Following Hiring “Best Practices” Severely Impacts Your Ability to Hire with Rick Girard of Stride Search Inc.

We all have bought into the belief that following hiring best practices will ensure that we make the correct hiring decisions. Yet those best practices really do not produce consistent results. Why?

First, “best practices” are guidelines that trickle down from the big name-brand companies who all have the advantage of a much fatter wallet… And they are Transactional!

Second, what works for large companies does not work for startups. The truth is that you are needing to hire totally different people. Startup companies need “builders” to fuel company growth. And builders are not all about the $$money. They are about personal & professional growth. 

This requires that you approach these people in a way that is counterintuitive to “best practices” and centered upon answering the question, “what’s in it for me”.

For those of you who are new to the show or don’t know me yet:

Cut my teeth as an Executive Recruiter for Tech Startups in the Silicon Valley

Coached leaders, candidates & helped to build over 200 tech companies

Black belt in BJJ,  F1 aficionado & adrenaline junkie

Today we discuss:

Why it is critical to break away from hiring best practices

Process to create your Own “best practices” that crush your competitors

Challenge today?

Beliefs

There really is NO right way to hire

Hiring Fails are acceptable (50% success rate) 

Cost of doing business

Copy those who are already successful

Google today is much different than Google at your stage.

Evaluate for cultural fit… you evaluate for skills

People from name brand companies are great hires

They may be…. If they are builders

Most people that are willing to leave big companies are not high performers

High performers have “golden handcuffs” - best to rent

More candidates give me a greater chance of success

More candidates = time loss

Target 

1-3 people per position into the Interview process

Focus

Top of funnel

Reliance on job boards 

Execution

Interview training

How do we solve the problem? 

What to believe

Strong hires come from someone in your network

Positioning before Skills

Positioning is in a person’s DNA

Builder, Improver, Maintainer

Only builders will help you grow the company

Focus on the interview, not the funnel

The Interview process is what wins hires, not the number of candidates

Current best practices are:

10-15 minutes on a “screening call” 

Selling the company

Selling the job

Gather requirements

Schedule an interview

Importance of the Discovery call

Biggest time investment is to be made

Determines a person's positioning (builder, improver, maintainer)

Invaluable insight into a person’s pain, what they desire

Impact they have brought into their current organization (key indicator of a builder)

Make Interviewing your strongest talent

Solidify your process

Timing 

from first contact to offer acceptance

Timing of each interview (45-1 hour)

Rules

Interviews start and end on time!

No meandering

Steps - Discovery call, Interview (video, onsite) -number of interviewers

Content- pre determine & assign interview questions

Questions must be designed to surface evidence of value alignment

Not about asking questions but having conversations

Broadcast your process

Make it known that the interview is challenging

Hire for Value Alignment first!

Make it known that you foster growth for “builders”

No Evidence, no vote

Interviewers need to be trained!

Roleplaying 

Recording conversations

Bias has no merit

Either a “Hell Yes” or a no

Decision must be supported by evidence

Rick's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/

Company: https://www.stridesearch.com/

Podcast: https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio

Authored:  Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094TL14CD/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

HireOS inquiry: [email protected]

This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Corp: https://www.criteriacorp.com/