There are only so many questions, tests and steps you can put a candidate through in the hiring process. While a well-engineered process can improve your odds of success, you will ultimately have to rely on people when decision time comes. That's why smart companies rely on the talents of great recruiters to find and hire their best talent. Our lead recruiter at CARite has complete veto-power over every hire, no matter where the referral or lead has come from and no matter what I think of the candidate personally.
1. UNDERSTANDING AND CARING ABOUT OUR CULTURE
Our recruiter has an innate ability to pick up on potential problems the candidate may face in our culture. He can only do that because he truly understands our culture and feels personally accountable for playing a part in maintaining its health. He also demonstrates a keen ability to understand what motivates a candidate, and whether their personal and career goals are aligned with ours. At CARite, we think of our organization as a true family. We don't want to bring anyone into our family who will cause any dysfunction and we certainly don't want to be part of a career move that someone ultimately regrets. It has to be a perfect fit for both us and the hire.
2. SUPPORT, NOT LIP SERVICE, FROM ALL LEADERS
We give our recruiter complete veto-power over every hire. If we didn't, why would we need a recruiter? We hired him because of his ability to help fill our organization with exceptional talent. It's our responsibility as leaders to help build his confidence by supporting his decisions (which are often hard to argue) and by listening to his perspective. He has been charged with being a gate-keeper to the culture of our company - it's an important job and it deserves complete respect.
3. CLEAR DIRECTION ON WHAT WE WANT AND DON'T WANT
We give our recruiter clear direction on what we're looking for and what we're trying to avoid. Our DRIVE values clearly articulate the person we want to hire and our actions demonstrate (in practice) that we are serious about these values. With no mixed signals about the kind of person we want to hire, the recruiter has a much better chance of succeeding. Similarly, we provide helpful information on our website that allows candidates to opt. out themselves. For example, we aspire to create a zero-politics environment. That means any schmoozing, points-scoring, undermining or subversive behaviors are forbidden and sternly addressed when they occur. We try to make this crystal clear in our hiring process so people can opt out if they can't envision themselves behaving in a manner that will work well at CARite.
At CARite, we want people with DRIVE. That means they are determined visionaries who want to be part of our journey to build an amazing company. They are respectful to EVERYONE in our organization and to our customers. The conduct themselves with integrity and practice drama-free behaviors at all times. We don't want politicians, we want contributors. Passionate, hard-working, respectful contributors.
We don't have a perfect process to find these people, but we have faith in our great recruiter to increase our odds significantly. I'm proud of our leadership team for showing him the support and credit he deserves as he works hard to continue to build our organization.
