Optimizing Recruitment Processes

How to hire A-players (without getting burned):  1. The 4-Box Rule I learned this the hard way: Every hire must check ALL 4 boxes. • High energy • High integrity • High work ethic • High intelligence Say "no" if they miss even one. I'd rather work alone than with the wrong person. 2. My Interview Process That Never Fails Round 1: The Values Screen • Tell me about a time you failed • What's your biggest weakness? • Why are you leaving your current role? I'm not listening to their answers. I'm watching how they handle pressure. Round 2: The Skills Challenge Never hire based on interviews alone. Give them real work. For my video editor: "Edit this 3-minute clip by tomorrow." For my copywriter: "Write 5 subject lines for this email." Let their work speak louder than their words. Round 3: The Culture Test I ask one question that reveals everything: "Walk me through your perfect workday." • B-players talk about comfort and benefits. • A-players talk about impact and growth. Hire for alignment, not just talent. 3. The Reference Reality Check Most founders skip this step. Big mistake. I call 3 references for every final candidate. I ask: "What's one thing this person could improve?" If they can't give a real answer, they're not being honest. Great references give honest feedback. 4. My Biggest Hiring Mistake I hired someone because I was desperate. They had mediocre skills but were available immediately. Within 2 weeks, they: • Missed 3 deadlines • Brought down team morale • Made excuses for everything Desperation leads to expensive mistakes. 5. The Backup Strategy I always have 2-3 qualified candidates ready. Even when I'm not actively hiring. I'm constantly building relationships with potential team members. 6. The Onboarding System That Works Day 1: Welcome package with company values and expectations Week 1: Daily check-ins to answer questions Month 1: Full performance review and feedback Most hires fail because of poor onboarding, not poor hiring. 7. The 90-Day Rule Every hire gets exactly 90 days to prove themselves. No exceptions. If they're not exceeding expectations by day 90, they're gone. 8. My Current Team Stats • 30 team members across 8 time zones • 23-month average tenure • 95% of hires still with the company after 12 months Great teams are built through great systems. 9. The Bottom Line Your first hire will be scary. Your second hire will be easier. By your tenth hire, you'll have a system that works. I'm currently managing 30 people while working 4 hours a day. My team generates 8-figures a year. This is only possible because I learned to hire right. __ Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Matt Gray for more. Want to learn how to hire A-players? Join our community of 172,000+ subscribers today: https://lnkd.in/eZRgUMdS

Top talent will NEVER join a company with a mediocre recruiting process. They assume the rest of your company matches that experience. Yet most leaders treat their recruiters like transactional rubber stampers — then wonder why they can't hire A-players. The reality: how you treat your recruiters gets reflected in your recruiting process. Treat them like cogs in a machine? That's EXACTLY how they'll treat your candidates. Here are 8 ways treating recruiters as strategic partners transforms your hiring: 1. Give them a seat at leadership meetings A biz recruiter pitched "we need an implementation specialist" for months. Candidates weren’t biting. Then she learned this hire would unlock a $2M contract. Changed her pitch to "we need this role to hit Q3 revenue." Filled in 2 weeks. 2. Make recruiting metrics visible company-wide When engineering managers check recruiting dashboards daily, magic happens. One team went from "where's my hire?" to "I see 3 strong candidates entering final rounds." Transparency turns recruiting from blame game to team sport. 3. Let them push back on unrealistic demands A recruiter shared w/ me why she quit her last role: "I was tired of smiling when they wanted senior engineers for junior salaries." Smart companies empower recruiters to say, "that's unrealistic." The rest lose their best recruiters. 4. Include them in offer strategy, not delivery Watched a startup land their dream candidate in 48 hours — beating higher cash offers — because their recruiter could negotiate on the spot. Most make recruiters deliver pre-baked offers like pizza. 5. Invest in their tools like engineering Teams tracking candidates in Google Sheets wonder why they can't compete. Companies investing in real recruiting tools see 4x productivity gains. Your engineers get the latest MacBooks. Why make recruiters work in spreadsheets? 6. Give them time to build relationships One Gem customer filled 70% of roles in 3 weeks. How? They maintained relationships with past candidates for YEARS. Most measure recruiters on this month’s roles they need to fill. So they spam everyone and start from zero next quarter. 7. Empower them with data "Trust me, the market's tough" doesn't move executives. "Your salary range is 25th percentile — here's the data" does. Give recruiters access to data and industry benchmarks. Watch them become business partners overnight. 8. Celebrate their wins like revenue That top 1% engineer who chose you over FAANG only happened thanks to your recruiter — celebrate them like AEs winning deals. Ring the gong. Most companies only notice recruiters when hiring stops. TAKEAWAY In this market — 2.7x more applications, 90% unqualified — the difference isn't headcount. It's whether you treat recruiters as strategic partners or paper pushers. Your recruiters are interviewing for new jobs right now. Still think they're just order-takers?

