VI #006: Efficient Hiring: Streamline The Recruiting Funnel For Your Engineering Organization in 4 Steps

Read time: 4.5 minutes

Great leaders are always hiring.

Hiring and developing new leaders is a high leverage activity and even in a downturn, companies need to continue to ensure they maintain an efficient recruiting process and a high bar for quality. In last week’s article, I outlined how to build an efficient recruiting engine in 5 steps. Diving deeper into step 3 from last week here is a streamlined, lightweight recruiting process that has worked well for my teams and me that you might like to adapt to your needs:

1. Source candidates in a scalable way

Initially, consider sourcing hires through internal recruiting and a selection of strategic sourcing partners.

Sourcing channels can be expanded if needed in due course such as via addition of more agencies, an employee referral program, and internship programs. As the organization grows, define and codify cultural values, and set up a hiring website to provide candidates and recruiters with information on work experience, technologies, benefits, open roles, and events.

2. Screen and interview candidates consistently

Each candidates should be assessed consistently and go through multiple stages of screening and interviews, for example:

1. Brief screening by the internal recruiting team
2. 30-minute technical screening call
3. 2 one-hour in-person interviews, including with hiring manager
4. Optional: additional stages for senior hires

Interviews should be conducted by a diverse panel in a rotating roster, and newer ones should be paired with experienced ones for calibration of hiring standards and the interviewing process. The process can become more standardized over time, though taking care to maintain flexibility for teams to adjust for specific needs.

3. Assess candidates using a decision framework

Interviewers should record candidate feedback into a central system, ideally with no visibility of others' feedback.

One way to do this, is for each interviewer to provide a "traffic light" grade and notes in their assessment, with 5 grades ranging from strong green (strongly recommend hire) to strong red (strongly recommend reject). At the end of each interview day, a calibration session can then be held with all interviewers and relevant hiring managers to align on hiring decisions. Only candidates who receive collective excitement from the team should be considered for hire, to maintain a high bar for quality talent.

The general framework outlined below can be used for hiring decisions to ensure efficiency and consistency. It’s important to encourage all to challenge feedback and avoid hiring candidates who may not fit or contribute to the culture:

4. Hire “missionaries” rather than “mercenaries”

After feedback calibration, the internal recruiting team then inform candidates of the outcome, including feedback, and extend an offer (if appropriate) ideally within 24-48 hours.

Offers should be based on a competitive compensation framework with bands for role, level, and location. Hiring managers and the internal recruiting team work together to create tailored offers for each candidate and the internal recruiters then communicate the offer with the candidates.

To build a long standing and cohesive culture, favor hiring "missionaries" over "mercenaries" i.e. hiring people who are excited about the company’s vision and mission, and by compensating fairly based on merit. Conversely, avoid hiring candidates motivated primarily by money (e.g. "shopping" offers). Compensation should be as competitive as your organization can afford, but does not necessarily need to be the highest in the industry, provided the candidate’s intrinsic motivations can be satisfied also.

That’s all for today.

TL;DR

Using a streamlined, lightweight recruiting process can help drive operational efficiencies, maintain a high bar for hiring quality, and help provide a consistent and positive candidate experience. Some steps to do this effectively are:

1. Source candidates in a scalable way
2. Screen and interview candidates consistently
3. Assess candidates using a decision framework
4. Hire “missionaries” rather than “mercenaries”

I hope you may find this useful. Catch you next Sunday.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Work with me 1:1 to build your team, product, platform, or career in tech.
2. Book a free discovery call with me to explore if your business needs would be a good fit for my advisory services. If we’re not a good fit, rest assured I’ll kindly let you know.