By Danielle Rocheleau
In my last post, I dug into how you can find the best people — what candidates are looking for, the importance of getting clear on what you’re looking for, and why you should be transparent about the realities of what it’s like to work with your organization.
But that is only the first step in the hiring journey. What about the hiring process itself?
As employers, we all know the pressure we’re under to help our teams achieve a good work-life balance, to make sure we’re financially secure, and to find the right person within budgetary constraints.
Every time I begin a hiring process, I have the same concerns: I worry about how long it will take, whether it’s too soon, or if it’s already too late. One of my main concerns is for my existing team – is the workload pressure enough that I will lose great people in the interim? What if we don’t find the right person and we can’t fill the position? What if we hire the wrong person? How will that impact our work, our clients, and our team?
In this post we’ll explore:
- The cost of getting it wrong
- Common hiring mistakes
- Who should be involved in the hiring process
- Laridae’s 7-step process to hiring
Before we dive in, it’s important to note that we are still in the processes of iterating and refining our hiring practices. At Laridae, we’re fans of continuous improvement. We are happy with our current processes, but we continuously reflect every time we go through them and tweak them the next time we hire.
The hope is that this post will support you in reflecting on how you approach the hiring process at your organization and encourage you to try something new.
The cost of getting it wrong
Although it’s natural to want to hire quickly – and the idea of multiple steps in a hiring process may feel overwhelming – the consequences of a bad hire can be significant.
In the non-profit sector, resources are often limited; every dollar counts. This means it’s even more important to make smart hiring decisions. A mis-hire can result in:
- Decreased productivity and morale among existing staff
- The diversion of limited resources away from your organization’s mission and toward the cost of replacing the new employee
- Reputational damage, with decreased donor trust, volunteer attraction, and public support
- Long-term implications for your organization’s ability to build trusting relationships with those you serve
It’s crucial for organizations to have a thorough and effective hiring process in place to minimize risk and create the best conditions for bringing in the right talent to help further their mission.
A single hiring blunder can “cost 15 times the person’s base annual salary in hard costs and productivity loss.”
– Geoff Smart and Randy Street, Who: The A Method for Hiring
What leads to hiring mistakes?
If we let worries and pressures set in, they can each contribute to making hiring mistakes. Below are some of the most common reasons organizations mis-hire.
- Lack of role clarity: occurs when an organization decides to combine many different roles into one position. They need a communications person, but that won’t be a full-time position so let’s add fund development, and maybe graphic design into the mix. You can end up trying to hire a unicorn – a person that just doesn’t exist. This approach can also lead the hiring team to choose a candidate because they seem great and have a broad skill set – but maybe not the skills for the role you should actually be recruiting for.
- Low candidate pool: there just doesn’t seem to be the volume of interested candidates there once was, so we may feel the pressure to “just hire” to fill the role. We need to reflect on how we’re sourcing candidates and try a new approach. Ultimately, we need to always be recruiting, networking, and exploring ways to create our own candidate pools.
- Finding the right candidate in a group of similar candidates: it can be tough when there are a few great people, and only one role. Always go back to comparing the candidate to the role you’re hiring for. Make sure you’re considering their fit for the role, the clients or populations you serve, and the team. A multi-step process will allow for continuous reflection on role and fit.
- Losing candidates to another employer: this is one area where it seems appropriate to use the word “competitor” in the non-profit sector. All organizations are competing in that same small candidate pool. It’s worth noting that salary and location may affect your organization’s ability to attract highly qualified candidates. Also, hiring processes that seem uncoordinated or lengthy may result in candidates accepting another offer.
- Getting too excited about a single candidate: hiring someone who made a good first impression, or sold you on their charisma can make a hiring team overlook some potential red flags. Avoid straying from your process because you’re excited about one candidate. Stick with the process; someone more qualified may be scheduled for an interview later. Another related risk is focusing too much on likeability, or someone who is just like you, which shouldn’t be part of your hiring criteria. You want a person with the right skills and who will complement you and the team, not mirror what you already have. This is why a multi-step hiring process is integral; first impressions don’t always hold up.
