Bite-size strategies for a people-first hiring process

During our Hire to Inspire webinar, our Head of People, Rita Wittek-Verbeek, and HoorayHR's founder & CEO, Theo Schroen, had a LOT of good advice to share. (So much that they could barely pack it all into their 30-minute webinar!)

Every business wants to avoid hiring hiccups, so we've created a roundup of Rita and Theo's hiring dos and don'ts from the discussion. This includes some bonus insights they didn't have enough time to expand on during the webinar. 👀

Take what they've learned over the years and use it to build a vibrant, inclusive and resilient team that's set for success.

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✅ Do map the hiring journey and tailor the experience

Write down your entire hiring process and add in the different steps. Once you've hired someone, get feedback from your team and candidates (what worked and what didn't?) and then make changes for the next time you're ready to recruit.

Theo points out, "If you have a hiring process, you can optimize different steps, and if you optimize every step even by 10%, then you can gain like 100% improvement in your process. Thinking in small steps really helps to get improvement started."

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❌ Don't only hire when you have an open position

According to Rita, it's better to collect candidates all year long and build a talent pool. She suggests, "Put up an open application or collect profiles via a job alert. Better yet, do both."

At Homerun, we have an open application form on our careers site to let potential applicants show their interest in joining the team.

Just make sure you're following data privacy laws when collecting data and that you actually have the right to store it.

📣 Learn how to stay GDPR-compliant when hiring

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✅ Do make hiring a team sport

Hiring is so much better when done together. Collaborative hiring takes a lot of pressure off of hiring managers, leverages everyone's skills and ends up creating a better experience for candidates.

Lots of people in your team can and should bring something to the hiring process – especially those who will be working directly with the new hire. For example, they can recommend candidates, help choose job application questions, design job posts and review applications. Rita says you should also equip your hiring team with interview training and resources to help reduce hiring bias.

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❌ Don't think of hiring as a side hustle

Hiring is real work, and you need to treat it as such. Give it the same consideration and attention as you give other projects in your company.

Rita suggests adding all your hiring activities into your goal-setting system of choice. She explains, "If you need to find a new colleague in Q1, then it should be someone's objective. Someone should be held accountable for that."

Make sure everyone builds in time for hiring because it is a lengthy and time-consuming process. If you wing it or rush things, it could end up costing you a lot of time and money. (More on that later.)

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✅ Do believe in everyone

Inclusivity is key when assessing candidates and it often requires you to look beyond what's on paper. According to Rita, "It's important to not dismiss people if they don't have the right certificate or the right diploma because not all jobs actually need that. I think a lot of companies still are very rigid."

Remember: An inclusive job description goes a long way in attracting diverse talent and showing people you believe in their abilities and potential, not just their hard skills.

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❌ Don't sell hot air to candidates

Don't be vague about the benefits or aspects of the role because you want a candidate to stay interested. Rita explains, "If you don't have a performance review system, don't tell them you're already working on it. Or if you don't let people work from abroad, don't say, 'Yeah, maybe we'll think about it.'"

Be honest — they’ll find out everything they need to know about the job role eventually. This ties in with transparency which is an absolute do.

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✅ Do make transparency a practice

Some people treat transparency like a buzzword, but in Rita's view, it's a necessity. In Homerun and HoorayHR's recent hiring and onboarding survey, more than half of respondents agreed that transparency at work is important for employee retention. Rita advises, "It should start in the hiring process."

She shares, "If you know the process at the start of hiring someone, then you can explain it to them. If it doesn't match their expectations, they can decide to not go through with it. And that's something that helps you because you will waste less time hiring essentially."

A look at the hiring process at Homerun.

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❌ Don't wait to talk about salary expectations

Theo recommends talking about salary within the first two times you speak to candidates. Share the salary range or find out if there is an expectation from the candidate before you get too far in the process. Rita confirms, "Nothing is more frustrating than doing three interviews thinking you found the perfect candidate and then you start talking about money."

Good to note: Research has shown that adding a salary to job posts increases the number of applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds. We know many companies have their reasons for not including a salary range off the bat, but they may be inadvertently reducing their pool of applicants!

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✅ Do handle rejections with care

Rejections are not fun for anyone, but you can transform them into positive experiences by handling them with care. Rita recommends offering constructive feedback and maintaining a positive tone.

You can do this verbally in a call or provide specific feedback through a thoughtful candidate rejection email. Showing empathy and providing a clear, smooth hiring process from start to finish can turn rejected candidates into advocates for your company.

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❌ Don't underestimate the cost of lost trust

An acquaintance of Rita's was once looking over a job post for a colleague and realized, "Okay, we're looking for someone that will be more junior than me, but the salary advertised is actually higher than my salary."

Rita says this is just one way people in your team can lose trust your company. She emphasizes, "The cost of lost trust is high because employee turnover is expensive. It takes six months or more for businesses to break even on a new hire so if someone leaves before that, you’re only out of money."

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✅ Do embrace vulnerability

Have you made some hiring mistakes (maybe some of the above) in the past? Don't worry, says Rita, "We've all done that."

No company is perfect. "In the end," she says, "we will all make mistakes. It's just what we do with those and if we learn from them."

‍Check out the full 30-minute webinar, Hire to Inspire: