By Susan Kandalaft
You want drama-free, adaptable and intelligent new hires.
You want people who level-up your team’s performance.
So how do you find them?
Imagine you’re sifting through a stack of resumes. Everyone seems qualified, but who has that extra edge in a stack of eager applicants?
Or, what if you fail to see toxic behaviour in your top choice, they get hired, and they are clever enough to survive probation, and then add stress to coworkers as they draw on your payroll?
Want to know my secret to find your future favourite employees? Discover my method to discover the rockstars worthy of being hand-picked for our clients.
In our 30 years in recruiting, I’ve become so confident in our method that our service guarantee is double the industry standard (a six-month guarantee versus three) because we focus on steps most others don’t bother to take, like these:
Proprietary Testing Reveals All
Our proprietary testing is not your run-of-the-mill assessment. We dive into the nitty-gritty details and those crucial soft skills—decision-making, common sense and logic. Those qualities make someone shine in the workplace, and that’s what our clients are hungry for.
We go beyond basic skills, tapping into how candidates handle complex problems, their ability to prioritize under pressure and their knack for detail. It’s about more than just getting the job done. It’s about how gracefully they’ll do it.
Without attention to detail or the ability to prioritize in their team, employers often face inefficiencies and mistakes that can ripple through projects and departments, causing frustration and delays.
Reactions Revealed
The way a candidate reacts to our testing process is incredibly telling. It’s like a sneak peek into who they are on a daily workday.
You’ve probably been there: a candidate looks great on paper but needs to mesh with the team’s energy. Employees with confidence are gold, but what if an enlarged ego tramples the team’s good vibes?
Our testing measures skills while showcasing humility to “do what it takes,” even if it seems elemental.
If a well-experienced person is asked to prove themselves with our testing, it will elicit good humour or close-mindedness. Employers will always pick the adaptable person over a prima donna – the one who’s only willing to do what pleases them or becomes defensive if their competence is questioned.
Testing prevents the risk of damage to team unity with people unwilling to adapt or improve or who refuse to grind through unpleasant tasks and offload them to become other people’s problems.
Common Sense Calm
It’s a busy workday, and everything is going wrong. Who is unfazed? The candidate who aced our basic skills test.
At first glance, correcting a few lines of grammar or calculating a percentage seems redundant in an age of spellcheck and spreadsheets. But we’ve found a consistent correlation between a candidate’s ability to outwit a basic test and a likelihood of other desirable qualities – including common sense or a temperament that is unflappable under pressure.
Testing for basic skills might seem old school, but it’s about thinking on your feet.
Every workplace benefits from the type of people who use logic for classic problem-solving. This includes applying knowledge from grade-school math class or junior high English.
Camera Ready
Since COVID, the work world has transformed. Whether working from home, in hybrid, or fully remote teams, employees must upgrade their comfort communication via cameras and keyboards. We observe every candidate’s virtual engagement capacity and remote work ethic.
Online testing and our email interactions tell an essential story.
Although in-person appearances at work are fewer today, we also get candidates to meet us offline in our office. Nuanced personality traits can’t be hidden when seated face-to-face. Employers want top talent who enjoy joining in the same room.
Technical prowess is essential, as is navigating workplace dynamics or handling a tricky client call with finesse. These are the soft skills that truly differentiate a good hire from a great one. When these skills are lacking, you might see a technically proficient employee struggle with collaboration or communication, impacting team morale and productivity.
A One-By-One Approach
Our process is like a fast pass.
Even though you get to skip the long line to get straight to the front to the premium candidates, don’t be fooled. It’s easy behind the scenes.
Our clients must see the volume of original applicants, sometimes filled with hundreds of people and hours of failed interviews.
Decades ago, we responded to client orders with a “package” of three to five optional candidates to choose from, but we rarely accommodate this request today. Good candidates don’t stay available for long.
Providing an array of candidate profiles to compare one another usually backfires because it causes delays. Your top choice can be hired elsewhere, leaving you to pick from second options.
Hiring managers may also be tempted to think that one perfect candidate in front of them is a sign that dozens more are a click away in a database somewhere, but the market says otherwise.
Time is of the essence. A drawn-out hiring process drains resources and leaves positions unfilled. This burdens the rest of your team with higher workloads or burnout. We choose not to skip screening steps to speed up the process. Some recruiters think that finding perfect matches is simply a “numbers game,” betting on the odds that among a sample of poorly screened candidates, the “closest” match will appear. Our work is more investigative and intentional.
We guard your time against a revolving door of questionable matches. We only present optimal choices for those who can jump in and succeed.
The ‘Secret Sauce’ for Your Success
With our extended guarantees, we put our money where our mouth is. This isn’t just about making placements but forging lasting matches. Employers may frequently find themselves back at square one without such assurances, searching for a replacement much sooner than anticipated and dealing with damaged teams who may have endured a colleague with a poor work ethic or lacking skillset.
We stand by our matches with a six-month promise, even extending it to a year for some roles. That’s how much we believe in our process.
Feeding the Karma Machine: Attracting Better Humans by Doing the Right Thing
Our reputation is everything. Being responsive, following up, and initiating direct phone conversations with referral candidates —it’s all part of the experience. I never ignore a call or message coming from a referred candidate. We get so many referrals, resulting in the best candidates. Good people know good people.
Clients and candidates remember we value treating people with humanity and maintaining relationships. It’s about ensuring they know they’re more than just a number to us. Then, if happy employees get great jobs through us and thrive in their roles, word spreads about our reputation and clients’ businesses as preferred places to work.
Our clients trust us with their most critical hires. It’s not just about filling vacancies; it’s about strategic alignment and cultural enhancement. With it, companies can avoid ending up with a disengaged workforce in sync with the business’s vision and goals.
Teams Built Right
As we partner, you’ll feel the weight of hiring lifted off your shoulders. You’re not just filling a position; you’re ensuring that every new addition is a building block for a stronger, more cohesive, and more productive team.
