Training for Hiring Managers

Retention is as important as Hiring. Bringing great talent into the organisation is only the first step. The real test is whether they choose to stay and grow with you. Over the years, we focused deeply on building a culture where people enjoyed working. That meant providing real opportunities for growth, job rotations to broaden skills, promotions for those who performed well, and constant learning built into the system. People felt they were shaping their own future. The single most important factor in retention, however, is the quality of the boss/manager. People join companies but leave managers. We invested in training leaders across all levels to become better listeners, coaches, and decision makers. When managers are fair, supportive, and empowering, employees thrive and loyalty follows. When people feel valued and challenged, they stay longer, contribute more, and build a culture that multiplies success. #hiring #culture #leadership #retention

Relying solely on HR for your sales recruitment might be hurting your bottom line. 🚨 Here’s why: Sales teams are the driving force behind your revenue growth, but if the hiring process is slow or lacks collaboration with other departments, you could be missing out on top talent and losing sales momentum. 📉 Missed Opportunities – Relying only on HR without sales team input may result in candidates who lack the specific skills needed for success in your sales strategy. 🕒 Delays in Hiring – HR often doesn’t have the insight into urgent sales needs, leading to drawn-out hiring processes that delay key initiatives. 🔄 Disconnected Hiring Criteria – Sales leaders know exactly what traits and skills are required, but if they’re not involved in the hiring process, the best-fit candidates might be overlooked. But there’s a better way. 🔑 Here’s how you can boost sales hiring success: 1️⃣ Involve Sales Leadership Early → Make sure sales leaders are actively involved in defining hiring criteria and screening candidates. 2️⃣ Align HR with Sales Priorities → Collaborate between HR and sales to ensure the hiring process reflects the urgency and needs of your sales targets. 3️⃣ Leverage Data and Metrics → Use performance data from current sales reps to identify the skills and traits needed in new hires. 4️⃣ Streamline the Decision-Making Process → Empower HR and sales leaders to make fast, aligned decisions on top candidates to avoid missing out. Don’t let your sales team suffer from a slow or disconnected hiring process. Bring sales leaders into the mix to secure the right talent quickly. 👉 Is your sales hiring strategy aligned with your revenue goals? Let’s discuss how to fix it!

Neuroinclusive interview approaches: Creating a fair and supportive process. **PLEASE would you complete the City and Guilds Neurodiversity Index- it takes less than 10 minutes to do so to help share what's happening and so we can learn again. Go to: https://lnkd.in/egjee9GR I am sharing the following in support of neuroinclusive practices. Interviews can be daunting for most people, but for neurodivergent individuals, they can present additional challenges. Nerves can mean that you end up not showing your real skills. What can you do as an employer? Adopting a neuroinclusive approach to interviews helps level the playing field and ensures you’re assessing candidates fairly based on their skills and abilities. Here’s how: Provide questions in advance: Sharing questions before the interview allows the applicant to prepare and feel more confident, helping to reduce anxiety. Don’t judge CVs by spelling errors: Unless the role specifically requires high-level writing or proof-reading skills, don’t let spelling mistakes influence your judgement. Be clear about the process: Give detailed information about each stage of the interview and any tasks that need to be completed. This allows applicants to request necessary adjustments in advance. Match your speech pace: Slow down your speech to align with the interviewee, ensuring they can process and respond comfortably. Allow processing time: Pauses don’t equate to a lack of knowledge. They often indicate that someone is thinking and processing information, which is normal for many neurodivergent individuals. Encourage notes: Let candidates know they can bring notes. This can help them structure their thoughts and reduce stress during the interview. Consider Access to Work: Some candidates may require workplace adjustments, so be open to this possibility during the interview process. Avoid hypothetical questions: These can be challenging for some individuals to answer. Stick to concrete questions that reflect the job’s actual requirements. Use clear language: Avoid jargon, idioms, or metaphors that could be misinterpreted. Clear, straightforward communication is key. Introduce the interview panel: Provide the names of panel members beforehand to reduce surprises and help the candidate feel more prepared. Assess relevant skills: Avoid testing skills that aren’t necessary for the role. For example, don’t require a presentation if communication skills aren’t core to the job. Consider the sensory environment: Pay attention to factors like lighting, noise, and scents in the interview space. A calm, comfortable environment can make a huge difference for neurodivergent candidates. By taking these steps, you’ll create a more inclusive, fair interview process that allows all applicants, neurodivergent or not, to showcase their true potential.

