Hiring the right people
I have seen a lot of these questions over the years and I posted on a thread just a bit ago, and it gave me the idea to post this loose guide. I am not a professional recruiter, and while I have been Senior/lead and had people report to me at a technical approval level, I have never had to manage people in any other way. So, take this advice with a grain of salt.
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**Gather your requirements:**
This is the most important part of hiring someone, is gathering the requirements for the job req. If you do not really define what you want, or just loosey-goosey try to hire people because you just want to fill head count, your run the risk of making some big mistakes. Yes, I have had managers do this, at more than one job in my time. If you need a junior admin, then define it. If you need help desk, define that. If you need a hybrid or jack of all trades role to help multiple people, define it. Build the job req with as much accurate information as you can on the job you want headcount for
**Build the Interview Process:**
I have seen this so many different ways, I am not even sure where to start or what is best per se. However, I do think you can make some easy bare minimum choices, that every candidate should go through. Here are some basic things, that I feel are pretty decent to do:
* Hiring Manager should have a solo interview with the candidate * If there is a team, at least one panel team interview and bare minimum 1-2 side interviews based on topic points you want to cover. You need to give your team a chance to have a voice. This helps your team morale and also allows everyone to have a voice. There may not be enough time for everyone to get a 1on1 interview so rotate through your team if you have tons of candidates * Scope out the type of interviews - technical, cultural, soft skills, projects, etc. Just figure out the key areas you want covered and then figure out who the best people are do do those interviews * If you are very big on culture and soft skills, have another team/business unit also help with the interviews. Especially, if they are a team this person would work with. Easy example is, if you are interviewing for an Ops position that will definitely interact with say NetOps on a regular basis, have someone from NetOps interview them. Get outside feedback * Refer to your requirements for how deep of a technical dive you go into. If you are hiring for a junior admin, ensure they know the fundamentals, if you are going for a senior engineer, perhaps throw some advanced questions in there
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**Allow everyone to give feedback:**
Pretty much exactly what it says. Forward notes, or use the recruitment app, or whatever to the hiring manager about your thoughts. Have a quick team meeting about the candidates. Allow anyone to voice any concerns they may have and discuss them. An example I have used in the past is when hiring an entry to junior-midlevel role I look at skills and experience. If someone is over qualified for the job, are they going to just be here for 6-12 months and then jump ship? Then we might have to hire all over again. So, if someone with a senior level resume and skills is applying for a junior admin role, I sometimes question it.
**It is okay to take your time:**
Unless there is a dire need to get someone in there fast, take your time on hiring someone. I am not saying take many weeks or months, because that candidate might move on to a different job. However, you can take a few days, a week or so and discuss the options. Communicate back with the candidate that is happening and a lot of times they might wait if they have other offers. I am only making this a point, because I have had managers want to hire the first or second person we interviewed out of say half a dozen. Which to me, defeats the entire purpose of the process, but that can happen. The key here is that you do not want to take too much time. I feel that a week or two after the final interview is fine, anything over a week or two is probably pushing it. This gives you time to process all the candidates.
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**You need to give every candidate you interview your attention**
This is pretty simple, if you do not do this, you aren't doing any favors for yourself or for them. You won't know the full spectrum of your candidates if you half ass it. Some IT professionals are horrible at interviewing, and it is okay to have certain people sit out of interviews if this is the case or have them lead the team/panel interview to cover their topics. I have seen this, again, at more than one job where one of my coworkers is more concerned with what the person does in their spare time than the actual job related stuff, or if they don't like an answer they start to shut down and not continue with the interview. You need to find balance, and you need to give all the candidates equal time/opportunity so it is not a waste of anyone's time and all parties benefit the most from it.