What is the time split for your developer on code::hire? If the number for the latter is two digits, this blog is for you.
We (quite painfully) know that developers are your highest-paid employees. Every hour they code impacts your roadmap, and in turn, impacts all your stakeholders: internal team, customers, and investors.
However, not all their time is spent building.
Scaling demands that they be involved in hiring. After all, they can evaluate tech skills better than anyone. While this may seem like a business necessity, startups overlook the impact of unmanaged developer time - their loyalty. Unhappy developers don't stick around. And in this market, they've got options.
To or not to involve developers in hiring?
Duh, yes. I'm not suggesting we can cut developers out of hiring completely. Startups don’t have the same hiring resources as their enterprise counterparts. So, involving developers in hiring is unavoidable, especially in growing teams. Even they know this.
When I say we shouldn't waste their time, what I'm actually saying is that we should not waste their time on unfit candidates.
If we can't eliminate their involvement in hiring, we must make every second count.
And this starts with a ruthless 2-step pre-screening:
Step 1 - Equip HRs to screen better
Developers talk to the candidates whom their HR shortlists. Whether their time is spent well on hiring depends on this list.
The quality of this shortlist depends on two filters: resume reviews and initial screening calls. In the resume review, the HR compares resumes with the role needs and makes a selection. In the screening stage, the HR gives selected candidates a call to understand their experience and motivation to join. But most HRs do not have a tech background. So, they use what they have - limited knowledge and a lot of guesswork. Objectivity isn't the part of the process.
This is where the first quality leak happens. And that is the first thing we need to change.
Here’s how:
- Let the HR spend 15 minutes with your tech lead to jot down everything the role is responsible for.
- Now, spend 20 minutes on a list of “10 MUST have attributes” to excel in this role
- Include - soft skills, tech skills, the type of companies they worked with, etc.
- This list is essentially your “ideal candidate persona”, your first filter.
- Screen all the applicants against this list
- Rate them based on how many of the 10 attributes they match with
- ONLY move forward with people who score 8/10 or higher
Step 2 - A worthwhile shortlist. Finally.
At this point, you've got a list of candidates who look good on paper. But we all know resumes don't tell the whole story. All they tell you is how the candidate has done in the past. They don’t help you assess if the candidate will excel in your role right now.
What's the point of a 10/10 candidate if your developers interview someone who can't tackle your challenges? So, before listing candidates for developers, check their experience in the context of your work.
Here’s how you can do this:
- Spend 15 minutes with your tech lead to list down 5-7 pre-filtering questions.
- These should dig into real-world scenarios relevant to your team's work.
- This list acts as your second filter.
- Now, send these questions to your 8+ ranking candidates.
- Let all candidates answer asynchronously. This is really important.
- It respects both your time AND allows them to think and answer these critical questions instead of getting caught off guard.
- Remember, many developers struggle with expression. So, let them answer in an environment comfortable for them.
- Select only the candidates with the strongest, most insightful answers.
Now when your engineers sit in the interviews, they'll have highly relevant information on already great-scoring candidates.
Your developers talk to the right candidates.
Step 1 makes sure that your HRs are creating a list based on objective parameters, not guesswork. Step 2 helps your developers understand these high-ranking candidates better. Now, every (or most) interview become a conversation worth having.
At Flexiple, we have rigorously used these steps to help our clients hire the best candidates, in the smarter way. Typically, this cuts their hiring time in half.
That's 50% more time for what really matters - building your product.