Wishing you a season filled with joy, warmth, and cherished moments with loved ones. May this holiday season bring you peace, gratitude, and the gift of wonderful memories. Here’s to celebrating the spirit of togetherness and spreading kindness. Happy holidays from our family to you and yours! 🎄✨
In some business environments, a debrief can consist of a very brief and cursory “gut feel” of who to hire and who not to hire. The appeal to move forward on a hire and make a quick decision is real, but these scenarios have the potential to lead to bad hires and the inverse of missing out on great candidates. The alternative to the “gut feel” hire is a structured debrief. This process brings the hiring team together post-interview to promote discussion while collecting input and insights from each team member about the candidate’s qualifications, fit for the role, cultural contribution to the organization, and overall potential, as well as the efficacy of the interview and its execution. Our fourth notebook, the Hiring Team Debrief Tracker, is a tool designed to make this happen.
At the heart of the Hiring Team Debrief Tracker‘s utility is its ability to streamline decision-making. After candidate interviews, team members come together with their notes and observations, ensuring that every aspect of a candidate’s interview is evaluated and recorded accurately and without bias. This process prevents crucial details from being overlooked and makes the decision-making process both quicker and more effective.
Bias in hiring is one of the primary drivers of “gut feel” and an obstacle to maintaining consistency and fairness across all candidates. The Debrief Tracker addresses this by offering a standardized framework for evaluation. Each candidate is assessed against the same set of criteria, reducing unconscious biases and ensuring a level playing field. This not only enhances the fairness of the hiring process but also bolsters the company’s reputation as an equitable employer.
As a hiring team works together over a period of time and multiple interviews, differing opinions will emerge and can throw hiring off balance. By capturing diverse viewpoints and facilitating a structured discussion, it helps the team arrive at a consensus. This guided collaboration can create a dynamic and efficient environment for evaluating talent over time.
The Hiring Team Debrief Tracker encourages a thorough analysis of a candidate and a series of evaluation criteria meant to assess a number of competencies, soft skills, and areas for potential future development. This in-depth evaluation means that the hiring decisions are not just based on surface-level impressions but on a comprehensive understanding of what the candidate brings to the table.
Beyond immediate hiring decisions, the tracker serves as a valuable tool for continuous process improvement. By reviewing past debriefs, hiring teams can identify patterns, refine their interviewing techniques, and enhance the overall efficiency of the recruitment process.
The Hiring Team Debrief Tracker is an indispensable tool in the hands of a recruiter and hiring team. It simplifies and improves decision-making, ensures fairness and consistency, enhances team collaboration, provides in-depth candidate analysis, and fosters ongoing improvement in hiring processes.
Of the four tracker notebooks that we’ve written, the content of the Candidate Interview Tracker is the lightest but is by far the most critical to the candidate evaluation process. The calibration steps in the hiring manager intake and the “huddle” that is the pre-brief are simply preparation for the main event, which is the interview.
The interview is a single event in which the hiring team needs to glean every piece of information they need while also ensuring that the candidate has a positive experience. The process can be daunting. A lot of things can go wrong, but when well executed, a lot of things can go right. The Candidate Interview Tracker allows the recruiter to keep tabs on the experience, making the interview process seamless and efficient.
The pre-brief meeting preceding the interview has given the recruiter and hiring team the opportunity to document competencies and calibrate questions determined to examine the candidate against those competencies. The hiring team, all on the same page, sets the stage for a successful interview.
The Candidate Interview Tracker provides a structured framework for the recruitment process to evaluate the candidate against the qualifications and competencies required for the role. This framework helps to ensure several advantages:
The Candidate Interview Tracker is a game-changer for anyone involved in the hiring process. It transforms interviews from chaotic and subjective experiences into well-structured, efficient, and collaborative sessions. By utilizing the tracker, you can take a leap forward in building high-performing teams, driving your business forward, and doing so by reducing wasted effort. Don’t just conduct interviews; master them with the Candidate Interview Tracker.
This last Thursday was Thanksgiving in the U.S., and at our house, we observed a few of the typical traditions of the holiday: turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and football. We watched the 49ers repeatedly walk over the Seahawks defense for a great win. One of the keys to the success of the 49ers was organization; they came to the game and each play with forethought and planning.
