Pre-vetting Candidates Before the Interview with Payman Taei of Visme

Over the past few years talent has been scarce. And when talent is scarce, fear leads hiring decisions. We don't want to lose (what we perceive to be) “good people”, so we shortcut the interview process. 

Here's the thing, our perceptions are often wrong.  Our gut is often wrong. And it is wrong because the data we input is either assumed or circumstantial. Resulting in marginal hiring that hurts your business. 

So, what if every person that you hired thrived in your company? What would be the ROI if you operated at a hiring success rate over the 90th percentile? It would be pretty f-ing amazing, right?

A crucial part of why we get hiring wrong too often is that we don't invest the time to adequately vet people before we bring them in for an interview. This starts with your first call (phone screen). We miss the opportunity to gather true data as to whether a person is positioned well for the organization and their level of performance. 

That's right, positioning and performance.  The most crucial data that help you understand alignment before wasting anyone’s time in a formal interview process. 

Evidence that is not present on a resume. 

Guest Bio:

Payman Taei is the Founder of Visme, an all-in-one visual communication platform, and Co-Founder of Respona the link-building for SaaS and Agencies to improve google rankings. 

Payman is an avid technologist who loves new trends and tries to keep up with the ever-evolving internet. His background in Biology has led him to truly believe in the art of evolution. Everything changes in time. You either follow or create new trends or you will be left behind. 

TODAY WE DISCUSS:

The challenges in today's pre-vetting of talent

How to properly vet people before they enter your interview process

HIRING STORY:

Hired a marketing person, a person who was known. Went on a whim and made the hire without involving 

Assumed that because the person worked for a certain company the person must be good

Knew within a 45-day window, the wrong hire

Missed clues: a bit of fluff, selling themselves more. Claimed to have done a lot. Exaggerations

Marketers commonly take a lot of credit for a lot of company success

My post:  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6999061564083380225/ 

PROBLEM:

Pre-vetting people before they come in for an interview

Challenge?

100’s of resumes. More does not mean better

Select a handful of people who are worth the time to interview

Most of the roles the CEO is still involved with

Create an efficient system without automation (Smaller companies)

Highest quality with the least friction as possible

Why is this important to the company?

Made some bad hires

Time is a premium 

personality /cultural fit & skills

We Sacrifice lower experience for a better cultural fit

Rick’s Nuggets:

Judgement should not be made on a resume but on the phone screen/Discovery Call.

Great resumes don't equal great people

High performers are busy making an impact 

Great interviewers have had a lot of practice. 

Understand Pain, Desire & Impact

How do we solve the problem? 

Pick the needle from the haystack

Prequalification process

The application itself

Manner in which the resume is submitted -spammer or researched

Passionate - learn and know about the company

Not job hopping

Interested because of a,b & c 

Large pool of referrals

HR interview

Personality & brief technical experience

Going through the resume and understanding career history. 

Gut check - authentic, a nice person, compassionate & caring, wanting to make a difference, 

Technical interview (2 step)

Projects, role on projects

Tech stack, where are you comfortable, specific technical questions

Deep dive into the technical experience with the team lead

Decision

Yes- move into reference check

30, 60, 90 day review cycle on kpi and goals

Rick’s Nuggets:

Operate from a position of abundance

Discovery call

Positioning

Does the person have a good reason to make a move

Does the person truly desire what your company is o