Recruitment And Retention: A Collection of Advice, Tips & Tricks
My Top Tips When It Comes To Recruitment and Retention.
The recruitment process is more of an art than a science.
Hi, my name is Adam Gellert, and I’m the Founder and CEO at HiredHippo. I’m on a mission to reshape recruiting and the candidate experience.
At HiredHippo, we’ve created a new way to hire the most in-demand startup talent. We help you match with candidates who are an exact fit to the criteria you define to avoid a costly bad-fit candidate. We’ve helped leading startups like LumiQ, Leyton and FundThrough — and larger companies such as TouchBistro, Xello and Black+Decker — connect with incredible, best-fit talent who align with their company values.
Over the years, I have shared my thoughts, tips and tricks in regard to retention and recruitment best practices. I’ve compiled my most popular LinkedIn posts here, for an excellent, high-level overview of the secrets behind employee retention, candidate selection, and acing the interview.
Let’s dive in.
Ace Your Interview
Everyone loves a good acronym — they help you remember what you might forget, and they are easy to share with others. Here’s mine that helps you be prep-ared for your next interview:
Be PREP-ared
There’s no ‘best-kept secret’ to acing an interview, but there is a handy acronym to help candidates prepare for them (pun intended).
PREP stands for potential, research, enthusiasm and polish.
- Potential: “You’ll need to show, either through previous experience or lack thereof, that you’ve got the potential to be successful in the job within 30/60/90 days. Can the interviewer see you in the role already?”
- Research: “Show that you’ve researched their company, the opportunity, and the person you’re meeting with.”
- Enthusiasm: “Can you show how much you care about the business problem you’ll be solving in that position? Did you show up with good, positive energy to the point your passion for the role is infectious?”
- Polish: “You only have 7 seconds to make a good first impression. Did you show up on time? Did you treat everyone (waiter, barista, reception) with respect? Did you push in your chair or hold a door open?”
If you can illustrate these four qualities to the hiring team, you’ll put yourself in the best possible position to land the role.
You can find my PREP-ared acronym in Yiorgos Boudouris’ article Here’s What Startup Recruiters Recommend You Do to Ace Your Interview.
What If You’re In The Interviewer’s Seat?
Your responsibility is immense… and it’s impossible to ask ALL of the right questions. But there is one you need to ask.
What Is Your Next Career?
I couldn’t have said it better myself, Gary Vaynerchuk’s top question is absolutely number one on my list.
Alignment at the beginning of the hiring process is more likely to reduce costs, improve time to fill, and result in a long-term fit. A focus on understanding motivators for changing careers to match, and align upfront have been key to hiring success on HiredHippo.
Even asking the right questions, you’ll still end up being surprised by the candidates who make the biggest impact.
It’s Rarely The Candidate You Expect
I’ve looked back at my 15+ years in recruiting. What do all the hires still working at the same company 3, 5, and 10+ years later have in common?
They were not the candidate the company expected.
Hiring Manager: Their resume isn’t what we are looking for.
“Not enough experience”, “too much experience”, “not the right experience”. Whatever the reason was…
Me: Meet them anyways.
Hiring Manager: Offering them the job.
Resumes are a poor predictor of success. More often than not, hiring managers don’t know what they’re actually looking for. Most companies make hiring more complicated than it needs to be.
Sometimes hiring managers over-complicate things, and that’s okay. We always have to remember that everyone starts somewhere. Don’t believe me? Ask Bill Gates.
Hire The Lazy Person
Bill Gates has often been quoted as saying, “I always choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
Candidates are often criticized as being lazy if they don’t go through a long application process, write a resume and cover letter only to never hear back or be turned down after 5 rounds of interviews.
Hiring Is Easy… Right?
Hiring is easy!
At least it should be.
This is how it’s been overcomplicated:
- You interview someone great but continue looking for someone better.
- You take longer than 48 hours to give candidates feedback.
- You allow someone not working directly with the hire to have a veto.
- You have the decision-maker be the last interview rather than the first.
- You don’t build a work environment for top performers.
- You hire people like yourself instead of not like yourself.
- You put candidates through more than 4 rounds of interviews.
- You test candidates on something irrelevant to the job they’ll be doing.
- You misunderstand the business problem the job solves.
- You misrepresent the job and work environment.
- You focus on getting recruiting right but forget about onboarding.
- You forget alignment is the most important part of the fit.
- You consider passion a bonus instead of a staple.
What did I miss? Send me a message on LinkedIn and let’s chat!
The Key Is To Build Better Relationships!
Great relationships don’t start with someone getting tripped up.
So why do we do it in interviews?
“The interview questions I hate are the ones where you try to trip someone up or ask the question that nobody can answer.
Why are we asking a question that nobody can answer? And besides that, Stan already knows the answer and he’s on the team.”
I love this so-true quote from Patty McCord former Netflix Chief Talent Officer. Here’s an example I saw recently. “What’s your favourite desert?” The response, “Strawberry Rhubarb Pie” instead of let’s say the Sahara (desert vs dessert).
We should be rooting for people to be a part of our companies, not hoping they fail. We need to be inclusive, not exclusive.
HiredHippo is unique because we hire people that don’t fit in boxes. We hire them because they show us they’ll be great in other ways.
Recruiting In A Candidate Driven Market
In a post-pandemic world, candidates have more power and choices than ever before. With time to reflect during extended lockdowns and the rapid increase of net-new jobs in the market, candidates are approaching their career choices in fundamentally different ways, making it even harder to attract top-tier talent. At HiredHippo, we are seeing the number of companies struggling to attract and retain talent rapidly increase.
It’s no longer about the candidate gaining the approval of the recruiter, it’s a two-way street. Here are the steps to take to improve your recruiting process to win over the right candidates for the roles available:
- Spend time getting to know your target candidate.
- Source and interview for alignment.
- Think about the candidate’s user experience.
- Ask for feedback and iterate.
Perfecting your recruitment process is more of an art than a science. To learn more about the steps above, you can read my full MaRS article here.
You Control The Experience
One of our candidates had multiple competing offers. I asked them why they ended up accepting our client’s offer.
“The entire interview process was beyond incredible and they truly made me feel WANTED.”
HiredHippo Can Help!
You don’t need to see more candidates to make a hiring decision.
You can respond back to every candidate who applied.
You can hire your best talent in under a week.
You can do it by spending less time interviewing and sourcing.
How do I know?
Our clients do it all the time.
Within one week, one of our clients matched with 3 candidates, interviewed 2, and made an offer that was accepted on the spot.
Hiring is easy. You just need a better hiring tool. ⚡️
That’s where HiredHippo comes in.
Adam Gellert, Founder
HiredHippo