In football, every huddle is a strategic discussion. It’s where plays are called, roles clarified, and team spirit bolstered. Similarly, the Hiring Team Pre-Brief Tracker serves as the huddle for your recruitment strategy. It’s a structured platform where you and your hiring team outline roles, calibrate the job requirements, and set the tone for the recruitment process.
By adopting this tool, you’re not just filling a position; you’re scoring a touchdown in the talent acquisition game. Ready to bring this game-changing strategy to your recruitment process? Explore more about the Hiring Team Pre-Brief Tracker and how it can transform your talent acquisition playbook. Let’s win this recruitment game together!
Just a few short weeks ago, I launched cicelevanbrenk.com and my four tracker notebooks but I didn’t do it alone. None of this would have been possible without the help of friends, family, colleagues, and a lot of skilled professionals that I’ve been able to contract to help. Today, I launched a YouTube channel and the first video ad!
Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported this whole process from start to finish and from my family to yours, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello, recruiters!
Talent acquisition can be chaotic and arduous, so we’re always looking for new ways to improve our recruiting results as well as our recruiting processes. “Calibration” is a word my coworkers have heard me repeat again and again, and it is the best way to achieve both of those goals. As both a recruiter and a recruiting director, I’ve seen firsthand how correct calibration can drastically transform recruiting for the better.
Calibration is not a one-time meeting but rather an ongoing dialog that assures you, the hiring manager, and the hiring team are all on the same wavelength in regards to the subtleties of the role. Hiring teams that are calibrated for a role discover that finding the right candidates and assessing their capabilities are processes that fall into place with ease. Inquiring in-depth into a role increases the understanding of each position, which results in higher-quality candidates and placements that are more likely to be successful.
Candidate experience is also improved with calibration. When a candidate discovers several steps into the process that they’re not aligned with the needs of the job, they can be left feeling disappointed and with a poor perception of your hiring team and company. The inverse is also true: a candidate who’s a good fit for a job will find the interview process pleasant and an experience that they would be more likely to recommend to others.
Comprehension of the role in its entirety is the crucial first step and needs to be initiated before a role is even posted or advertised externally. Receiving insights into the job criteria from potential peers and colleagues is key, as are the more nuanced competencies and cultural fit/cultural add components. Front-loading as much as possible prevents back-and-forth recalibration throughout the process and eliminates the potential for rework.
Communication is key at every step of the process and cannot be stressed enough. Establishing open channels of communication with hiring managers and hiring team members is not a one-time event. Instead, it requires a regular process of check-ins and recalibration from the inception of the role to onboarding. A successful strategy is to define and maintain regular checkpoints at defined intervals throughout the process.
As with any other process, the utilization of feedback is necessary for calibration. Being open to receiving feedback and making use of insights from past recruiting experiences may challenge us, but they’re key to continuous improvement in calibration. A common myth is that this can be a time-consuming process, but consider it an investment of time on the front end that can save multiple hours of lost cost downstream on mismatched candidates.
Using what I had learned from prior roles, I had an instance of calibration in action when I started working at Amazon for the second time. At the time, I was supporting a large organization while also carrying a requisition load of thirty unfilled positions. I discovered that the hiring teams were hesitant to devote time to recruitment, which had a detrimental influence on both the quality of candidates and the amount of time it took to fill positions. When I looked at their funnel conversion statistics for roles that I now supported, I noticed that just three percent of the candidates who had been previously submitted to the hiring process ended up being hired.
Because I was so new to the company, I lacked the necessary calibration, and as a result, I was headed in the same direction. In order to tackle this issue, I gathered data, including funnel metrics, and met with the director to demonstrate to her how the lack of time investment, clarity, and communication from her staff was having a detrimental impact on hiring targets. I clearly remember how anxious I was about the meeting because I believed I was falling short of expectations and needed to acknowledge this fact in order to make things better. It was a chat that turned out to be the turning point in my entire career in recruiting.
Not only did this leader hear me, but she also extended an invitation to me to discuss the findings with her direct reports. As a result, we were able to make the necessary course corrections, and I was able to meet weekly with executives to talk about recruiting objectives and progress on searches, as well as continue to dig into areas where we all required extra calibration. I also worked directly with hiring teams by:
That organization not only met their hiring goals but also felt supported by recruiting. As a result of the calibration, they had an increase in their pass-through rate from three percent to twenty percent.