Hiring is really hard. These are my top 3 tips on how to hire well: 🫡 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 Early founders often make the mistake of working with anyone who is remotely interested. Failing to realize that if they spend more thoughtful time hiring a single 10x engineer, that 10x engineer will be 1,000x more productive than the 10 average engineers you'd spend your day managing otherwise. In the early days, it’s worth 𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘 and really vetting candidates properly. Ex: Here at Stan, we hold everyone to the ‘Bar Raiser’ Test: ↳“Does this person we’re hiring actually raise the bar of our company?” 🔎 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐇𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 “𝐉𝐨𝐛-𝐭𝐨-𝐛𝐞-𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐞” The best way to actually vet candidates properly is two things. The first part is to really clearly define your “job-to-be-done”. Don’t just say you need a “Product Manager”. Clearly define what “problems” that PM needs to solve. For example, compare these 2 scenarios: ↳ “Help!! I need someone to take over product bc I’m overstretched!! 😩 ” VS ↳ “Our job-to-be-done is to increase retention. We are looking for a PM with prior experience moving the retention needle in a data-driven way. 😎 ” This will help you make sure the candidate you hire will have the exact skillset you need — and therefore, a much higher probability of succeeding. 👉 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 ‘𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐭’ 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝒀𝒐𝒖 The second part of properly vetting candidates is going to be unique to your organization. You need to lay out and define the “Values” that you care about in 1) yourself and 2) the people you look to be around. Not everyone ‘fits’ with you. That’s okay — it's totally normal. Find the core areas where people actually need to ‘match’ with you (some of your shit is just ‘bias’ though - so knock that surface level stuff out). And include those ‘Values’ in your evaluation criteria. Using Stan as an example: we look for people who overindex on 1) work ethic / hunger and 2) being a empathetic, high integrity person. This is neither good nor bad — it's just the two main qualities we've chosen to prioritize over an infinite number of alternatives / tradeoffs... Find your wavelength and hire for it. --- If you want the full look at the step-by-step hiring process we run to find the best team — I actually recorded a full YouTube video that walks through all of it: https://lnkd.in/gWi4vMZS #hiring #startup #entrepeneur #hiringadvice

Résumés are dead signal. And most companies are still using them to make multi-hundred-thousand-dollar hiring decisions. Many HR functions are facilitating a dysfunctional process and not a critical business enablement function that gives leverage to the business. (Also highly frustrating to job seekers spending hours on resumes, applications, and interviews.) If your recruiting process starts with a résumé review and ends with a generic job description, you’re optimizing for polish—not performance. Here’s what high-growth, high-trust hiring actually looks like: 1. Hire from work, not words. Résumés are marketing copy. Ask: “What did you build that still works without you?” Have them walk you through it. A deck. A dashboard. A system. The best operators speak in outcomes. Everyone else describes process. 2. Prioritize ownership over optics. “Led,” “managed,” “oversaw”—those are spectator words. Ask: “What decision did you make—and what tradeoffs did you weigh?” Use this framework: What was the situation? What was your call? What happened next? You’ll know if they owned it—or just had a front-row seat. 3. Screen for judgment, not perfection. You’re not hiring someone who’s always right. You’re hiring someone who gets smarter with every rep. Ask: “What’s a decision you’d revisit now with new information?” Judgment compounds faster than skills. Look for signal that they’ve updated their playbook. 4. Run performance-based interviews. Would you greenlight a $300K contract based on a résumé and three Zoom calls? Then stop hiring that way. Create a scoped, role-relevant project. Debrief it live. You’re not testing polish—you’re testing how they think under pressure and with context. 5. Stop mistaking pedigree for potential. A Stanford degree or FAANG stint is just context, not signal. Ask: “What did you do that others around you weren’t doing?” Look for stretch, creativity, and earned scope. 10x people don’t always come from the obvious places. 6. Ditch culture fit. Define behavior. “Culture fit” is often a proxy for “feels familiar.” And that’s how you build sameness, not scale. Ask yourself: “What are the behaviors our best people consistently demonstrate?” Interview for those. Not vibes. Not style. 7. Design the org first. Then hire. Too many job descriptions are written after someone quits. That’s backfilling, not architecting. Ask: “What friction does this role unblock? What velocity does it add?” You can’t hire for leverage if you don’t map where you need it. 8. Hire for trajectory—not title. Title is a lagging indicator. Trajectory is a leading one. Ask: “Where were you two years ago—and what’s changed since?” Look for acceleration. People who scale themselves can scale your company. You don’t build a generational company by playing it safe. You build it by designing a hiring system that finds slope, judgment, and ownership—and rewards it.

