Are You Hiring the Right People?

Let me begin with an admission: I ask myself this very same question every single time I have an open position. This is as much about taking inventory of our process, as it is for anything else. Hiring and keeping talented and loyal people can be hard at times, s0 our hiring practices must ensure that we’re attracting, and ideally hiring, the right people.

As a hiring manager, regardless of your position or title, you always strive to hire the most talented person available. But as any employer knows, the most talented person available isn’t always the best fit for the job nor for the company; he / she might be, but talent and a stellar portfolio / resume shouldn’t be the only things you use to evaluate your employees.

Demand is always extremely high for top flight talent, so choosing the right people is the first step in building a team that lasts for years to come.

The Interview Process

For my team and I, the interview process looks something like this:

• Wide filter (100% of applicants): Initial HR screen to make sure that the job qualifications have been met. Great portfolio? Longevity in previous positions? Do applicants follow the directions in your JD? (No portfolio link? Goodbye.)
• Medium filter (20% of overall): Phone call directly with the candidate to have them walk me through their portfolio and relevant work experiences; very easy to lie on a resume, and much more difficult to bullshit your way through a design process walkthrough
• Fine filter (3–5 final prospective employees): Each approved candidate comes in for 1–2 hours of meetings with CD, Sr. Producer(s), Product Manager(s), and often a selection of other designers

The Fine Filter: In-Person Interviews

The purpose of the in-person interviews is to find out four key factors in finding the right employee:

1. Are they a good cultural fit for the team and the greater company?
2. Can they present themselves and their work well?
3. Are they truly interested in this position, or are they just looking for a new job?
4. Are we the right fit for them?

The first three items above are straightforward and need no explanation, but the fourth deserves some emphasis.

Bringing people into your space allows them a chance to evaluate you, your team, and the company. Hopefully, they ask detailed questions about your process, about the day-to-day life, about the culture. If they don’t, take notice. Their investigation of where they might soon call home (or work, as it were) should be as important to you as your assessment of them.

Your prospective hires need to fall in love with the idea of working with the people they meet, in the office/cube/desk/corner you have laid out for them, and in the neighborhood where you’re located.

They also should experience the commute. Whenever possible, I try to bring people in either at the beginning or the end of the day to put them in rush hour on either end. It’s one thing to look at an office location on a map and fall in love with the lunch options; it’s an entirely different matter making that drive which could become part of your daily routine and finding out that you’re going to spend 45 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405 (such a lovely experience everyone in Southern California can relate to).

Hiring by Committee

Yes, you’re the one responsible for the final call as the hiring manager. That said, we involve a group of people in the in-person interviews to make sure that we have a more well-rounded view of employees. Candidates tend to show more of their personality with their prospective co-workers and peers, as opposed to their potential boss and producers.

The more people that interview, and provide feedback on prospectives, the better your chances for a hire with longevity. After adding my boss, managers who will work with the eventual hire on a daily basis, other designers, producers, etc., into the process, I, in turn, have become much a better interviewer myself.

Taken together, a collective tends to hire the right candidate as opposed to hiring by a committee of one.

Invest in the Process

Obviously, we still aim to hire the most talented creatives to our team. But we won’t do that forsaking a deeper investigation into the personality and character of potential candidates, and without estimating the longevity and commitment to the position and the company.

Hiring is an expensive process. There is the obvious cash outlay required to buy new systems and software in addition to salary and benefits, but just as important — and oft overlooked — are the hours spent interviewing, hiring, and on-boarding. All are investments in the future of the employee, the team, and the company at large, and should be taken into consideration when evaluating fits for permanent positions.

Lastly, don’t beat yourself up when you fail. Everyone makes a bad hire from time to time. Sometimes it takes awhile for your mistake to show itself, but if you institute and follow a strong process (possibly like the one above), you’ll improve your odds of building a team filled with great people.

Cheers.