- Failing to address biases and inequities in the hiring process: if we fail to address our biases, or other inequities within the hiring process, we’re definitely missing out on great candidates. Review your process from start to finish before getting started. Are your expectations for qualifications inclusive of lived experience? Do your questions allow for various perspectives and experiences, or will they simply reinforce behaviours and skills that already exist on the team? Are you most excited by candidates with similar backgrounds to you or others you have had good experiences with – inadvertently missing other candidates who could be the next team rockstar?
Who should be involved in the hiring process?
In some organizations there are set hiring panels. Sometimes the decision of who to include in the process is left to the supervisor for the open position. Larger organizations might have an HR department that manages all hiring processes.
Regardless of the structure in place, a hiring process is an opportunity to engage as many of the team members as possible. Be mindful of staff capacity and engage team members who understand the role and will be working most closely with the new hire.
Ways to engage your team include:
- Informing the job description: what skills do we need on the team? What competencies would the role benefit from? What don’t we want?
- Interviews: we always make sure we have one consistent person in both interviews. Often, it’s the role’s direct supervisor, but sometimes it’s someone who holds a similar role. We then invite other team members to participate in the interviews: one other in the first interview and 2-3 others in the second interview.
Invite the candidate to a team meeting: in some cases, we’ll even invite the candidate to a team meeting. We’ll leave some time for introductions and a few questions from the team before the meeting gets started. This allows not only the team to meet the candidate, but the candidate gets to see the team in action.
Laridae’s 7-step process
The Laridae multi-step hiring process begins once you’ve clearly defined the role you’re looking to fill, you’ve used various methods to source candidates, and you have a series of resumes to review.
Our approach includes the following steps:
Each time we hire, we follow these 7 steps. However, we make adjustments to one or more of the steps based on what we learned the last time we hired. We also adjust each step to reflect any nuances specific to the role, the needs of the team, and our team’s availability. Let’s dig in.
1. Resume scoring
You’ve posted your job and promoted it to your target audience, and now the resumes have started to roll in. It’s time to shortlist candidates based on the core requirements of the role. We recommend creating a basic spreadsheet that lists required competencies, skills, and values-based qualifications to help score the shortlisted resumes. Keep it simple.
An effective scoring system for resumes can help with the following:
- Objectivity: it provides a systematic and objective way to evaluate candidates and reduce the potential for bias or subjective decision-making.
- Consistency: it ensures that all candidates are evaluated using the same criteria and that decisions are made based on consistent, objective standards.
- Efficiency: it enables you to compare candidates quickly and easily, making the screening and selection process more efficient.
- Tracking: it allows organizations to track and analyze the results of the hiring process, making it easier to identify areas for improvement and refine their recruitment strategy.
- Evidence-based decision-making: it allows for evidence-based decision-making, as candidates are evaluated based on specific, measurable criteria.
Please note: this is as objective as you can get through the process, but be careful with this step: you aren’t looking for a perfect fit. It is also an opportunity to see whether they read the job post and if they tailored their application for your organization. Always pay attention to their experience and the transferable skills to the role. When I look at resumes, ideally, they have experience in the non-profit sector, but if not, maybe they have other experience that lends nicely to the role. Or, maybe they’re a student or recent graduate with limited experience, but they have relevant volunteer experience.
2. Screening calls
Screening calls should not be confused with a phone call to arrange an interview. The screening call may end with you deciding to arrange an interview, but it isn’t the goal.
My preference is for a screening call to be unscheduled. This is an opportunity to meet the person in a very short 15-minute chat, and it reveals how they react in an unplanned moment.
The screening call gives you an opportunity to:
- Determine the candidate’s level of interest in the position and your organization: get a sense of whether the candidate remembers the role and your organization, or if it was just one job on a long list of jobs that they applied for.
- Assess fit: verify the candidate’s work history and determine if their qualifications, skills, and experience are in fact a good match for the position.
- Experience their communication skills first-hand: assess the candidate’s ability to communicate when unexpectedly answering the phone and their ability to articulate their qualifications and experience.
- Understand their salary expectations: as outlined in our previous blog post on this topic, Laridae feels strongly about including salary ranges in job postings. Clearly communicating expectations is key to a transparent hiring process. Having a conversation about salary expectations will end the time-intensive hiring process if expectations are not aligned.
