This document provides a 3-stage plan for hiring the right candidate: 1. The interview process should be professional and sell the opportunity, including multiple interview rounds and internal stakeholders. 2. Key interview questions uncover cultural fit and view of feedback, such as how a past culture empowered the candidate and how they handled conflicts. 3. Making an offer should not involve low-balling, discussing salary in interviews, or contacting candidates directly without a recruiter to manage expectations. Hiring top candidates requires projecting a top-level, Grade A impression throughout the process.

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Helping You Hire the Right Person!
Hiring a new employee is a two way street. On one side you have to ascertain if someone has the right technical
and soft skills to be part of your team. On the other side you need to make sure the candidate walks away thinking
a place in your team is his/her first choice.
For anyone who has managed a team, hiring the best person is a game changer. They add value from day one, you
enjoy seeing their faces every morning and most of all they are successful in the tasks given to them. It is this kind
of candidate who forms part of a high performing team and let’s face it, fast tracks your career in the process.
Now let’s look at hiring the wrong person. This can be quantified as poor performance, bad attitude, cultural
mismatch, energy taker, you get the idea.
After you’ve tried various managerial tools to turn these issues around, in the end they become a lame duck that
will quack for many months as you go through the internal company process to part ways (legally). In a nut shell,
you struggle to see anything positive in this person and even saying hello becomes painful. It is at this point
managing a team is now directly impacting your career development and perhaps your overall happiness.
So after 11 years of working with multiple teams and hiring managers from various sectors across the globe, here
is my 3 stage plan to help you hire the right person.
The Interview Process
Interviewing Questions
The Offer & Follow-Up

2. The Interview Process
Simply put, you need to sell the opportunity throughout the process. If you think that your company brand and the
fact you offer a good W/L balance will win the candidate over, think again. It is critical to start, maintain and finish
the interview process with slick professionalism. Below is a quick check list:
How many rounds of interview? 3 is a good number and in my experience adding more than 1 interviewer at each
stage maximises time on both sides without it feeling like an interview at Goldman Sachs.
Who should be included in interview process? The usual suspects but I would highly advise bringing in your strongest
internal stakeholders, the men/women who have an addictive and infectious personality.
How long should it take? Momentum is everything and 2-3 weeks works well giving both sides optimum time to
digest.
Do
1. Make it clear on what the job looks like daily, your expectations and the career progression available. Job
Descriptions are always a good idea but you can make the key difference by adding conviction and clarity,
something a number of hiring managers skip over.
2. Bring in the big guns (Head of BD, Sales, COO). They should be passionate employees who the candidate
will be working with daily and of course, prepped to sell you and your team.
3. At the end of the interview show them around the offices and introduce them to colleagues, all of this will
make the meeting personable and a cut above the rigid ‘waiting for a lift’ ending to the majority of
interviews.
Do Not
1. Do not make an offer to a candidate after 1 interview; this is potentially not enough time for any candidate
to make a clear and concise decision.
2. Do not allow inexperienced HR employees to conduct interviews. They are often lacking the training and
gravitas to ask sensitive/personal questions and can do more damage than good.
3. Do not meet someone for the first time in a coffee shop. You may feel this is ok but the candidate is about
to spill their life story in a public forum (conscious of colleagues or worse still, a manager walking in).

3. Interviewing Questions
This part of the process has matured in recent years and I think the majority of us now have the basic questions
needed to ascertain skills and cultural fit during the interview.
Here are 4 absolute belting questions to see if the candidate truly is a fit for your team (source, ‘David Walker –
Business Insider’).
How did the culture at your last company empower or disempower you?
• This is a really interesting question, because it will get candidates talking about their previous company
through a cultural mind-set. Getting candidates to talk about their past employer can be very telling. Do
they openly throw the company under the bus? Do they recognize the positives even though it ultimately
didn't work out?
• Asking specifically about the culture of their last company also tells you a lot about how they view the
importance of culture. Their response will tell you if they've thought a lot about company culture or if they
don't really know what it is. The question will also reveal how they think they are empowered or
disempowered, which will give you a look into their motivations.
What were the characteristics of the best boss you've ever had?
• I like this question as a follow-up to the culture question, because it's somewhat similar but from a different
angle. If you didn't get a sense for a candidate's view on culture and what motivates him or her, you likely
will from this question.
• Did the candidate thrive under a boss who was extremely direct and valued performance above all else?
Did he or she thrive under a boss that put as much emphasis on communication and interpersonal skills as
results within the role?
Describe how you handled a conflict with one of your co-workers.
• It's always helpful to ask candidates about how they dealt with a conflict. As people, we tend to be more
open and honest when recalling a specific event versus describing characteristics about ourselves.
Understanding what the candidate perceives as a ‘conflict with a co-worker’ will likely reveal information
about the person's level of self-awareness.
• Understanding how someone dealt with a conflict will also give you insights into what he or she perceives
as a reasonable and positive response to a conflict. No matter how wonderful your culture is, conflicts will
arise. How your team deals with conflicts is the true test of your culture.
What kind of feedback do you expect to receive in this role and how often do you expect to receive it?
• Understanding a candidate's desire or hesitation to receive feedback tells you a lot about the person's
expectations. The frequency and type of feedback that is shared within a company tends to be highly
correlated to culture.
• Does the candidate expect feedback to be tied to core values? Does the person think feedback is only about
performance in the role? Does he or she see feedback as a once-a-year HR formality or as part of a constant
process of growth and improvement?

4. The Offer and Follow-Up
Ask any recruiter and they will tell you a story of frustration with clients who implode at this stage.
DO NOT discuss numbers in the interview
• For the majority of candidates this is a personal question and forms part of an overall decision that needs
time and consultation with friends and family. If you back someone into a corner they will either a) give you
an answer which shows their ambition (higher salary than your budget) or b) an answer which shows they
respect the process (vague or lower salary than actual expectations).
DO NOT offer the candidate directly
• This includes calling the candidate, emailing the candidate, and WhatsApp. Your recruiter is an expert in
making sure the offer ends in a win/win for both parties. By going direct, you are removing the breaker
between managing expectations and delivering the number that works on both sides.
DO NOT low ball a candidate
• I understand that negotiations take place but going in with the best possible offer at the start shows real
intent to hire. Put yourself in the candidates’ shoes and if a recruiter tells you that they’ve gone big because
they really want you, how would that make you feel?
Final Thoughts
Employees and Hiring Managers can be graded into A, B and C. As a quick reference, Grade A candidates are super
stars, Grade B solid and reliable, Grade C = under-performing.
Note: Grade A candidates will often if not always seek out Grade A Hiring Managers. Rarely will you see a Grade A
candidate join a Grade B and nearly never a Grade C. If you want to hire top candidates, you must ensure that the
first impression is as strong as the offer at the end of the process, and always projecting grade A characteristics.
Once they are in your team it’s the next big task – Retention!
Good Luck!