Treat your recruiting team the way you'd want them to treat your candidates. Your recruiters can only deliver what you enable them to deliver. No clarity from hiring managers means no clarity for candidates. Here's what this principle actually means: 1. Give them real ammunition, not job descriptions Recruiters can't sell what they don't understand. Yet most hiring managers hand them a JD and say "go find someone." Then wonder why candidates aren't excited. Do a real kickoff. Create an intake doc. Brief your recruiters like you'd brief your sales team. Why does this role matter? What will this person actually build? Show them the real impact. When recruiters understand the mission & the role, candidates feel it. 2. Stop making them chase you for answers Imagine if you applied somewhere and waited a week for every response. That's what recruiters face internally. They message candidates "we'll get back to you soon" while waiting days for your feedback. They look incompetent because you're not responding. Every delayed decision is a recruiter losing credibility with a candidate who has three other offers. 3. Your urgency becomes their urgency When a CEO personally joins a recruiting standup or sends a quick note about why a role matters, everything changes. Recruiters move faster. They push harder. They believe more. Send emails on their behalf. Jump into nurture sequences. When hiring is treated as "HR's problem," recruiters feel it. And so do candidates. The energy you bring to hiring is the energy candidates feel in the process. 4. Let them shape the process, not just execute it Recruiters see hundreds of interviews. They start to see which questions actually predict success. They spot patterns you miss. Too many companies treat them like admins. Include them in designing interview loops. Let them flag when your process is losing good people. They're your early warning system if you actually listen. 5. They're selling your company 100 times while you're building it Every recruiter conversation is a brand moment. Every rejection handled poorly is a Glassdoor review. Every candidate who feels respected tells ten friends. Even your rejections matter. Give real feedback. Close the loop. Your recruiters are having more conversations about your company than anyone except customers. Treat them like the frontline brand ambassadors they actually are. When recruiters feel like partners, candidates feel it too. When they feel like order-takers, your hiring shows it. The best companies don't have recruiting teams. They have talent partners.

I had 15 rounds of interviews. Across many months. The process was rigorous, textbook, meticulous. It was for a position at a top global executive search firm. Everyone was involved. And on paper? The process was flawless. I was hired. Then came the realisation: We both got it wrong. It wasn’t a fit. Here’s what no one wants to say out loud: - More interviews ≠ better decisions. - Confidence in a candidate ≠ compatibility with your context. We hire the résumé. Then we work with the real human. And most interview processes don’t even come close to revealing who that person is: - under pressure, - in conflict, or - in real-world ambiguity. I learned the hard way. To get beneath the surface, you need to ask questions that bypass the rehearsed answers. You need to disarm people — not trap them. Here are 10 top interview questions for hiring manager to work with: 1. “When did you last completely fail at something you cared about? What changed after?” Shows resilience, self-awareness, and how they grow from failure. 2. “What’s a story you’ve told yourself about your career that you’ve had to unlearn?” Reveals capacity for growth, humility, and evolving perspectives. 3. “What would your harshest critic say about your leadership style?” Uncovers blind spots and emotional intelligence. 4. “What are you still trying to figure out about yourself?” Tests honesty, vulnerability, and self-reflection. 5. “Tell me about the last time you were in a room where no one agreed with you — and you were still right.” Surfaces conviction, influence, and independent thinking. 6. “What kind of culture would exhaust you — even if you were successful in it?” Cuts to real values and long-term cultural fit. 7. “If you were in this role, what’s one thing we’re currently doing that you’d immediately challenge?” Tests courage, insight, and fresh perspective. 8. “What’s a risk you didn’t take — and still regret?” Shows decision-making patterns and appetite for risk. 9. “What part of your professional identity is just armour?” Gets past the façade to the real person underneath. 10. “If we don’t hire you, what would be the real reason why?” Reveals self-awareness, honesty, and unspoken concerns. These questions reveal patterns. How someone reflects. Responds. Recovers. Grows. And that — more than any CV — is what predicts leadership impact. Hiring is not about certainty. It’s about clarity. It’s about asking the questions most people avoid. And listening for the answers that aren't always neat or polished. ♻️ Repost to help hiring managers hire better. Have a great week ahead dear reader! #culturematters #leadership #aviation

