Hiring Guide For Scaling Brands

INTRODUCTION

“Our people are our most important asset”

Does your recruitment process align with your employer branding? Are you providing a positive candidate experience every step of the way?
Think about your whole process – from your adverts to your job specs, then your interview techniques. Post-interview, think about how you reject unsuccessful candidates, how you go about offering your chosen candidate, and then their onboarding.
This recruitment guide acts as an insight into how we work here at 1485 Ltd. It won’t be the full manual for what we do – at the end of the day, recruitment is our job, whereas for you, it’s just one small part of yours, so we’ve simplified or cut out some parts. However, it’s designed to give you the platform you need to make every hire a successful and impactful one.

First of all, think of your timescales. It will likely take 2-3 weeks to build a shortlist of interested, qualified candidates. There’s likely to then be another 2-3 weeks of interviews, assessments and offer management. And then, there’s a good likelihood of a 3-month notice period before the person can start. For senior hires, that could even be 6 months.
So, you are looking at 4 months minimum (unless the successful candidate is not working or on a short notice period) from the moment you begin your search to the day your new employee starts. Potentially a lot longer – this can be dependent on the seniority of the role. The message we trying to get across? Don’t leave it too late.

THE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS!

1. Why are you hiring? What results are you hoping for this person to achieve within the first 6-12 months of them joining?
2. What does success look like and how will you measure it?
3. What are you willing to invest into the new hire so they can achieve these results – the package – and is it at the salary level required for the skills/experience you are seeking?
4. What will this person be doing that may make the role in some way unique, and therefore attractive?
5. What are your non negotiables? What critical skills will candidates need to be able to display and why?
6. What is the reporting structure and the leadership style of the line manager?
7. What’s your pitch? How will you attract top talent? (Advice on this later in the guide…)

GETTING “RECRUITMENT READY”

1. Write a job spec AND an advert for the position. The two are not the same thing. To simplify it, consider the advert a selling piece that promotes what’s attractive about the position and what would be challenging along with a “call to action”. The job spec is more like an instruction manual of what the person will be doing, and the skills and experience required to do it effectively.
2. Be prepared to be transparent on the salary you can pay and the additional benefits you offer. Applicants/candidates appreciate transparency and the unique benefits you offer as a business may help you to attract the right people.
3. Go one step further and put together an info pack all about your brand, the journey you have been on, and where you want to get to in the future. You only need to do this once and can then use it for future hires too. It’s a great tool to set you apart from your competition, most of whom will be reliant on whatever info is on their website. Want to see an example of a great info pack? Let us know.
4. Consider the “culture” or “environment” fit. This does not mean that everyone in the business must have similar interests or backgrounds – far from it – but it makes sense to understand the type of person that would integrate well and add to your existing culture and company values. There are simple but effective online tests that can be done to assess cultural fit without any form of bias creeping in – and they can be completed in under 10 minutes.
5. Be clear on:
• How many interview stages will be required
• Who will be involved
• When these interviews will be done
• When you’d like an offer to be made and the person to start – many mid-senior level candidates will have a notice period of 3 months. We said it before and we’ll say it again – don’t leave it too late to get started!
6. Decide on your preboarding and onboarding plan. Don’t delay this. You’ll need a structured plan to set them up for success.
7. Have draft contracts, offer letters and company handbooks written to avoid delays at the latter end of the process.
Top Tip
Use a site like https://www.onfolk.com/pay-calculators/employee-cost-calculator to calculate how much it will actually cost you to employ somebody, once National Insurance and pension contributions are added to their basic salary.

THE SEARCH

You’re not a full-time recruiter, so you won’t be able to cover all bases with your search. However, you can take two key steps without the work involved taking over your life:

1. Post and promote your advert online. If you have a company page, LinkedIn allows you to promote your job with just a small daily budget. Tell all your followers on your LinkedIn page and post a link to the advert on there, ask your current employees to share it and you’ll get some good exposure.
2. Now, separate to your advert, draw up a list of all the people you think could be qualified for the role. Think back to people you’ve met at events, do some LinkedIn searching to jog your memory and use your employees’ networks too – who do they know that might be a good fit? Reach out to these people directly, ensuring that you’ve got a compelling message. Think about it though – these are people who are probably approached a couple of times per month, if not per week. Your approach needs to stand out! Depending on how niche the skills you’re looking for are, your list might be 5 people, or it might be 100 people.
Top Tip
It’s estimated that only 30% of people are actively looking for a new job at any one time. That means that no matter how amazing your advert is, in order to reach the majority of potential candidates, it’s the proactive approach work that you do that’s likely to yield the best results, so make that first approach count!

