Breaking Down Employee-Led Hiring, And Why You Should Get Around It

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Amazon is a fan of employee-led hiring – will you be? The company that made founder Jeff Bezos the fifth richest person in the world uses current employees to interview and recommend candidates for positions in their ‘bar raiser’ program. If a company that had nearly 240,000 employees at the beginning of last year can do it, maybe you can too.

AKA collaborative or team-led hiring, employee-led hiring is exactly what it sounds like – getting your team involved in the hiring process from the get-go.

Where do we start?

• Make your employees feel empowered, valued and invested in the business 
• Get your team invested in the new hire, and therefore more likely to help smooth out any issues 
• Give your team a chance to learn new skills, e.g. interviewing 
• Your employees will have a good idea of whether a candidate has what it takes to get the job done, as they’re the ones doing the work  
• It’s more likely your newbie will be a cultural fit if they’ve been vetted by the very people they’ll be fitting in with 
• Give your candidate a chance to meet more of the team 
• Give yourself a broader perspective on candidates 

Real talk: the major downside is that involving more people takes more time, which means more $$. But when you consider that a wrong hire can cost a business at least 30% of that hire’s first year earnings, according to the US Department of Labor (writes Falon Fatemi for Forbes), it makes sense to invest early and save your toosh later. Not to mention the impact on morale and productivity of hiring the wrong person. Eeep. 

• Get feedback on the job description: Communicate expectations around the skills and experience you’re looking for with your team, and get their feedback. They might see a skills-gap that you haven’t even identified. 
• Share the job ad, and get your team to share: Email it around to the team and get them to share with their networks. 
• Get different people involved at different stages: One person can help reading applications, another can be involved in the first interview, another in the second. 
• Introduce candidates to the team: Take ’em around the office to meet a few more faces, so you can get a better idea of what the chemistry is like (fingers crossed for ~fireworks~).  
• Get one-on-one feedback to avoid bias: This way there’s no sway from more persuasive peeps in group settings, and you can get honest opinions from your team to help you make the best decision. 

It all comes down to communication – talk to your team, involve them where you can and they’ll be #grateful 4eva. 

Don’t let your dream job slip you by – Love your work! 

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