Ideally this is a short call with 6 key questions:
- Tell me about your current employment situation.
- What is it about our posting that prompted you to apply?
- What are your career goals?
- The role that we’ve posted is for a [ENTER TITLE] responsible for [ENTER DESCRIPTION]. How does your experience make you an ideal candidate for this role?
- What are your salary expectations?
- Do you have any questions for me?
The screening call is also an opportunity to share about your organization, warts and all. Be honest and set clear expectations to allow the candidate to decide if it is a good fit for them.
If the conversation flows well and you feel comfortable taking the next step, schedule a follow-up interview. Don’t feel the pressure to do it over the phone, ideally you are only scheduling interviews with the most promising candidates. You can always thank them for their time and let them know they will hear from you in the next day or so. Always follow-up, even to let them know that they haven’t been selected for an interview; being clear is kind.
3. First interview: can they grow into the job?
Once you have completed your screening calls, you can book first interviews with your top candidates. For us, this usually means we’ve narrowed it down from 8-12 candidates to around 6-7 top candidates.
The idea at this point is to determine whether you think they can do the job.
This is a more traditional interview. It’s an opportunity to learn more about the candidate, their skills, experience, performance, and abilities. It’s a chance to determine whether they have the skills and experience to effectively meet at least 70% of the expectations of the role, and the talent to grow 100% into the role over time. Again, you aren’t necessarily looking for the perfect fit, but you are looking for someone who has the transferable skills, enthusiasm, and ability to grow with your team.
There are some specific strategies you can use alongside your interview questions that will help make the experience as worthwhile as possible.
- Score the questions: as with resume scoring, we recommend giving the candidates’ answers numerical scores – e.g. “4/5” – and then adding up their scores, in order to get a more objective evaluation and be better able to compare seemingly similar candidates.
- Use spectrum-type questions: these types of questions often do not have a right answer. The candidate will need to provide a more difficult – and potentially more revealing – answer. For example:
“Consider putting communication styles on a spectrum of 1 – 10, where a 1 represents direct, unfiltered honesty and a 10 represents telling people whatever they want to hear in the moment. Where would you put your personal communication style? Why?” - Prompt for self-reflection: make sure to include questions that prompt candidates to explain their rationale and evaluate their choices. This will help you understand their capacity for self-reflection, change, and growth. For example, when asking about their experience, add some additional follow-up reflection questions:
“Tell us about a time when you were responsible for [insert key responsibility]. What was your approach? Why did you take this approach? What worked well? How would you approach this differently in the future?”
4. Second interview: is it a good fit?
When the first interviews are complete, you can invite your top candidates to second interviews. For us, this usually means our list has shrunk from 6-7 candidates to around 3-4.
At this point, you should feel confident that the candidates on your shortlist have the requisite technical skills and experience to grow into the role. It’s now time to explore their core strengths and how they complement the team. It’s also a chance to get to know them and explore whether their values align with the organization’s. You are actively seeking someone who shares your values, makes your team stronger, and can bring something new to the way you think and work.
Some of the strategies we employ in our second interviews include:
- Begin with some self-reflection: we’ll often begin by asking candidates how they felt the first interview went. Is there anything they wish they had said? Anything they would like to clarify?
- Relationship- and team-based questions: rather than focusing on technical competencies, ask about how they like to work with other people. What are their best relationships at work? What are their worst relationships? What are the ideal qualities of a good manager?
- Ready for change: everything changes. It is important to know if they are going to be able to evolve as your organization changes. You can approach this topic from two different directions, for example:
“How have you coped with changing processes and circumstances at work in the past?”
“What is your approach to change management? How have you implemented change at your organization?” - Scenario-based questions: scenario-based questions give the candidate a sense of what it’s like to work with your organization. The format of these questions is usually a 1-2-minute explanation of a common but challenging scenario, followed by a set of questions asking them how they would respond in this scenario.
- Big-picture, strategic thinking: Laridae specializes in strategic planning. When hiring for more senior roles, we send the candidates our strategic plan ahead of time. During the interview, we’ll ask them to share their reflections on it and where they see they could fit into the plan. We’re looking to see how enthusiastic they are about our direction, and if they see how they can contribute.
