As there are many different theories how to approach the selection process, I would like to share the one I believe is the best:
1. Scorecard – a very good tool, very clear and structured, in order to make our process more objective and make sure that the chosen candidate fits the culture of the company and a role. I see the scorecard as a powerful tool to bring more information and perspectives to the discussion.
2. Source candidates – the ideal recruitment program is the one that attracts a relatively larger number of qualified applicants who will ’’survive’’ the entire selection process and accept positions within the organisation, when offered. It is important not to fail to attract an adequate applicant pool.
3. Select candidates - Screening interview, task, top grading interview, focused interview, reference interview.
4. Sell the candidates the job once we find them – do not under/over sell the company.
1. Scorecard
(a) The Importance of being Earnest:
Detailed job descriptions and interview scorecards are hiring tools that together form the foundation of the structured interviews. I would invest a large amount of time to create a well-defined job description, in order to get a comprehensive scorecard. Determining clearly what our needs and expectations are, creating honest conditions, criteria and an effective scorecard can notably simplify our selection process. In the initial application screening phase, a scorecard can help us eliminate unsuitable applications very quickly and reduce time wasting - not only at the very beginning of it, but at the later stages as well. For example, using a scorecard as an interview evaluation form would allow job interviewers to score an applicant's interview in a consistent way, comparing candidates fairly. When you’re interviewing, a scorecard can help you remember each person, eliminating the mental blur recruiters can experience when they see too many candidates, which did happen during my previous interviewing experiences after a long day. Data is then transferred to a scorecard to determine which candidate, based on all interviewer feedback, is the best fit for the organisation and help the decision-making matrix stage.
(b) ‘Make’or ‘Buy’:
This is how some experts refer to the decision if we want to hire less skilled Google Ads Specialist and invest in training and education, or we want to hire skilled professionals. If we decide to hire skilled labor, we will have to pay more for these employees. This will directly affect our campaign as well, because the tittle of the position has to be well-tought. For example, our Marketing team noticed that the number of applications we got for Google Ads Specialist position increased significantly (as well as the quality of the applications) after they removed word ’’Junior’’ from the job tittle.
Only when these goals are completely clear to me I can ask Social Media Manager to create an ad for the open position.
2. Source candidates
Sourcing is where recruiting automation would be most helpful. 87% of talent acquisition professionals build their talent pipeline through sourcing according to Entelo Recruiting Automation Report 2019. On average, recruiters are actively sourcing for 66% of the open roles in their organisation:
(a) Network with the other A players – It is also mentioned in the report that ’’Referrals are
the #1 way that recruiters and hiring managers find talent. While referrals can be a good source for talent, they can also lead to homogeneous teams and companies.’’ Therefore, I would base my Source phase on both, posting on Basecamp if there are any referrals we may get, but advertising the position externally as well.
(b) Get Ready (before you Let the Whole World Know!):
Before we get official and start the Selection stage, it is important to be ready and have everything planned:
Time management: I would make Monday and Thursday priority days to answer applicants’ emails (but answer urgent ones no matter the day).
Prepare a few well-thought-out and constructed questions rather than too many vague questions.
Eliminate unrealistic expectations that can cause jobs to remain open for extended periods, negatively affecting a department’s performance.
(b) Let the Whole World Know!
Once a recruiting plan and strategy are worked out, the search process can begin. After we start advertising the job, the Selection process can start.
3. Select candidates
(a) The first step in this stage is CV screening (CV screening must happen in less than a day). If the candidate’s CV meets the criteria, I would follow the well-known practice and do the screening interview via phone of about 30 minutes. Some of the questions I would use are:
What are are your career goals?
How did you decide to pursue a career of Google Ads Specialist?
What are you not/good at professionally?
Who are your last 2 bosses and how are they going to rate your performance on
the scale?
(After the answer, I would always ask ’’How’’ and ’’Tell me more’’).
(b) Task: After the Screening interview went well, I would send the candidate a task that Marketing team came up with ( with a 5 days deadline). When hiring for Coordinators team, we concluded that pre-employment assessments – such as tasks– are good predictors of job performance. Not only that you can find out if the candidate is skilled for Google Ads Specialist position, but you can test their written English, structure of the task and effort they were willing to put in it.
Once the task is evaluated by the Marketing team and if it meets the criteria, I would inform the candidate they are selected for the interview and what the process will be when the initial interview is confirmed. Also, I would indicate how long the interview can be expected to last.
(c) Top-grading interview: Together with the Marketing team members, I would conduct the interview with the candidate. I would ask them about each relevant previous job:
- What were you doing?
- What were you proud of?
