How to Streamline Your Recruitment Process for Quick and Effective Hiring

A Challenging Job Market for Recruiters

My current company CareRev is a hypergrowth startup. When I started a year ago, there was no one on my team. I was among the first engineering hires who wasn't focused on product engineering. Since then, CareRev's employee base has grown fivefold. How did we hire that many people in the current climate?

The hiring market is boiling hot right now. Candidates don't want lengthy assignments, and they won't commit to a three-week hiring process anymore. In the time you take to email back and forth for weeks, your prospective employee will likely get offered a position elsewhere. Some people get offers the same day that they're laid off.

Tips for Quick and Effective Hiring

• Have a short recruitment process. Ideally, reviewing one candidate from start to finish should take one week.
  

• Ask technical questions that are relevant and realistic. I ask about things that people have done countless times daily and need to do for the position we're hiring for. Don't ask about hypothetical technical scenarios that are unlikely to happen during someone's day-to-day.
  

• Look for emotional intelligence. Are they proactive? Would they fit into the company culture?
  

• Look for passion for the craft. Ask candidates how they learn. How do they stay current with the industry? Are they involved in any communities or side projects? If their response is based solely on their university courses and job experience, they're doing the bare minimum.
  

I look for people who leverage training sites, read mailing lists, go to meet-ups and conferences, engage in mentorship, join communities, or contribute to open-source projects. These are signs that indicate someone will fit into a company that values collaboration, promotes autonomy, and has empowered teams. Because these places need people who are used to working in communities and making decisions. It's a huge red flag when a candidate has never been a part of a community beyond their day jobs.

• Conduct video interviews at the latest stage. I've had instances where I interviewed someone through the phone, and they turned out to be a different person when they came in. Therefore, I only hold video interviews now.
  

There is such a thing as unconscious bias—which happens before even the interview phase. Candidates' CVs are more than enough: you can see their name and infer their nationality and gender. Their graduation date is an indicator of their age. I suggest making the decision to reach out before any personal information is revealed. Why isn’t that possible?

New Market Climates Require New Methods

• Asking people why they quit their job or inquiring about their previous salaries damages your candidates' rapport.
• Having unnecessarily lengthy interviews and recruitment processes will likely lose you valuable talent.
• Explain to candidates why your recruitment process is structured the way it is.
• The "interview"– rather, assessing someone– isn't over when you hire them. It continues every day until someone's last hour on the job. So, don't focus too much on what people know; focus on how motivated they are to continuously learn.