Hiring great people shouldn't be hard. So I built the Ultimate System that anyone can follow. But why listen to me? I built and sold a hiring marketplace making $12M/yr I then started an outsourcing company I've interviewed 7,580+ candidates If you want to hire High-Performers, this is how you do it: 1. Hidden Qualities of High Performers ➜ Learning new skills quickly and adapting to change. ➜ Taking ownership with strong self-motivation. ➜ Relentlessly curious, driving smart decisions. ➜ Recognizing patterns and trends early. ➜ Knowing when to step back and let go. 2. The SCORE Model ➥ Skills: Evaluate both technical and soft skills essential for the role. ➥ Culture Fit: Assess alignment with company values. ➥ Ownership: Look for evidence of initiative and responsibility. ➥ Results: Focus on measurable achievements. ➥ Emotional Intelligence: Gauge ability to understand and manage emotions. 3. 4 More Hiring Frameworks + The 5-Factor Model. + Job Simulation Exercises + Situational Judgment Tests (SJT) + Emotional Competence Framework 4. Deadliest Mistakes When Hiring ➜ Hiring for skills alone without considering cultural fit. ➜ Not validating claims during reference checks ➜ Letting first impressions overshadow objective evaluation. ➜ Rushing the process and sacrificing precision. 5. Hot Takes and Advice ➜ Hire slow, fire fast. ➜ Lack of self-reflection is a red flag. ➜ Work samples reveal more than resumes. ➜ Avoid hiring clones; seek complementary skills. Use this system, adjust based on your needs, and hire A-Players. Found this helpful? Share it with others!

Most hiring teams waste 70% of their time on the wrong candidates. Here’s how the best operators cut that down: 1) Define “must-haves” in writing. Not 20 bullet points. Three non-negotiables. If a candidate doesn’t meet them, don’t interview. 2) Move the work sample forward. Stop waiting until the final round. A 30-min project upfront saves you hours of interviews with the wrong people. 3) Track candidate velocity. If your process takes 30+ days, you’re losing A-players. Build dashboards that show where candidates stall — and cut bottlenecks. 4) Scorecards > gut feel. Every interviewer rates skills against pre-set criteria. No “I just liked them.” No bias. 5) Onboard before you celebrate. The best hires fail when onboarding fails. Treat the first 30 days as part of the hiring process, not the end of it. Here’s the truth: Hiring isn’t about picking talent. It’s about building the system that attracts, closes, and ramps them.

On Hiring // Interviews // Projects: I have learned that I am not always good at making hiring decisions based on interviews alone. I easily get excited about candidates, which leads me to overlook red flags (a lesson I've learned the hard way) or instances of a fit/skills mismatch (in more commonplace scenarios). As a result, I have switched up the order of my hiring process. For me, this has been game changing. Rather than starting with an interview, I typically now do the following: 1. Request information for the role in a very specific format (ie: please send an email with XYZ title with your resume attached). —This often weeds out a large initial batch of candidates if: a) the candidate does not follow this format, or b) the candidate sends a templated email, or c) the candidate sends an email, applying to the position, that says something like, "what do you do?" and hasn't looked at the website or job description. 2. Start with a small, paid project. This is usually 1-2 hours of work, compensated at the person's normal rate (or, if this hasn't been established yet, at a rate that feels joyful and fair to the candidate). —For me, this is the single most helpful thing we can do during the hiring process. This allows us to see not only the work product, but how the candidate thinks about the project; how they present it; and how they communicate about it. 3. Then, move to references and an interview. —I typically check 2-3 references per candidate, and am currently experimenting with moving the interview to the *end* of the process. While this order of events might sound a bit radical, I'm finding that it is leading me to much better hiring decisions, and it puts a process in place that solves for my own tendency to want to hire everyone I interview because I like them. Research has shown that most of us are actually not very good at making hiring decisions based on interviews alone, and that we bring all sorts of personal biases into the process, even if we try not to. For example, it has been proven that we are more likely to hire someone who is perceived to be "like us." Incorporating a project (a real project that relates to work you're currently doing) is a way to align hiring decisions with skills, competencies, and quality of work, rather than simply on "personality" —which does not tend to correlate to fit. This also respects the candidate's time, because they can get a sense of whether the type of work aligns with what they most want to be doing. I know that this process isn't possible in all environments, but it works great within the context of my own business. Has anyone else experimented with an alternate hiring process along these lines? #hiring #interviewing #culture #leadership #teamculture #HR

