This is the third installment of a three part blog about hiring.  Click on the staffing link to view all three entries.

PART III: The Show and the Pudding

I have mentioned a phrase we kick around here a lot: Trust But Verify. But there is an even better phrase to describe what we are doing here. We have all heard the old proverb the proof is in the pudding. Well it turns out that as I prepared for this blog, I learned something.  The correct proverb is actually: The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It means that the true value or quality of something can only be judged when it's put to use or tried and tested.

This is my favorite part of the interview process, because at this point we have done our due diligence on the candidates, so we know if they make it through the gauntlet of the application and the phone interviews they are more or less hire-able. So what do we do?

We test the candidates….again! That’s right. Some would say that this may be a waste of time or insulting to a candidate.  I would say, if you know your stuff, you shouldn’t be offended if someone who is going to pay you to do something asks you to demonstrate your ability to do that work right in front of him.  I think this is especially true in our industry which lacks standards that you find in many other disciplines.  And what’s more, if a candidate doesn’t want to take a simple test, I think we have a right to be skeptical.

After the live testing is done, we begin a traditional face to face interview process that includes a twist. As we interview, the phone in the conference room rings and we instruct the candidate to take the call and role play a practical phone session with a live person on the other end of the phone as best as they can. That’s right; we ask them to make some pudding right there in front of us.

Then we eat the pudding. We watch and listen to see how instinctive the candidate is in managing this spontaneous situation. Our customer service guru, Cavol Forbes listens and critiques technique of the candidate, as Dina Garfinkel, PMP and lead project manager for UJC, pretends to be a frustrated admin who has been instructed to update a web page but doesn’t even know what internet explorer is or the url for the website she is supposed to make changes to.

This kind of pudding really helps us evaluate the candidates. It also incorporates 2 more staff members into the process bring the exposure of the candidate to the staff up to 4 people. This contributes to a community sense of ownership in the final hiring decision as well as gives the candidate more of a sense of the kind of people he or she would be working with. I don’t underestimate the power of how important that is for everyone involved.

In the end it is usually a fun process for everyone involved. The candidates are usually flabbergasted at our audacity at first but they typically say something like, ”that was the best interview ever” or “that was a fun interview.” It leaves them wanting a little more Flightpath.  I think that comes into play when we move into the offer phase and a candidate has to choose among several offers. 

 

Part II: The call

The Web Production Associate position entails a lot of time answering phone calls from administrators who use UJC Web.  10-12 candidates are selected from the application process for the phone screening round.

A phone screening checklist is used to follow up with the candidates on some general topics as you might expect in any interview. What are your career goals? What interests you about this position? One of my personal favorites is the question : What three words would you use to describe your work ethic? This often will stump candidates and we get some very interesting responses. (So if you are a candidate reading my blog as part of your pre-interview research, be ready for that question ;)

We also focus very specific questions related to the three core areas of the job: HTML/CSS, Quality Assurance, and Tech Support/Customer Service.  The questions are designed to verify information provided during the application process and to determine how the candidate will handle situations on the phone that they will inevitably face in this role. 

Specifics are important, for example during the HTML phase of the questioning, my co-interviewer and lead trainer, Deanna Ishikawa, PMP, gets very detailed in her review of a candidates website example. She probes them on how and why they used tableless CSS or if they used javascript for navigation, why did they do that.  It is important to have a capable expert like Deanna on the call. 

While it makes sure we are getting a qualified candidate, this kind of questioning re-iterates how serious we are about filling the job with the right person to all the candidates and in a way helps us build the Flightpath brand in the eyes of the potential hire.  It also gives candidates a sense for the kind of accountability they will face if they take the job.

The candidates who make it through the phone interview round are typically good enough to be hired and we have the luxury of hiring on some fine distinctions among candidates who are very capable rather than having only one good candidate from a series of 4 or 5 face to face interviews.

Next up Part III: The Show and the Pudding …. Check back next week.

 

Intro: A new hiring process is born  

In his book GOOD TO GREAT, Jim Collins writes about the importance of getting “the right people on the bus.”  At Flightpath, we have a critical entry level role that serves more or less as our draft for quality team players. We have taken care to build a process that goes beyond the traditional resume and face to face interview paradigm.
 
The real inspiration for this new process came from within our own staff.  About a year ago, while helping me interview some candidates for an open position one of my colleagues, Deanna Ishikawa, PMP, suggested we should start testing candidates on their HTML skills.  I remember being tested for jobs in my own past and I really appreciated it because it added credibility to the process. Here is an example of a company that does some real tough testing that I had been through myself: (http://capitalone.com/)
 
Since we are small company, hiring decisions are so critical to our success.  We also recognize that we are competing for raw talent and the interview process is really a two way process. We are being researched by potential employees and we will be compared by them against other companies.
 
This three part blog entry is about the process we are perfecting with each new hire. I am proud of the new hires we have made and I am confident they will contribute for years to come as Flightpath grows into a World Class Organization.

My sincere belief is that candidates will remember the Flightpath interview process and recognize that we care about our work, we have fun while remaining professional, and we offer great opportunity. This innovative interview process which makes candidates feel good about demonstrating their skills is a critical component of Flightpath’s future success because it will yield the right kind of people for the bus Jim Collins talks about in GOOD TO GREAT.  

Part I: The Job Application is Back!   

Our new website has helped with recruiting because the site is elegant, sophisticated and it communicates who we are very well.  The new site, unlike its predecessor, has job descriptions in a prominent career section. Since the new site has been launched this past spring, many candidates have commented on how much influence the website had on their decision making process when choosing to apply for a new job.

In order to show how serious we take the role, rather than accept resumes, we require an application which can be found on our website careers section that includes some basic skills tests and a personality typing test that generates a Myers-Briggs personality result.  This application helps answer a few key questions for us:     

   1. Can the candidate follow instructions (which are deliberately vague in some cases, to see how they respond)?
   2. Can the candidate do the basic HTML and CSS work that will be required in this position?
   3. Will the candidate be able to do quality assurance work that is required in this role?
   4. Is the candidate a good personality fit for dealing with angry or confused clients over the phone?

Candidates who take the time to complete the application distinguish themselves immediately from the candidates who choose not to take the time and effort to demonstrate their skill set by just sending in a resume. This is an improvement in the initial pool of candidates because we know at a minimum they are go-getters who are not bashful about doing work to demonstrate their value.

On the flip side of marketing ourselves to the candidates who are applying for multiple jobs, the application process shows how serious we are about the position we are trying to fill. We make it clear that we are looking for a Smart Action-Oriented Creative Knowledgeable person. In order to further differentiate the opportunity we offer, we explain in the application that there is a training period and a career track(including salary review timelines) for this role.

By having a sophisticated application that tests their skill we are following our internal motto of “Trust but verify.”  We are saying to the potential hire, “we are serious about our work here, if you can do the work; you have a chance to join our team and succeed.”

This process also eliminates weaker candidates from the process assuring that those who make it to the next step are quality candidates. This eliminates unnecessary work winnowing stacks of resumes or worse, meeting with candidates who can not do the work despite what their resumes may say.  By including key staff people in the evaluation application process, ownership of the hire is expanded. Current team members who participate in the process gain confidence in the ultimate hiring decision. In other words, no one will say, “why the heck did they hire this person?”

Next up Part II: The Call … Check back next week.