A lightning look at using some core engineering methodologies to improve recruiting

1. Do you speak Agile?

2.  15+ years in technology recruitment
 Speaking at recruitment events, running tech events
 Occasional recruitment (exclusively startup tech firms)
 Tech firm advisory work (Zlemma, NearDesk, LifeShifter)
 Startup founder & co-founder (TweetJobs, MindTheProduct, FabricHR, Careeropia)
 @james_mayes
 www.musingsfromsussex.com
 http://about.me/James.Mayes

3. Best for: Driving Cultural Change

4.  Who are your customers?
 What language do they speak?
 Do you suffer from…:
 Lack of budget to improve tools or processes
 Lack of time with hiring manager to get feedback or progress?
 Driving cultural change?
 Communication of progress & status across a distributed team?

5. We value this most
 Individuals and interactions
 Working software
 Customer collaboration
 Responding to change
We recognise this is helpful
 Processes and tools
 Comprehensive documentation
 Contract negotiation
 Following a plan
The HiPPO Problem: Highest Paid Person’s Opinion!

6. Best for: Getting Feedback from Time-Poor Managers

7.  SCRUM is an Agile methodology
 Challenge assumptions, self-organisation, fast iteration
 The standup (5-15 minutes)
- What did I accomplish yesterday?
- What will I do today?
- What obstacles are impeding my progress?

8. Recruiter speaks to:
 Quality of specification
 Market feedback
 Lack of candidates
 Reputational issues
 Market rates
 Hiring feedback
 Interview process
 Offer progress
Engineering speaks to
 Candidate quality issues
 Assessment criteria
 Interview process and available
resource
 Onboarding

9. Best for: Getting Budget to Experiment

10.  Roots in manufacturing (esp. automotive,Toyota)
 Evangelised in tech by Eric Ries
 Key stages:
 Identify the value
 Map the value stream
 Create the flow sequence
 Create customer pull
 Iterate: Perfect value cycle = no wastage
 Is it valid in recruitment?
 Randstad, Phillips and SquareSpace ALL using it in European tech recruitment

11. Key stages
 Plan
 Implement
 Monitor
 Act
Approach
 The question
 The hypotheses
 The variables
EXAMPLE
• If we create an internal exec sourcing team, we can save headhunter spend
• If we start with one role we can use a part time freelancer
• If the save is proved, we can build the team

12.  G4S – world’s third largest private employer
 Internal best practice recruiting team, but external exec search
 Hired a single freelance sourcer on an hourly rate
 Filled a direct role, saved a £39,000 headhunter fee
 Extended pilot to cover twenty roles over 9 months
 Spent £50,000 on freelance specialist sourcers on hourly or daily rates
 Saved £490,000 equivalent headhunter fees

13. Best for: Distributed Team Communications

14.  The management of components through a chain using cards
 Also a Japanese manufacturing background
 A series of columns can be used to represent recruitment stages
 Limited resources per column
 Limited items per column based on resource pool
 Multi-disciplinary teams best suited
 Easily identify blockages – add resource or change approach
 Visual communication has a stronger impact!

15. HTTP://JMAY.ES/TRELLORECRUITING

16.  Trello has:
 Open API and existing integrations with over 200 cloud services
 Open webhook accessibility for quick custom development
 Zapier integration for initial experiements!
 Triggers could include:
 Creation of a new board per role
 Automated invitations to hiring managers
 Movement of cards between stages

18.  Questions and feedback?
 Will you use anything here?
 What will you go and explore?
@james_mayes
www.musingsfromsussex.com
http://about.me/James.Mayes