It’s that time of year again! Can we find that perfect fit for our department to help us take our program to the next level?

If you are in the position of hiring, do you have a plan of getting new talent to help your staff? How much is hiring a matter of circumstance versus luck? From my experience, I see a ton of inefficiencies with hiring. The reason someone gets a job or not is not strategy; it is a product of more accessibility to a network or more common interests. 

One of the biggest areas that I think is inefficient is the feeder system. Most positions operate through a filtration system of that coach’s network. I find this to be a really big mistake. A coach that is hiring is more willing to go outside their staff based on someone’s interpretation of them than developing people from within.

If you have interns or volunteers and an available position, you should start there for entry level positions. If you have a higher level position, you should look to promote from within. If they are not ready or capable, that is the director’s inability to develop staff internally. 

If you think about hiring only from outside, it defies the entire premise of our industry in the first place. 

We generally believe that we can help someone perform at a higher level. Why, then, do we not adopt this approach with our staff? We should be able to take someone who is smart, hard working, and personable and help them to take on a paid position. Or take a person with a great track record and promote them to a higher level position within the organization. It also says that hard work and loyalty matter. 

Before we develop from within, we need to hire the right person. The adage of hire slow and fire fast is foundational to a well laid out hiring process. There should be a sequence of events that is repeatable. This creates a system that evaluates everyone fairly and consistently. 

The criteria should include: 

Clear Job Description – Cannot interview unless people know what they are interviewing for. You need someone to perform deliberately outlined tasks; this needs to be clear and upfront. Job responsibilities and compensation need to be presented and reiterated. Negotiating compensation after the interview process means you did not clearly delineate the compensation relative to the tasks required of the job. Set clear expectations for the job and compensate based on the criteria to do the job. If the person is incapable or unwilling to do the exact job criteria, it is not a good fit – move on!  

Resume Review – find synergies between job responsibilities and current level of skill. Is there room for improvement – think multi sport athlete vs single sport athlete. If they are as good as they will ever become, is that good for your organization? Someone that has a ton of experience but is rigid towards their growth may stagnate in your organization. Someone with no experience may take an inordinate amount of time to train. There is a spectrum in regards to talent identification and potential. The resume should reflect their ability and their potential. If they do not have ability or potential – move on! 

Interview 

• Phone Interview – Professional and Punctual (rescheduling or showing up late means they are not serious), reiterate job responsibilities, go over particular skills needed

• In Person Interview – Professional and Punctual, reiterate job responsibilities and particular skills needed (redundancy shows expectations and criteria to be successful), meet with multiple levels within organization (Associate Coach, Lead Coach, Head Coach, even Front Desk) – how they treat each person matters

Debrief

• Everyone on staff performs a 1 paragraph description of their time with the applicant

  • Consistency with answers matters – are they telling what they think that person wants to hear?

• Meeting to come to consensus on hiring 

Reference Check 

• Reference check is reserved for the end when you have a good gauge on what the person’s strengths and weaknesses are – with references, ask questions as to how they will respond knowing what they need to work on.

Onboarding

• Continuation of the interview process 

  • How well do they pick up on things? 

  • How well do they work with others? 

  • How well do they respond to feedback?

• Opportunity to walk at the end

  • This is crucial because it means what you said from the beginning. We need someone to do a job, we laid out what the job entails: are you capable and willing is now the next question. If not to one or both, they should be encouraged to leave. The idea is to grow into larger roles and demonstrate a strong desire to be a part of the organization. This is the inflection point to determine that. 

The end result is someone with whom you should feel confident that they can do the job. We run this process with everyone. We consider that everyone should start at the beginning and work their way up. It sets the precedent that we must understand the basic foundational operation before we can lead others. 

Reflect on how you were interviewed for any position. Was it a fair assessment of you as a potential employee? Were you put in a position to develop or were you expected to do something you were not trained or hired for in the first place? This is the platform to change that narrative.