The Case for Maximal Referencing of PMs: In a past job, I worked with two product leaders with equal skill in building products. But they had completely divergent skills in hiring. One hired phenomenal PMs. They quickly grew to be company-wide favorite PMs due to their strong viewpoints. The other hired on paper phenomenal PMs. But they just weren’t right for the company. It’s not really a surprise the first got promoted - and the other left for greener pastures. 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 One of the practices the first hiring manager swore by was lots of reference checking. She was a master of back channel reference checking throughout the interview process. And her reference checks were notoriously long. The other just did one reference check after he had already decided he was giving out the offer. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘀: 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯. I, too, have found it works really well. Nowadays, I’ve started to do these reference checks at three stages. Let’s break this approach. 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝟭 - 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 Committing to a conversation with a candidate means I’ll also tap into: • Previous workplace colleagues • Mutual connections Direct collaborators get a call, a brief 10-minute check-in. My aim here is to pinpoint standout candidates that I really want to push through. 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝟮 - 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 The second reference check I like to do is post-interview. I’ll use this to 𝘷𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺 of what people said in the interview. If the pass this second reference check, they’re almost ready to hire. 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝟯 - 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 The third and final reference check is the one most companies do. But I like to focus it on supervisors and skip levels. All PMs need to make an impact on leadership. This is the only round I actually use references supplied by the candidate. Everything else is back-channels. 𝗜𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 “𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘈𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘴𝘩, 𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳!” I know that it seems a lot of work to add two stages of reference checks to your process when you probably only have the pre-offer stage right now. The thing is, getting your hiring right makes you much more impactful. But getting them wrong really hurts you. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂: 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸.

Employees with more tenured managers have lower attrition rates Last week, we looked at how large of an impact “manager thrash” has on employee attrition rates. In short, employees who get assigned 3 or more different managers in a year are ~75% more likely to leave your company. What about tenured managers vs new managers? _______________ 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: Tenured managers tend to retain their employees with higher success rates across Pave’s dataset. ✅ Managers with less than 1 year tenure ⇒ 30% annual turnover rate for their reports ✅ 1 year ⇒ 27% annual turnover rate ✅ 2 years ⇒ 25% annual turnover rate ✅ 3 years ⇒ 24% annual turnover rate ✅ 4 years ⇒ 23% annual turnover rate ✅ 5 years ⇒ 22% annual turnover rate ✅ 6 years ⇒ 21% annual turnover rate ✅ 7 years ⇒ 20% annual turnover rate ✅ 8 years ⇒ 20% annual turnover rate ✅ 9+ years ⇒ 19% annual turnover rate Note that the mentioned turnover rates include both voluntary and involuntary attrition (including layoffs). _______________ 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗥 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀: 1️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻. Promoting managers from within often translates to some degree of risk, because you’re pushing an employee into a new role with heightened responsibility levels. However, this promote-from-within playbook is perhaps somewhat de-risked by virtue of the employee’s tenure and accrued context of how your company operates. Not to mention mutual trust with existing employees at your company. As demonstrated from the attached chart, tenured managers tend to have more success with employee retention. 2️⃣ 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀. It is prudent to run an analysis on the tenure distribution of all managers at your company and track the median over time to get a sense of your org chart stability. This analysis can perhaps inform or act as a leading indicator of future employee retention rate trends. #pave #orgchart #benchmarks

