hiring great people: how we improved our recruiting process to build and grow a great agile team

HIRING GREAT PEOPLEhow we improved our recruiting process to build and grow a great agile team!

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PIETRO DI BELLOAgile Coach Señor Coder Love pizza and ice-creams Works at XPeppers in a great team!

@pierodibello

@xpeppers

“THROUGH GREAT HIRING, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO

TRANSFORM YOUR ORGANIZATION”

Sean Landis - “Agile Hiring”

GREAT COMPANIES ALWAYS HAVE THOUGHTFUL AND ADVANCED HIRING PROCESSES

MANY COMPANIES TEND TO EITHER OVERLOOK OR UNDERESTIMATE HIRING

WARNING SIGNS THAT THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS IS UNDERESTIMATED IN YOUR COMPANY

don’t know what your hiring process is

not involved in the hiring decisions

involvement is irrelevant

skill level of the teams is not where it should be

new colleagues do not fit

few new applications

tons of applications, too many just out of target

candidate doesn’t accept the offer

your company doesn’t grow at all or is growing too damn fast

THE THREE PILLARS OF HIRING★ sourcing ★ assessing ★ onboarding

SOURCING CANDIDATES

a proper job description online job sites external recruiters social media sponsor events open-source projects university affiliations and internship programs

How to make to good people apply? And BTW discourage the wrong candidate from applying?

Techniques you’ll use to attract suitable candidates

ASSESSING CANDIDATES

review résumé testing skills in-person interviews and auditions take the decision

Is this person the right one for our team and our company?

This is where you get to know the candidate!

ONBOARDING NEW EMPLOYEES

bootcamp study path tutoring peer reviews

How can the new employees reach a good level of proficiency and integration in the team in the shortest time possible?

The first period of employment of a newcomers, from the first day on

A CLASSIC RECRUITMENT WORKFLOW

A MORE MATURE RECRUITMENT WORKFLOW

1. screen the résumé 2. phone interview 3. in-person interviews and audition 4. hire decision 5. make an offer

OUR ACTUAL RECRUITMENT PROCESS…

1. screen the résumé 2. solve unattended test 3. in-person interview 4. audition 5. hire decision 6. make an offer

…AND HOW WE HANDLE IT

HIRING PRINCIPLES I LEARNED

REFLECT ON YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESS

DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESS

METRICS METRICS EVERYWHERECollect metrics from your recruitment board to improve your process.

For example, in the résumé screening step you can measure: résumé quality: how many résumés are filter out? résumé filtering quality: how many résumés we accepted then fail to

pass the next hiring step?

INVOLVE ALL THE TEAM

VALUE SOCIAL SKILLS OVER JUST TECHNICAL SKILLS

…CULTURAL FIT

“Cultural fit will trump all technical skills. Every time. It doesn’t matter how technically great a person is. If a candidate’s cultural preferences do not match your organization, that person will not fit.” !Johanna Rothman, “Hiring Geeks That Fit”

KNOW YOUR ORGANIZATION, KNOW YOUR TEAM

VALUE DIVERSITY

HIRE GREAT PEOPLE :-D

RESPECT THE CANDIDATE

USE HIRING CHECKLISTS AND DRIVING QUESTIONS

REBOOT YOUR TEAM WITH INTERNS AND GRADUATES

WAIT FOR GOOD CANDIDATES

COME UP WITH YOUR OPINION BEFORE EVEN ASKING OTHERS THEIRS

BEWARE OF CARGO-CULTING

SO…. REBOOT YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESS!

1. Describe the workflow of your recruitment process: try visualizing all the steps and the flow of the candidates. Discuss with your team and your HR department.

2. What is working and what is not in your current recruitment process? Use the workflow diagram drawn in the previous exercise to highlight unrealized improvement opportunities

3. How the current recruitment process is supporting the growth of your team / your company?

4. How the current recruitment process is helping your team / your company become what it is still not?

RECOMMENDED READINGS

“Agile Hiring” by Sean Landis “Hiring Geeks That Fit” by Johanna Rothman

THANK YOU!

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