Best Practices in Interviewing & Recruiting: An Interview With Telamon

If you follow our OpenView blog, you’ve probably heard many of us mention our quarterly “mixer” events and forums which are hosted for our portfolio companies and the greater Boston entrepreneurial community.  At our last mixer, we were introduced to Telamon Insurance and Financial Network and their Benefits and HR Division.  Telamon works with clients ranging from startups to more mature organizations with a focus on providing human capital consulting services to growing organizations across the US, and our conversation quickly shifted to the nuances of implementing a human resources and recruiting function within expansion stage companies.

 

 

This week, I sat down with Telamon team members Lauren Brenner (President, HR Division), John Snyder (President, Benefits Division) and Chris Donovan (Director, Business Development) to catch up and discuss best practices and interviewing techniques for high-growth companies.

Jessica:   Hi Lauren, John and Chris!  It’s great to have an opportunity to connect with you again.  During our last conversation, you explained that Telamon often has an opportunity to support organizations going through rapid growth.  What is the most common human capital challenge you find facing these organizations?

Chris Donovan: One of the greatest challenges facing the companies in high-growth mode that we work with include finding the right talent and then developing the strategies to retain those employees.  Beyond this, companies often struggle with how to handle difficult employee relations situations while being advised of the federal and state laws to be legally compliant in their business (e.g., wage & hour, recruitment, termination).

 

Jessica:  We often find that interviewing is very new for many hiring managers or members of these companies.  What advice do you typically offer to these organizations who are new to the interview process?

 

Lauren Brenner: Document, document, document!   It’s important to develop a set of standard interview questions to ask every candidate before the interview process begins, and then once interviewing, write down each response to every question.  It’s also essential to conduct and document reference checks before making a hire, requesting that 1-2 of these references are the candidate’s former managers.

 

Jessica: That’s great advice!  It can be very easy when interviewing 2 or 3 people for the same position to get details crossed or to forget an important question, particularly when the conversation flows easily.  What about the difficult interviewing situations?  How do you coach an interviewer on how to handle vague responses, dodging questions or when details don’t line up?

 

Lauren: One of the more difficult interviewing techniques to master is to become comfortable with silence when waiting for a candidate to respond to your question.  If a candidate is thinking of his/her response, do not answer for them or provide lead in responses to the question to make them less uncomfortable or to help them out.  Allow them the time to think about the question or to recall a particular situation.  The interview should be 80% candidate and 20% interviewer talking.  One other recommendation we often coach interviewers with is to ask questions that will help you to obtain a balanced view of the candidate.  If you ask a question which lends the response to be positive or negative, ask the question in a way to obtain the other type of response.  For example, “Tell me about a time where you were able to change a disgruntled customer to a positive customer.”  Followed with, “Tell me about a time where you were not able to successfully assist a customer and what you learned from that experience.”

 

Jessica:  So best-case scenario, an interview goes really well and the candidate is hired!  What are some of the ways Telamon is able to partner with growing companies in the on-boarding process?

 

John Snyder:  Telamon will develop a new hire packet customized to each client and overnight the kit to the prospective hire so they can begin the on-boarding process before their first day.  This ensures a great first impression and reduces the fear of a delay in health and welfare benefits coverage.  We also develop on-line content for on-boarding that our clients use with new employees.

 

 

Jessica:  That great first impression is essential to getting the newest employees up to speed quickly and confidently.  From a benefits perspective, what have you found to be one of the most essential aspects in developing a comprehensive benefits package within a start-up or expansion stage company? 

 

John: Developing a company philosophy on employee benefit offerings is the starting point for any company.  Critical questions to discuss are as follows:

• What kinds of benefits are offered by other companies in our industry that have similar demographics?
• Do we want our benefit offerings to match or exceed our competition’s?
• How do we project costs?
• What is our budget?
• How much do we contribute toward the cost of premiums vs. our employees?
• Where are we recruiting our staff from?  What will be their expectation of benefits?
• What is going to drive retention — culture, salary, stock options, benefits, wellness programs, developmental opportunities etc.?

Once these questions are answered and a philosophy is developed a company can work with their benefits adviser to tailor a plan that is sustainable and will meet their short and long term objectives.

 

 

 
 Jessica:   Keeping those short- and long-term objectives in mind throughout the hiring process (from interviewing through on-boarding) is so important.  Lauren, John, and Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to chat and share this great advice with us and OpenView blog readers.

 

For more information on Telamon Insurance and Financial Network or to learn about the HR Bootcamps they regularly host on these topics, please visit their site at www.telamonins.com.