Talent Framework
Building a company and building a product are very similar endeavors. There are a lot of moving parts and to function well it pays to put some thought and planning into it from the start.
Often what we see with our clients is a yearly headcount plan tied to a broader strategy (and if we are lucky a set of OKR’s) and discretion left to managers (along with a budget) on how to achieve their objectives.
The hiring can be delayed as the hiring manager has the recruiter explore a variety of talent in the market, collaborating on the combination of expertise and experience they are seeking to meet their needs.
This trial and error costs a company time and money. It often stresses the existing members of the team as they pick up the slack needed to meet their objectives.
These delays can also often lead to additional expenses as your team seeks a quicker solution to their problem and look externally at third party services, databases, and extensions and will have the effect of increasing overall cost without any guarantee of long term benefits.
Faced with these obstacles, finding the right talent for your company can seem overwhelming.
First Focus on Tracking
The first thing to focus on is your Applicant Tracking System. This is the foundation of your recruiting department. Our preferred platform is Greenhouse. Some other popular systems include Lever and SmartRecruiters.
When you are selecting your system, we recommend focusing on a few core areas. The first area would be ease of use. How easily can you get information in and out of the system? You are going to need to consolidate any information or files that might be floating around manually in your memory or cloud storage.
Next Step: Integrate Hiring Technology
The second factor is the integrations available. One reason we prefer Greenhouse is the ease of use and the ability to expand the system through easy integrations.
We were able to help a client move to an easier automated process for new hires by utilizing Greenhouse integrations. We reduced six pages of documents each new hire had to print out, fill out and scan or fax back to a Docusign that customizing each document into a template through tokens. This reduced time and made the process easier for everyone involved.
Structure
After you have selected your system, the next step would be to look at how you structure hiring.
It is important to remember that every company is as unique as the people who create and manage them. A few are world-class and highly functional, enabling their teams to do remarkable things. The opposite is correct as well, and many are dysfunctional, they mean well but have problems executing.
To make sure you are making the right hires, you need to ensure that you train every person into your business and align them to your processes, as well as the way your company thinks about assessing talent.
Often companies may have anywhere from two to ten or more values, with different voices and opinions on which value is more important and what qualities to look for.
To ensure your teams are hiring correctly, we recommend that you build a framework around a core set of tactical values that you can use to evaluate each candidate on.
Hiring Framework
The first step of the framework is to break down your company values into the four most important areas that you can evaluate during your interview process. The reason you want four layers is in the logic that Google developed. Their hiring process has a steadfast rule called “The Rule of Four.”
Their longitudinal study found diminishing returns on interviewer feedback above four interviews, that number was enough to “predict whether someone should be hired at Google with 86% confidence.” Taking the time to do this exercise is vital because it is the foundation we will use to build the rest of your talent framework.
When your company acquires a modern Applicant Tracking System and then integrates it with a custom Talent Framework developed to your needs you will feel confident that every person brought into your company is informed, and well-aligned to your company’s culture and needs.
Without this due diligence, your results will vary and will be largely dependant on the prior training and experience of your hiring teams. Building a talent framework into your company’s technology and hiring process is a commonly overlooked area that leaves companies unwittingly at a disadvantage.
Sourced specializes in helping companies build scalable recruiting functions from the ground up. Our TotalTalent Recruiting service includes everything a growing startup needs including ATS implementation and customization with the talent framework we will help you build for your company. On top of that we add our TalentFilter Pro package so that our crack sourcing team can get started searching for your top roles while we start building your systems and processes.
Taking the time to build this will be a force multiplier for your business and just might become one of your secrets for success.
