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Blog > Why You Need a Well-Defined Hiring Process, Plus How to Create One

Why You Need a Well-Defined Hiring Process, Plus How to Create One

Arootah’s head of talent breaks down the core elements of an effective hiring process.
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Hiring new employees is one of the most critical functions for any organization.

Why?

The quality of company employees largely determines the success of an organization. As such, it’s essential to clearly define and implement a hiring process in your organization to ensure that you’re attracting, hiring, and retaining the best talent available.

The Arootah team has hired more than 450 professionals over the past six years across a range of industries and roles — from technology and investments to executive and operational roles. Under the leadership of Rich Bello (co-founder and COO of Blue Ridge Capital) and with support from Head of Talent Owen Luddy, the Arootah team has been instrumental in transforming many early-stage firms and businesses, including hedge funds and financial services organizations, into thriving billion-dollar enterprises.

This extensive experience and proven track record make Arootah an indispensable and trustworthy partner for firms looking to expand their teams. Here, Luddy breaks down the top benefits of developing and establishing a robust hiring process and shares Arootah’s own tried-and-true nine-step process.

The Benefits of Having a Hiring Process

  • Improved retention rates: A well-defined hiring process can significantly impact retention rates. When employees feel that an organization has hired them through a fair and thorough process, they’re more likely to feel like the organization values them and feel more committed to their role. This commitment can lead to higher job satisfaction and a reduced turnover rate.
  • Better, more qualified talent: A detailed hiring process enables employers to effectively screen and assess every applicant’s qualifications, skills, and experience, which helps them to identify the most qualified candidates for each position. This identification, in turn, leads to better-quality hires and a stronger overall talent pool.
  • Cost-effective: Hiring the wrong employee can be a costly mistake, in terms of both time and resources. By establishing a carefully documented and robust hiring process, organizations minimize these risks by ensuring they only hire the most qualified candidates.

What a Well-Defined Hiring Process Looks Like: 9 Key Steps

A well-defined hiring process includes several important steps. Let’s break down each using our hiring process at Arootah.

1. Map out your sourcing strategy

The first step in the hiring process is determining who you’re looking for and where you intend to find these candidates. During this step, you need to develop a targeted job description, define Boolean triggers, and identify sourcing channels.

2. Develop a robust, targeted job description

A job description should not only outline the responsibilities of the ideal candidate but also include your nice-to-haves and the skills and qualifications the candidate needs to do the job. This clarity helps you qualify candidates before you interview them.

3. Create knockout questions

Once you have a clear understanding of the role requirements, you need to identify the top three qualifying questions and ensure that candidates answer “yes” to all of them. If they miss one, it’s a knockout. While you should also have five to seven more questions that help you prioritize your discussions with candidates, you can implement these questions into conversations with them.

4. Conduct recruiter intro and prescreening

Next, your recruiter should conduct a five to 10-minute call to describe the company, the role, and the interview process to the candidate, as well as gain an understanding of what the candidate is looking to improve upon in their career and why this role stood out for them. At this stage, the recruiter should ask the basic HR questions (i.e., compensation requirements, location, eligibility notice timeframe) and ensure the candidate’s answers align with the range and requirements of the role.

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5. Schedule a recruiter skill interview

After the prescreening call, the recruiter should also assess the candidate’s abilities through a 30-minute call, using the questionnaire and, ideally, a skill matrix the organization has developed for the role. At Arootah, we use our proprietary Candidate Scoring Matrix tool, which uses weighted criteria to mitigate cognitive bias when evaluating candidates.

6. Hold a hiring manager interview

Next, the hiring manager or a senior team member should conduct an interview to assess the candidate’s skills and fit within the team. During the interview, the interviewer should use relevant-determined questions and leverage the skill matrix to determine whether the candidate’s experience aligns with the role.

7. Perform testing

While testing comes in many forms, organizations should use tests to assess both a candidate’s technical skills and their ability to complete specific projects. The project should be simple, clear, and should take no longer than 1.5 hours to complete. It’s important to understand that candidates are balancing their work/lives with interviews and that they are allocating time to complete the interview process, so being prudent and transparent about the process is not only important, it demonstrates respect for their time.

8. Conduct an expert interview

By inviting current employees who perform the same role, or trusted advisors or friends of the firm to conduct expert interviews, organizations can gather valuable feedback on the candidate’s fit for the role. Many companies already have these internal experts in place, but for specialized roles, they may need external support to help them find the right people and establish interview processes. Arootah has built out a large and carefully vetted roster of advisors that support our organization in identifying suitable candidates for roles that have traditionally been “blind spots” for our team.

9. Hold the final interview

In the last step of the hiring process, your team should conduct a final-round interview with a company executive who can assess the candidate’s fit. While the skill matrix is important in this round, the executive should also be selling the opportunity to the candidate and distinguishing this role from other offers they may also be entertaining. Your Talent Acquisition team should supply your executive with the details they need to ensure that they know what areas they want to ask about, cover some of the weak spots, and see if they are too glaring for the candidate to fulfill the responsibilities of the role. It‘s a tough job market so this is the time to play the sell game.

The Bottom Line

A well-defined hiring process is critical for organizations that want to attract, hire, and retain top talent. A clear process also enables firms to screen and assess candidates effectively, reducing the risk of hiring the wrong employees and ensuring that they only hire the most qualified candidates for every role.

Arootah’s Talent Acquisition service can help grow your firm by identifying, assessing, and hiring top leaders and employees. Book your free talent strategy call today to see how we can support you in meeting your firm’s hiring needs.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, investment, financial, accounting, or tax advice, or establish an attorney-client relationship.  Arootah does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or suitability of its content for a particular purpose. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read in our newsletter, blog, or anywhere else on our website. 

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, investment, financial, accounting, or tax advice, or establish an attorney-client relationship. Arootah does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or suitability of its content for a particular purpose. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read in our newsletter, blog, or anywhere else on our website.

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Jamie
Jamie
2 months ago

I never thought of having an expert at the interview and sounds like a such a good idea!