Calibration isn’t just a stage in the process; rather, it’s the foundation upon which outstanding recruitment is built. Your placements will become more successful, your hiring managers will be more satisfied, and your own work as a recruiter will become more enjoyable if you fully embrace these techniques.
I’ve created four tracker notebooks that facilitate and encourage recruiters to seek out calibration at each stage of the hiring process. It’s my hope that with these, you don’t have to learn from trial and error but can take advantage of what I’ve learned in my career. Get started on your path to mastering calibration right away. Take part in in-depth conversations, make sure you comprehend each and every aspect of the roles you’re recruiting for, and seek out continuous improvement along the way.
I want to give a huge shoutout to Dano E. Falk for the incredible opportunity to be a guest on the DefDevice Podcast! I had a fantastic time discussing my personal history, my experiences in recruiting, and introducing my tracker notebooks. Your thoughtful questions truly highlighted the essence of the products, and I’m thrilled by the chance to share the benefit of these notebooks. Thank you for the warm welcome and the engaging conversation—it was an honor to be featured on your show!
https://lnkd.in/gRzCumwB – The Podcast
https://amzn.to/3FOKYro – My Amazon Author Page
#InnovationInRecruiting #DDPodcast #DefDevice
In my early days as a recruiter, I vividly remember sitting across from a hiring manager, both of us overwhelmed by the intricacies of the position we were trying to fill. The challenge was clear: How do we ensure that we’re on the same page regarding our ideal candidate? Over the years, as I climbed the ladder to a directorial role, this challenge persisted. It drove home the importance of a streamlined recruitment process, particularly its impact on candidate experience.
From my very first role as a recruiter to my responsibilities as a director, my journey in talent acquisition has been filled with immense learning. I’ve navigated through countless interviews, debriefs, and hiring decisions. Some went seamlessly, while others presented hurdles, often stemming from misalignment in our candidate definition. I’ve seen firsthand the ripple effect it can create, from frustrated hiring managers to disheartened candidates. These experiences reinforced the need for tools that could bridge this communication gap.
Every recruiter or hiring manager knows that defining the right candidate is no simple task. The industry often grapples with this intricate dance. Get it right, and the process flows smoothly, culminating in a mutually beneficial hire. Get it wrong, and the repercussions are many: prolonged timelines, unsuitable hires, and a dwindling pool of potential candidates. But perhaps the most silent yet damaging impact is the inadvertent creation of a negative candidate experience.
Candidate experience isn’t just about the interview. It’s the sum of every interaction, every email, every call, and every feedback session. In the age of LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and social media in general, a negative candidate experience doesn’t just hurt one potential hire; it can deter countless others. An unclear job description or miscommunication during interviews can leave candidates feeling undervalued and confused. This isn’t merely an operational hiccup; it’s a dent in your brand’s reputation.
With the challenges I faced and witnessed, the idea for the Hiring Manager Intake Tracker was born. It’s not just a tool; it’s a culmination of years of industry experience and feedback. Designed meticulously, this tracker facilitates crystal-clear communication right from the get-go. It aids in defining roles, setting expectations, and ensuring that the hiring manager and recruiter are in sync. This alignment doesn’t just make the hiring process efficient; it enhances the candidate’s experience, ensuring they have clarity and alignment at every step.
Imagine a scenario where a hiring manager, passionate about their team, has a vision for their next hire. The recruiter, who is equally dedicated, has a network and understanding of the talent market. They come together, and using the Hiring Manager Intake Tracker, they outline the role, calibrate their expectations, and strategize outreach. There’s no ambiguity. The interviews that follow are structured, the feedback is aligned, and candidates leave with a positive, clear impression, regardless of the outcome.
The world of recruitment is dynamic, and while challenges are a given, having the right tools can make all the difference. I believe in the power of shared experiences and collaborative solutions. I invite you, fellow professionals and stakeholders in the talent acquisition space, to share your challenges, insights, and feedback. Let’s create a community where we learn, grow, and refine our processes together, always keeping the candidate’s experience at the forefront.