Look what just came in! You know it's going to be a good one when the intro says "Technology can't fix your hiring but you can". Hilke Schellman's foreword is a good reminder about how hiring is a team sport and not a case of "us vs them". It aligns perfectly with Katrina's top tip about TA sitting in with HM's in interviews. I've seen firsthand the benefits of this approach. ↳ Matthew Chong and I partnered together on a key hire at Zendesk. Our goal wasn't just to find the right person but also to create a candidate experience that reflected the collaborative, slightly different approach we were testing. ↳The most impactful tweak was combining our HM and TA screen into a single session of 45-60 minutes. This simple change reduced the interview rounds from 4 to 3, maintaining quality without sacrificing time. ↳After each interview, we didn’t just evaluate the candidates by discussing their strengths and weaknesses, we also took the time to offer each other constructive feedback on how we could improve our approach. I got to see exactly what Matthew prioritised as a hiring manager. The level of open dialogue and reflection highlighted the respect we had for each other’s expertise, and it strengthened our partnership throughout the hiring process. This approach gave me invaluable insights that I possibly would have missed from a typical discovery session. In the end, it's not just about finding the right hire—it's about consistency, collaboration, and commitment to getting it right and showing candidates what true teamwork in hiring looks like.

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "What is your weakness?" These generic questions are killing your hiring process because you're getting the same responses that 20 other hiring managers have heard. Be different. At Supersourcing, we don't want to hear cookie-cutter responses. We want to understand the real person behind the CV, their values, their mindset, and how they show up. Building teams for over 11 years has taught me that every hire matters. So we've designed a variety of questions on many topics. But here are 5 questions my team and I use to assess what counts: → Tell me about a time you took full ownership of a project. What went wrong, and how did you fix it? This works because it shows me if they take ownership of both problems and solutions, or just blame others and avoid responsibility. → Explain a complicated idea you had to communicate to a non-expert. How did you make it simple? It's all about clarity. This helps us gauge if they can keep communication simple and effective, or if they overcomplicate things and throw around jargon. → What's the last skill you learned on your own? How did you go about it? I'm always looking for a learning mindset, a hunger to grow. This question reveals if they take initiative and apply what they learn, or stay passive and resist change. → Tell me about a time you disagreed with a colleague. How did you handle it? Culture fit is everything for us. We need to know if they can disagree without disrespect, collaborate when things get tough, and respect diverse viewpoints. → Why do you want to work with us? This tells us if they understand our work, believe in our mission, and seek to contribute, or are just looking for a paycheck. These questions go beyond the surface and show us how someone thinks, reacts, and fits within our team. What's your go-to question that reveals the real person behind the resume?

What is your view about anonymised recruitment? We are increasingly asked to work in this way, but I can't help but feel it can remove the essence of the candidate. Anonymised recruitment aims to reduce bias by removing personal details from the hiring process so that decisions focus solely on skills, experience, and suitability for the role. This often involves removing information such as names, addresses, gender, photos, and sometimes education dates. Reviewing applications should then take place without access to any identifying information. Recruiters and hiring managers should be encouraged to assess candidates based purely on their relevant experience, achievements, and qualifications. To support this, it helps to use clear, job-related selection criteria and to communicate these criteria consistently across the recruitment team. Structured and standardised interviews also play an important role. Preparing a set of predetermined questions linked directly to the role’s competencies allows each candidate to be assessed fairly and consistently. Any form of informal questioning that may inadvertently reveal personal details unrelated to the job should be avoided. Supplementing interviews with skills-based assessments—marked anonymously—can further ensure that decisions are grounded in evidence of capability. It is also beneficial to involve a diverse interview panel, as this reduces the influence of individual biases and encourages more balanced decision-making. Providing training on equality, diversity, and unconscious bias helps ensure that everyone involved understands both the purpose and the principles behind blind recruitment. Ongoing monitoring is essential. Regularly analysing recruitment data can help identify patterns or stages where bias may still be creeping in, allowing organisations to refine their processes accordingly. Gathering feedback from candidates and hiring managers can also highlight opportunities for improvement. Ultimately, embedding anonymous recruitment practices should not be about eliminating all human judgement but about creating a system where that judgement is as fair, objective, and inclusive as possible. Over time, it is hoped that these practices contribute to a more diverse workforce and a more transparent hiring culture.