independent yet core team-player skills needed – you want people working independently, but pulling for the team at all times.
• Willing to accept good enough, rather than perfection – perfection is for version 5 or 6, not version 1. Or you will never release.
• Experience in a start-up, or at least a company under five years old. “Old hands” can often find it hard to adapt to the way start-ups work if they have no start-up experience.
• Willingness to do what it takes. Start-ups, in particular, need people to multi-task, doing, often, more than one job function and the dreaded 18 hour days. No one should have to work like that for years on end, but you need people who are willing (and able) to as required.

So there are some primary traits, but you also need to understand actual skills of the job. Some things to consider:

• Do YOU know what the skills are? You can’t hire effectively if you don’t.
• List out the non-negotiable skills (for instance, C++ if that is required) and, no matter HOW good you feel about the candidate, they don’t get an interview if they don’t meet these. Trust me, this will save you a lot of pain later on.
• List out the “would love to have” skills too. Anyone meeting the non-negotiable and most of the “love to have” skills, interview them.
• List out the desired “personal” traits that would make someone a good fit with your current people. Complimentary skills come in here too (for instance, a manager who can also do finance, even if it’s not their core role, so you have a potential operations person, as you may not have that role yet). Anyone who hits all the right points in all three of your lists, they are your highly likely candidates.

Now you have a list, what’s next?

The Advert

The trick is to write a generic advert to get the most people applying, right?

Wrong. Better to be specific, and get the right people applying, to save you time, and to help the applicants understand what is required.

You will always get a lot of “hopefuls”, who don’t meet even the essentials, let alone the “nice-to-have” lists. Also, anyone meeting all the nice to haves but none of the non-negotiable list: they need to be rejected too. It will cause you pain if you don’t get the right skills from the outset.

The advert should follow your list in a chatty (ish) manner, and highlight more about your expectations of the role itself. You’ll often be limited in the space you have available for online job sites – that’s okay, put a summary and a link to your website with the full job advertisement. Same idea if you use print too. Make sure you specify how you want to be contacted. Make sure the advert makes it clear you don’t want agencies contacting you (unless you do). Remember, also, if you let agencies contact you, they will want their fee (if you hire their candidate), so keep this in mind when deciding if agencies are allowed to contact you or not.

Prepare for the interview

I would strongly recommend that you do this, even if you KNOW the person. While I am a strong believer in hiring people you know and respect, you need to keep the process formal. This will also save you a lot of pain in the end. Some things to consider:

• Know what you want to find out at the interview – have open-ended (non yes/no) questions prepared, but don’t stick blindly to the list, as they will probably come up in conversation generally as well.
• If certain skills are essential to role, prepare questions or “tests” that will make sure those skills exist.
• Have a list of key things you want to get across about the company too. An interview is, after all, a two way process, and you are being interviewed as much as the candidate.

On The Day:

• In the same way you expect the candidate to look smart, be smart too. At least clean, if jeans and t-shirt are your corporate style.
• You expect the candidate to be on-time. Do likewise.
• Make sure you cover all the key points you set out to.
• Try to make the day like a nice long conversation, not a stilted “point by point” experience. This, of course, comes with practice.
• Be courteous. Always.
• If you find points that need clarification. Clarify them. Don’t make this a challenge, however, you are trying to see if there are any problems, not rip the candidate apart!
• Make every contact point part of the interview – so, everyone who will meet and speak with the candidate should be briefed. Including reception, if you have one. Ask their feedback at the end of the day.
• Offer a drink, though it will probably be declined. And have water on-hand in the interview room. Remember to offer a rest-room break from time-to-time too!
• Speaking of interview room, make sure a closed room is booked, if possible. Make sure you are not interrupted.
• Give plenty of time for answers. Sometimes leave a pause, and the candidate might offer more information to fill it.
• Keep notes, you can explain to the candidate you have a poor memory for such things, and write away as they speak. However, try to maintain some kind of eye contact from time-to-time.
• Watch body language. If a candidate seems uncomfortable with something, you might need to push a little to find out why. Again, don’t make this harder than it needs to be, but your job is to work out what’s wrong.
• ALWAYS, always keep it polite and enjoyable. Your objective, as well as finding out what you need to know, is to help the candidate relax. You will get so much more from the process if the candidate is not almost having a stress-attack!
• If this is a conversation, it will go better for everyone (yes, I know this point is made twice… it’s important!)

Follow Up

• It is only polite to follow up after the interview. Even a standardised “Thanks for attending” email will be a start, putting you ahead of the pack.
• Where possible, try to contact all applicants. A quick no is second best to a yes, but it’s important to do so, particularly these days when there may be a lot of applicants and people might be hanging on for your answer.
• Never go into details about a rejection, primarily for legal reasons, but some constructive feedback, if you have time wouldn’t hurt. Usually, however, for rejected applicants, a straight forward “we’re sorry, but we had some very strong applicants, and, in this case, took the very best one for the role.” will suffice.
• Encourage further applications if you wouldn’t mind to hear from this applicant again.
• For the last reason, I strongly recommend keeping interview notes on file for a period of time. There may be data retention laws in your jurisdiction, be sure your decision is compatible with them.

Follow the above to make good choices in your employee hiring process. If you hire right, you won’t need to part ways under bad terms later.

What do you think? Tell me in the comments.

Image Credit: Not Hiring Sign by extremeezine on Flickr. Creative Commons usage.