- Be sure to share about yourself: not only as an organization but you as a person. Give space for everyone on the hiring team to share. What kind of leader are you? What’s important to you?
5. Test: can they do the work?
It is important to provide an opportunity for the candidate to demonstrate their technical skills. It’s one thing for them to share that yes, they can do that, and another for them to actually show you. It can be as simple or complex as you deem appropriate, and it needs to be relevant to the role. This task-based test can be done in preparation for one of the interviews, directly following, or completely separate from the interview process.
At Laridae we’ve tried a few different things:
- Writing assignments: writing is a core competency for our team and understanding the non-profit sector is integral. For most roles, we ask candidates to take an hour after the second interview to read a newspaper article that outlines a sectoral challenge in child welfare and write a brief memo to the team, informing us about what’s happening and the implications for our clients. We ask that they write in professional tone to create something that could also be shared externally. This task gives us a chance to see their writing and understand what they choose to summarize – do they understand what’s important to our clients? Are they able to write clearly and in a tone that balances friendliness with formality?
- Role-play: the nature of the role-playing scenario depends on the role you are hiring for. In our case, when hiring for a consultant, we’ve asked candidates to prepare a presentation for the second interview where the hiring panel will pretend to be a non-profit Board of Directors. We ask them to prepare for an interview for strategic planning or to present a recommendation to a common challenge experienced by our clients. Again, this is a chance for us to learn more about their approach, how they would speak to clients, what they believe to be important, as well as what they know about us and about our clients.
I recently spoke to a former Laridae team member who was reflecting on her experience with us and with her current employer. She shared how comprehensive her new employer was with their testing and mentioned an assignment that took her 8+ hours to prepare. It’s important to note that she was compensated for her time, as would be appropriate, if you are asking your candidates to go above and beyond during the hiring process.
Like I said, you can make it as comprehensive, within reason, or as simple as you feel is necessary – all based on the requirements of the role, your budget, and capacity.
6. Reference check: verify and pivot to hiring
At this point, you’ve narrowed down your pool to one or two candidates, both of whom you would be happy to hire, and it’s time to call their references.
Most people feel that the goal of reference checks is to vet the candidate by speaking with previous supervisors and colleagues, and verify the candidate’s work history and performance. This is certainly one of the goals. Occasionally you may catch something, but in reality, if a candidate has made it this far in the process, it’s likely that their references are going to sing their praises.
Another, less-recognized goal of reference checks is to prepare you to be a good manager to the new hire – to get tips on how to help this individual thrive and grow within your organization.
Combining these two goals, during the reference calls you will want to:
- Verify information: the candidate’s work history, education, and achievements.
- Assess performance: the candidate’s past performance, work style, and ability to work well with others.
- Identify areas for growth: where the candidate may need additional training or support to perform well in the role.
- Be ready to manage: does this candidate prefer direction or autonomy? How do they prefer to receive feedback? What approaches have been successful – or not – in the past?
- Build confidence in the hiring decision: gather additional information and perspectives from people who have worked with the candidate in the past.
7. The Offer: set clear expectations
Ok, so now you’ve found “the one.” This is often the most nerve-wracking part of the process. You’re excited about the person – you can envision them on the team, and you want them to get started in the role. This is a chance for you to really show your appreciation for the candidate and their engagement in the hiring process, to tell them why you see them as a good fit, and to reiterate what it’s like to work with your organization.
When you call them, be sure to share:
- Fit: celebrate who they are and how they fit with your culture.
- Compensation: how much money they will make and what other benefits are included. Be specific.
- Family: encourage them to talk to the most important people in their life when deciding about the role.
- Freedom: describe the workplace expectations and culture, such as approach to managing work-life balance, flexibility, etc.
- Fun: not just pizza parties or ping pong tables. This is the chance to dig into the rewarding and challenging aspects of the work.
Be clear about when they can expect an offer letter and set expectations around when you expect a response. Once you’ve sent the offer letter, then you get to hold your breath until they sign and send it back. Hopefully, you have a good set of lungs 😊
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