Master the art of hiring fast.
I nervously texted a girl preparing to ask her on a first date. Mustering up the courage, I sent the text. "Do you want to hang out tonight? You could come to my place." And they say chivalry is dead. 🤦🏼♂️ I watched the 3 dots twinkle as I waited for her response...
"Sure, if you pick me up and drive me home."
I read it, and I reread it. I lived in the valley in Los Angeles on the other side of the Hollywood Sign, and she lived in Koreatown in southeast LA. It was 13 miles, translating to a 1-hour drive on a good day in LA.
Intrigued by the demand, I drove and picked her up.
We got back to my place, uncorked (probably unscrewed) a bottle of wine, sat on my patio, and talked like a couple of weirdos. It was a first date, so I kept the conversation light, trying not to come off weird, but not her. She was weird. She dove in head first without regard for my level of comfort. In her mind, either you're worth my time or not, so why waste five dates trying to figure that out?
Four hours later, I felt like I imagined a criminal would feel after four hours with Chris Voss. No stone had been unturned. I'd never been more uncomfortable in my life, and there was only one thing I knew after she Dora the Explorered my soul: I loved her.
Nine months later, we got married.
What did I learn from my wife about interviewing? Being weird upfront is the best way to find the best fit. Thinking we need to respect some extensive hiring process is nonsense. The person across from you is a human, just like you. You are building an elite team of humans.
Are they someone you want on your team? Go deep early and hire fast.
Before we move on to the art of hiring fast, we need to agree on a few principles:
Go fast, but remain respectful and kind. Asking hard questions isn't unkind, but "hiring fast" isn't permission for you to be a jerk.
You will hire the wrong people. Hire with the mentality of the Marine Corps 70% rule. Do you have 70% of the intel you need to make a decision? Gather the intel fast and make a decision without worrying about a 100% success rate.
You never hire if skills are there, but culture fit isn't. I don't care about their experience.
Prioritize hiring like you do performance. If you need this person badly enough, make it your top priority.
You aren't the only one recruiting them. The longer you take, the greater the likelihood someone else will snatch them up.
How to hire employees faster
Master the art of hiring fast with these 7 steps:
FOMO Vision: If you don't know where you're going, don't hire anyone, no matter how fast. One of the first questions I ask a founder I work with is where are you going? An employee should do the same. To hire fast, you have to be able to sell big and get people excited about the problem you solve. Do this by having a vision they are terrified to miss out on.
I run a startup recruiting company. The biggest thing that drives success in hiring is to be working on an impactful & interesting problem 🤷🏼♂️
Everything else comes 2nd— Tim Connors • 101 (@itstimconnors) July 1, 2021
Takeaway: People don't want to be hired fast if you aren't working on something interesting.
2. Know the role: "We're interviewing to see what we need." I've said this 😩 If you're unsure of what you need, call people in the role you think you need at other companies and ask for advice. To be ready to hire, you need three elements defined: roles and responsibilities, what it means for the person to be successful, and the first 90-day onboarding plan. The first 90 days are the most crucial.
Takeaway: If you are unsure, wait to post the job. Read this newsletter instead.
3. Define and refine your hiring process: Write down all the steps of your current hiring process from when you decide you need to hire someone to their first day on the job. How can you shorten it to go faster?
Takeaway: A written process is the key to going fast.
4. Use your network: Hiring happens way faster within your network. The first part of the hire fast process begins by doing two things: circulating the job internally to team members and circulating it externally to people you trust. A+ players most likely have jobs; maybe their friend knows they're unhappy. If you can start by trusting a candidate because they were referred by someone you trust, the process goes faster.
Takeaway: To go fast, go to who you know.
5. Go deep early - Rarely are we hiring from the position of "We don't need this person for about 3-6 months, so we can take our time." Instead, the fire we're hiring to solve for is burning behind us as we sit in the interview room. Talking to 50 people for a phone interview to cut it down to 15 for another round of interviews is a WASTE of time. Hiring isn't speed dating. You're not desperate. You're hunting. Ask difficult questions early to weed out the people that don't fit within the three pillars of hiring: skills, experience, and culture.
Takeaway: Don't waste time with small talk.
6. Don't be petty - They aren't the right person if you're arguing over $5,000 in salary. You should want the person to negotiate, and know what your company can genuinely afford, but don't waste weeks of hiring time over a $200 addition to a bi-weekly paycheck.
Takeaway: You get what you pay for.
7. Onboard like a beast - The best way to hedge your bet against a hire who may not work (if you're worried about hiring fast) is to onboard them with the same ferocity you hired them. Don't be the founder who sells them on the dream and then drops them off at school on their first day without a map or a syllabus. You should be standing next to the punch bowl for the first 90 days scooping it into their cup.
Takeaway: Your hire fast work isn't done on the employees' first day.
After dropping out of college, I did 7 interviews with 7 different people across 6 weeks to become a bellhop at Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach before it launched.
They let me go before my first day because they didn't pre-book enough rooms.
Don't be like the Pelican Hill.
Take a lesson from my beautiful wife. Don't waste 5 interviews trying to figure out if the person is worth your time. Hire fast and get to work.