- Have you experienced any low points at that position?
- What changes did you make?
- Why did you leave the job?
Questions related to this position and our company:
- How does our company make money?
-How do you imagine one day at work on this position in our company?
I believe it would be crucial to ask follow up questions, to listen actively since there is so much to explore about them. It is important to always look at them as a full person, with three dimensions, not be subjective if they are similar to me, don’t generalize one positive or negative trait of a person, don’t idealise one candidate because the previous was bad.
(d) Focused interview: If the candidate performed well during the first interview, I would invite them to the next Selection stage, to talk about the outcomes related to our position, biggest accomplishments in the area and mistakes/lessons learned. There would be Marketing team members talking to them about the position. In this third round of the interview, I’d ask them behavioural questions and some of the questions from the Competency Based Interview sheet:
- How did you react in a certain situation?
- Hypothetical, but open-ended questions for the future situations:
- Describe a task or project that you were responsible for that best demonstrates your ability to analyse information.
- Describe how you have changed the way your business unit/department/group operates. What prompted you to make these changes?
- What was the most useful criticism you ever received?
- Tell me about a time when you were asked to complete a task that required the use of information that wasn't easily accessible. Describe the process you went through to obtain that information.
Of course, during the interviews, I would pay attention to some of the red flags (if the candidate is more interested in remuneration than the position, if they talk poorly about their ex-bosses, do not mention any failures or can’t explain their previous job experiences).
(e) Reference interview: If all the members were satisfied with the Focused interview, I would do the Reference interview as an integral part of the process. Some of the questions I would ask:
-In what context did you work with the person?
-What were the persons biggest strengths/areas to improve?
-Can you rate relevant skill 1-10?
(Again, I would ask them follow-up questions to learn more about the candidate).
4. Sell the position:
The final step of the process, after we would decide that this person definitely fits our Google Ads Specialist role: job offer. I believe that informing the candidate about these great news and the email we send are crucial for their impression about the place they are offered to join. We have to make sure they know we consider them a perfect fit for the organisation, this position will benefit their professional and personal life, they will have a certain level of freedom at job, good environment fun and benefits and, of course, enough funds as a reward for their efforts. The recruiter is the first person they met, so the impression about our company will be built on this relationship.
It is important to make sure they are well-informed at this stage:
1. If they are accepted: call to say they got the job, send an official letter, documents and all the necessary details.
2. If they are rejected: send an email, use the template which is polite and informative, make it highly personalised and clear about the decision. However, point out some positive things and give feedback. In this way, the candidate may apply for some other position in the future and be a good asset in some other sub-team.
5. Follow-up:
(a) I believe that the Follow-up stage is of an atmost importance for the HR team and for the entire company. It is important to have all the necessary feedback, so we can develop our process and learn from our own mistakes. For example, don’t forget to write on Basecamp for the teammates to be informed why we rejected a certain candidate. It can be simple, but informative: ‘’English is not the level we want’’ or ‘’Interested only in remote work,’’ so if they reapply, we know if to take them into consideration.
(b) As a person who strongly believes in the power of evaluation as the best tool for development, I would to a complete analysis of the hiring campaign and processes.
I would use the Recruitment Metrics:
o Time to Fill=Total Number of Days Job Is Available and Unfilled, Time to hire; Time passed from approaching the candidate (replying to their application) to hiring the candidate;
o Source and sourcing channel effectiveness and cost - Facebook, LinkedIn, Referrals, Internal Candidates, Company Careers page – using Google analytics for measuring effectiveness – funds spent per channel/number of applicants per channel;
o Hire Success Ratio - Number of A players (job performance, cultural fit)/Total number of candidates hired, Response speed, Applicants per opening; Days passed from applying to approaching the candidate;
o Pass through ratio - A metric that would tell us how many people go from first to second round, second to third, etc – and which stage needs improvement;
o Candidate satisfaction/Candidate's opinion on the whole interview process - using questionnaires/surveys;
o Candidate job satisfaction – If accepted, checking whether the expectations match the reality – using surveys;
o Measure how popular a certain job is –using Google Analytics;
o Selection ratio - Number of hired candidates per opening/number of applicants per opening;
o Cost per hire:In the end of the process, what were external and internal costs: advertising costs, time spent by recruiter, time spent by hiring manager, new hire onboarding time, hiring manager productivity costs during onboarding, equipment, travel expenses;
o Offer acceptance rate - Number of offers accepted/number of offers sent – this can indicate a lot of issues/good sides - mostly compensation, if we are certain that the expectations are set realistically.
o Retention rates - Number of employees still employed at the end of a period/total employees at the start of the period.
