As we all know, hiring is a hard problem. Even in the current tumultuous climate for VC-founded businesses, the tech market remains a competitive place to hire good talented people. It’s as important as ever to know how to have a smooth hiring process that optimises for success attracting the people you want and giving an impressive candidate experience.
As with everything, execution matters. It matters even if the candidate and the role end up being not a good match; the impression you as a hiring manager and the company make on the candidate will be lasting. It will be the deciding factor between them recommending the company to their networks or not, whether they consider other roles within the company in the future, etc.
I’m passionate about hiring, and here are six key things that I believe will set you on the right path.
1. Up to date and complete spec
The job spec will be the first thing a candidate sees before considering if they want an intro call with your company. What things are a good idea to include in your job specs? I’d aim for:
- Company Information – If your company is not well known, include an intro to the company: what’s the mission, how big it is, the series raised and when, links to blogs, etc. For the current startup climate, I’d include—if you’re comfortable doing so—the information on whether your company is profitable or the runway left (if you don’t add it, make sure to be prepared to answer this in the first call).
- Tech org information – How does tech supports the company mission? How is the tech org structured, and where does the job you’re hiring for fit within it? Again, if you have any links to blogs on how the org works or what it cares about, make sure to link them here.
- Role information – What are the responsibilities and scope of the role? What would success look like? (You can structure it in the “within 3/6/12 months” format if it’s easier). Who would this person be reporting to? If it’s a manager role, how many teams would this person support, and what size are the teams? Ideally, I also love to see people include what growth can look like in this role if there is already a clear vision.
- Compensation package information – There is no good reason not to include the compensation package in your job spec. And I feel so strongly about this one that I felt it deserved its own number, so more about this in #2.
Last but not least, check the wording of your spec gender-coded words that could potentially alienate diverse candidates.
2. Clear compensation package for the role
It’s best to be upfront about compensation packages for the role you’re hiring for, and the best place is in the job spec. And no, writing “competitive salary” does not count for volunteering compensation information— the question in every candidate’s mind will be “if your package is so competitive, why would you not just mention it?”.
It’s important to align expectations from the beginning. The danger of not doing this is plenty of wasted time and energy on both sides. I’d include not only base salary but information on pension, holidays, bonuses, etc.
Take this as an opportunity for you to leverage on efforts you have made towards the well-being of your employees like unlimited holidays, 4-day weeks, wellness budgets, development budgets, generous maternity/paternity leave, etc.
“Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.”
Brené Brown
3. Clarity for the candidate on what the process entails
For most, interviewing is an anxiety-inducing process; one way to improve candidate experience is by focusing on clarity around the process. Write down all the stages of the process and share this information from the beginning. Ensure you share the number of stages, their duration, who the interview will be with, and what information you’re looking for in each stage.
Another important thing to share is if any of the stages has the flexibility to accommodate different candidates’ preferences. For example, if you have a coding test, can it be done either as pair programming or take-home exercise? If you have a system design interview, can it be done with a hypothetical scenario or a real-world example the candidate has worked on?
4. Minimal number of stages
As with everything relating to hiring, there are tradeoffs, and of course, you want to reach a high degree of confidence in your hiring decision. Sometimes this leads small and medium-size companies down the slippery slope of adding numerous stages for the candidate to go through over several weeks. This tendency is, in my view, a combination of two factors. On the one hand, a tendency to copy FAANG hiring processes (why this is the wrong strategy for small and medium-sized companies is probably a blog post in itself). And on the other hand, trying to be overly cautious before making a final decision.
However, the tradeoff is clear. Each stage of the process adds friction for the candidate. You risk losing their interest as the process drags on or them accepting another offer before your process ends.
Be strategic about the process and keep it to the minimum length to gather the necessary information; keep it tailored. Is that recruiter call essential, or does it overlap with the Hiring Manager screen? Are the skills this panel is testing for still aligned with the up-to-date job spec? Is meeting the C-suite/founder necessarily a blocking step for the decision? Is the candidate preference to have several stages in one day, and can we make that happen?
5. Gather data to improve your process
Gathering data is a great way to see how healthy is your hiring process. If you don’t know where to start, here are some things good to measure:
- How long does it take from the initial reach out to the final decision? This question will help you measure the efficiency of the hiring process and identify any bottlenecks.
- How well is the process retaining the candidates’ interest? You can check how many candidates are dropping out at each state and combine this with feedback from candidates.
- How diverse is the pipeline from beginning to end? If your pipeline is not diverse from the start, it might be time to work more closely with your talent partners. If, on the other hand, there are certain stages in the process where you seem to be losing most of your diverse candidates, it’s time to zoom in there and check what’s happening.
- How many candidates are rejecting your offers, and which are the reasons? This data will help you make informed decisions on which things you might want to improve to become more attractive as a company in the future.
6. Feedback, both giving and asking
Good quality feedback is a gift; make sure you’re both providing it to candidates and asking for their feedback at the end of the process.
On giving feedback to candidates, remember feedback has to be clear and be cohesive with the pillars you mentioned before you were interested in measuring. Remember, this is particularly important if you’re rejecting a candidate or offering them a role that it’s less than what they were applying for (for example, they applied for a Staff Software Engineering role, but you’re offering them a Senior Engineering role).
Take asking for feedback as one of the most precious tools at your disposal to improve your hiring process. Gather this data and use it with your other metrics to identify problems or to celebrate everyone involved in running a happy candidate experience.
Cover photo credit: photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
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