CREATING YOUR SHORTLIST

1. Now, it’s all about engagement. Organise a call with the advert applicants that meet your requirements and the candidates you’ve reached out to directly that have indicated they’re open to having a chat.
2. This part is all about balance – you need to put your sales-person hat on but also your detector hat! Tell each person about what makes your company stand out, what the best parts are about the role and what the opportunity is for them when it comes to their career progression in the medium term. However, alongside “attraction”, a key part of this call is “assessment” – you want to come off this call with an understanding of each person’s current circumstances, their experience versus your requirements and what each one is seeking from a new role (package, career development opportunities, work/home life balance etc). Does it make sense to progress further? Make detailed notes, because if you’re talking to even just 10 people at this stage, you’ll need to refer to these notes later!
3. Decide on your shortlist:
• Reject applicants that don’t meet your requirements – there are ways to automate rejection messages to applicants on LinkedIn when there’s significant volume. However, for anyone that’s invested time in talking with you or where there’s relevance to their application but they’re not right for a reason that might not be immediately apparent to them, ensure you call them and explain why the fit isn’t quite right.
• Agree next steps (a first interview) for the 3-6 candidates you’d like to take forward once your initial screenings are complete. Be clear with what the first interview will entail and agree a time, date and location.
Top Tip
This is likely to be each candidate’s first interaction with your brand – make it count! Often, 95% of applicants won’t be right – but they’ll still be potential consumers of your products, so make sure they get a great candidate experience, even if it’s a case of just communicating clearly and efficiently.

PREPARING TO INTERVIEW

The amount of interviews you do, and who is involved with them, will vary dependent on the seniority of the role and the impact it will have in your business. In a start-up/scale up business the following should suffice:
Junior/mid-level roles (such as NAE/NAM/SNAM/Brand Manager/Marketing Manager)
• 2 stages
• At least one of these in person (ideally both)
• 1st stage with HR (where applicable) and Hiring Manager
• 2nd stage with Hiring Manager and MD/CEO/Founder

Senior level roles (Head of/Director/C-Suite)
• 3 stages
• Ideally 2 in person
• 1st stage with HR (where applicable) and Hiring Manager
• 2nd stage with Hiring Manager and MD/CEO/Founder
• 3rd stage with Founder/MD/CEO (unless they are also the hiring manager) & any relevant board members or investors

MAKING AN OFFER

Look to make an offer to your preferred candidate within 24 hours of the final interview taking place. It will make them feel wanted and show you are decisive and take action.
1. DO NOT LOWBALL. You knew what they were looking for and progressed to interview them on that basis. Offer what they have asked for, or – to really sweeten things – a little more
2. Make the offer on the phone or even in person if possible. Never make your offer via email/text etc
3. Got verbal acceptance? Cool. Now get them a written offer and contract out within 24 hours**
4. Written offer should include base salary, any bonus info, any company car info, pension, healthcare, additional benefits, start date
**DON’T FAFF AROUND HERE. MOVE THROUGH THE GEARS WITH A DEGREE OF PACE. CANDIDATES WILL APPRECIATE IT. MOMENTUM IS EVERYTHING.
THE WHOLE PROCESS FROM THE MOMENT THE ROLE IS LIVE TO CANDIDATE ACCEPTING ON OFFER SHOULD TAKE AROUND 28 DAYS.

THAT’S IT!

We hope this guide is useful for you as you go out there and (hopefully!) secure your next key hire. If you’d like to ask anything else, don’t hesitate to drop me a note or give me a call.
Oh, and if this looks like a process you’d like an experience recruiter to take off your hands, I’ll happily talk you through I’d go about it to ensure success in a timeframe that works for you!

Andrew Baker, Head of Food, Beverage & Nutrition – Scaling Brands
Andrew@1485search.com
07774 639 365