The Science of Hiring
By Gray Mabry, iVenture Solutions CEO
If you want to know about a company’s culture, look at the last people they hired. More than anything, a company’s culture is built on the backs of the people who work there — that foundation begins with hiring. You can institute as many HR protocols, mission statements and company values as you want, but if you haven’t established a strong employee base with people who respect and believe in your business, you don’t stand a chance.
To iVenture, our company culture is much more than a throwaway marketing term, it’s our way of life. As iVenture co-founder and CEO, I pride myself on being our culture’s highest ambassador and staunchest protector. It influences the employees we hire, the clients we partner with, the processes we implement and the successes we measure and no, we’re not a cult! We simply believe that by focusing on our employees first, everything else will fall into place. But, we didn’t start out this way.
Change is in the Air
In 2000, iVenture president Mark Schnitzius and I founded iVenture Solutions, Inc. when we realized something critical was missing in information technology (IT) — the human factor. We wanted to create a company that cares about its clients’ success and helps them achieve it. As a burgeoning IT company, we knew how to do one thing particularly well — IT. Give us any technology problem, we’ll solve it. And for a while, this unique selling point was the only differentiation we needed, until we started to grow. As iVenture scaled up, the issues we had overlooked, or sometimes ignored, began to reveal themselves. Group accountability was low, employees weren’t enthusiastic about coming to work and there was an obvious disconnect across the whole team. Something had to change, so we changed it. End of story.
Well ... maybe it wasn’t quite so simple. In 2010, we made the decision to truly fix our culture problem. In reality, we had little idea exactly where to begin, so we started everywhere. We read books, we consulted with business peers and, most importantly, we involved the whole company in the process. That’s when we realized the best way to have a great culture is to find people with the right culture fit. The hiring process was where we need to adjust, and fast.
Discoveries
Once we knew to focus on the right culture fit, we needed to determine how to find it. The most important thing we did was test, analyze and test again. We wanted to move past the traditional interview filled with fake smiles and rehearsed lines and into who every candidate genuinely is. This is what we learned.
Initial Assessment
For any process to be effective, a filter should be in place to weed out unsuitable results. The same goes for hiring. As a filter for our hiring process, we instituted a preliminary personality assessment that each candidate must answer. The Predictive Index, or PI, serves as a basis for us to determine if a candidate’s qualities match those of their prospective department and of the company as a whole. This isn’t a final determinant, but it does provide important insights such as the candidate’s collaborativeness/independence, extraversion/introversion, flexibility/precision and more.
Method of Communication
We experimented with relationship building — how can we form strong ties from the start? We discovered that a speed-dating mentality worked best. That is, candidates who met with as many employees as possible received greater mutual buy-in from the team and stronger internal advocacy on their behalf. Frequency and type of communication were the top factors. Maintaining consistent communication throughout the hiring process showed candidates that we care about their time. Opting to call them versus emailing gave us greater insight into their personalities. And of course, meeting in-person as soon as possible proved to be the most effective method. Candidates responded positively to us because we treated them like colleagues not contestants.
Unconventional Interviewing
At iVenture, we follow the Five Hour Car Ride Rule. For every candidate, we ask ourselves, “Could I spend five hours in a car with this person?” It’s an exercise in distinguishing the person’s technical skills and character traits, and it helps us determine whether the candidate is a good fit. We have a policy of putting character above competency. We will not hire people who don’t fit our culture, even if they could get the job done.
We assess the Five Hour Car Ride Rule through several interviewing steps. Every candidate goes through multipart interviews beginning with a phone call and progressing to several panel interviews with executives and, most importantly, fellow employees. We want our employees to have an active voice in determining who their new teammate is, and the perspective they bring ensures we’re asking the right questions. We also found that changing the location of the interview makes a night-and-day difference. When we do lunch interviews, the conversation changes tone, engagement levels rise and candidates open up.
The big difference in our hiring process is that we act like you’re already going to work here. We’re trying to qualify, not disqualify, you. We’ve found this attitude results in a better candidate pool, more effective hiring, a stronger workforce and less personnel turnover.
Post-Hire: Training & Trial
Once someone joins the iVenture team, the process doesn’t stop. For each position, we create a unique training program to help new hires learn and assimilate quickly. We schedule shadowing sessions for new hires to observe teammates firsthand and one-on-one meetings to put faces to names. We also created iVenture specific training modules that take new hires through interactive guides of our company procedures and culture.
A critical process we instituted is the 30/60/90-day touchbase. As much as we want to ensure new hires are a good fit for us, we also work to ensure we’re a good fit for new hires. Thirty, 60 and 90 days from hiring, we schedule dedicated time to speak with new hires about their progress. We found this process helps us avoid the typical responsibility hand-off and provides a chance to mediate concerns before they become problems.
Then & Now
When you compare our hiring process then and now, it’s a significant difference. We’ve witnessed a measured rise in staff satisfaction, engagement and trust in management. I’ve seen the relationships between employees evolve from strictly professional to strong personal bonds where even their children play together.
Employees have demonstrated a remarkable difference both at work and outside of it where they’re happier, more relaxed and confident. Our changes have not only positively affected our culture, but we’ve seen a boost in our bottom line thanks to less turnover and lower recruiting costs.
Lessons Learned
It would be a disservice to say our work is done. As long as we value our employees, the discovery process will never stop, but we’ve learned quite a bit along the way.
If all else fails, trust your gut on decisions
Embrace the perspectives of every staff member
Deepen your emotional intelligence; learn how to best interact with each employee
Prepare to spend twice as much and twice as long on the interviewing process
Focus HR efforts on the success of people more than following procedures
Clear a pathway to success for candidates, new hires and long-term employees
For businesses looking to rework their own hiring process, my advice is simple: involve your employees directly. You’ll find the best answers when you start with those closest to the action and work outward.
Investing in a personality assessment tool such as the PI or DiSC is worth your time too. You’ll have a solid baseline to start the conversation and continue it.
Moving Forward
At the beginning of this process we took the approach of how we’d ideally build a life with someone, because in many ways we are. People spend more than 90,000 waking hours at work, don’t we have an obligation to make that time as rewarding as possible?
Looking ahead, the indicators businesses currently use to measure success will change. Company analyses will weigh employee feedback as much as they do consumer feedback, and employee work engagement will be a large indicator.
In the next 20 years, the psychology of work will move to the forefront of business. I believe our hiring process is on the tip of that revolution, and I’m excited to see where we’ll go next.
Gray Mabry is a native Jacksonville, Florida resident. He is the co-founder and CEO of iVenture Solutions, Inc., a managed service provider delivering superior IT solutions to businesses across Florida. Gray’s passion for IT began during his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida. Upon working with businesses in his community, Gray realized many weren’t receiving the IT support they deserved. Combining his past experience and a motivation to help others succeed, he decided to fill that missing space, resulting in the foundation of iVenture.
Gray currently resides in sunny Jacksonville with his lovely wife and daughter. When he’s not working at his dream job, you can find him 10,000 feet high flying small planes on the weekend.