One of the most exciting aspects of writing "Make Work Fair" with my coauthor, Iris Bohnet, has been turning behavioral science insights and research evidence into practical, data-driven organizational design. Today, I want to share a powerful tip for improving hiring processes: structured decision-making. Unstructured interviews are notoriously poor predictors of job performance and rife with bias. But by adding structure to our hiring processes, we can significantly improve both fairness and —importantly—effectiveness. Here's a simple three-step approach you can implement: 📋 Define clear evaluation criteria before reviewing any applications. 🔢 Use a standardized scoring rubric for all candidates. ↔️ Compare candidates’s answers horizontally (all answers to question 1, then all answers to question 2, etc.) rather than vertically (one full candidate at a time). This method helps mitigate the impact of unconscious bias by focusing our attention on relevant qualifications rather than subjective "fit" or first impressions. In my research, I've seen organizations implement similar approaches with promising results. While specific outcomes vary, the trend is clear: structured hiring processes tend to lead to more diverse candidate pools and better alignment between job requirements and new hire performance. Have you tried structured hiring in your organization? What was your experience? #HiringPractices #WorkplaceFairness #DataDrivenHR #MakeWorkFairBook

Hiring the best people can mean the difference between success and mediocrity. Sometimes your internal team can do the job. But there are some circumstances where partnering with an external recruiter is WELL worth it… 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻: 1️⃣ 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀.  The best people aren't actively seeking jobs; they're being poached by recruiters. 💡It’s usually a lot ‘cleaner’ to use a 3rd party recruiter to approach employees from other companies about a potential job opportunity. 2️⃣ 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀. Something I’ve learned in my journey of founding Alt Protein Partners is that recruiting for executive and senior roles is SUBSTANTIALLY different from all other recruiting! 💡Executives are used to interacting with polished executive search firms. I’ve heard SO MANY EXECUTIVES say they’re off-put when an internal, more junior recruiter reaches out rather than someone from the C-suite or a professional executive search firm. 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂. I’ve always believed that true diversity comes from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences. 💡If you’re trying to diversify your talent pipeline and bring in fresh perspectives, you need to broaden your talent pool. External recruiters will tap into networks beyond your immediate circle. 4️⃣ 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀. If you’re hiring for a role that can make or break your company's trajectory, you should engage the best external recruiting firm you can find, without hesitation. 💡The risk of missing the mark on critical hires is too great compared to the marginal added cost of hiring a specialized recruiting firm. 5️⃣ 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. External recruiters with an industry focus (ehem, Alt Protein Partners) will provide valuable insights on market conditions, comp benchmarks, and how your employer brand is perceived. 6️⃣ 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲-𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲. If you’re in a situation where every day without a hire carries a high opportunity cost, you might want to hire an external recruiter. 💡Good recruiting firms know how to drive an expeditious hiring process and can keep everyone in lock-step. 🏠 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱? ➡️ If you’re hiring for junior, low-stakes roles, or if there is a lack of internal alignment on the role, you’ll likely be better off saving a few $$ and utilizing your internal team. _______________🌱 If you’re not sure if hiring a recruiter is the right move, feel free to reach out to me. I'll do my best to share my honest opinion.

When is it the right time to use an external recruitment partner? You’ve got ambitious hiring goals, but your internal team is stretched thin. Maybe you’ve tried the job boards, tapped into your network, and done everything in-house, but you’re just not seeing the right candidates. This might indicate you need an external recruitment partner. Partnering with an agency can give you access to specialized networks, industry expertise, and most importantly, time back to focus on other core areas of the business. Plus, a great recruiter does more than just fill seats - they understand your culture, growth plans, and the specific skill sets your team needs. It’s not always an easy call, sometimes it takes some reflection to realize what you need. So, when do you know it’s the right time? Some telling signs: 1) Your time-to-hire is increasing, and your team is stretched too thin to keep up. 2) You’re entering a new market or launching a new product, and the talent pool is unfamiliar. 3) You’re hiring for a role with very specialized skills. 4) Your internal HR or talent team is overloaded or lacks niche expertise. What have your experiences been? When did you know it was time to bring in outside help?