The Light Consulting Way: Our Hiring Strategy

It seems like everywhere I look these days, there’s a Now Hiring sign. I’m sure you’ve even heard stories of people stopping in for an impromptu interview and being hired on the spot! That’s one way to do it.

We’re blessed with an incredible team at Light Consulting, for whom I often thank God for! Over the last four and a half years, we’ve grown to a team of twelve and gained valuable insights while expanding. Our track record with retention is pretty great (knock on wood!). Of course, we’ve made some mistakes and we’ve also learned by watching other organizations. Along the way, we have fine-tuned our own process for hiring and I’m glad to share it with you.

As the U.S. Navy SEALs say, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” Regarding hiring, planning and being intentional on the front end saves so much time on the back end. Hiring too quickly or not listening to our intuition can often lead to mistakes. By slow, I don’t mean draw it out unnecessarily. It’s possible for all the following steps to be completed in a week, if necessary.

Our Process – Four Important Steps:

1.     Employee Brand - This step starts before we’re even ready to hire. We’ve established our core values, and we do our best to live them out in real life and on social media. People who know us know what we’re about and likely resonate with our culture. One of our primary goals with our social media presence is to attract the right people to join our team. By doing this, along with word of mouth, we’ve created a “bench” (for all of you sports fans) to draw from when we have an opening. Our team regularly adds to our list of prospects, which often includes individuals from our networks. I encourage you to, as often as possible, “take the coffees”. No matter how busy we are, we should make time for those who want to learn and grow with us. We never know who the next best person might be to join our bench!

2.     Interview Process – Take your time updating the job description; make it as detailed as possible while still leaving room for flexibility. Infuse your core values in the description so potential candidates will know if they align well before they even apply. For example, our first core value is to Love like Jesus and while we don’t expect anyone to be perfect at this, if you are opposed to this core value, then you probably wouldn’t be a great fit for our culture.

We post our open positions on social media and sometimes on Indeed. Here’s a fun stat for you; of our last five hires, three of them found the job posting on social media. Another one was from our bench, and the other was from Indeed. When sifting through applicants, we focus more on finding character and culture fits and less on skills/qualifications. Like Peter Schutz says, “Hire Character. Train Skill.” We can’t teach someone how to have a positive attitude or make them get along well with others. Once we’ve narrowed down our candidates:

·       First, we do a quick phone interview, which can tell us a lot about them right away: Are they pleasant to talk to? How responsive are they? Etcetera.

·       Next is the interview with the hiring manager, where we ask a lot of open-ended questions to draw out their passions and try to determine if they might be a good fit.

·       During the second interview, I get to meet with the candidate, and we go over his/her personality assessments (more on those in a minute) and get to know them better.

·       Following that, they meet the team for a casual lunch or happy hour to see how they interact and get along.

·       If there is any hesitancy following these steps, we have the candidate do a technical exercise and we check references.

·       The final step in the interview process is a third interview/dinner with my family. We are a family-friendly organization so we want to include them in the process, and we can learn a lot about them by doing so.

3.     Personality Profiles – After the first interview, we have each candidate complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Assessment, which shows our inborn preferences, as well as the Enneagram Assessment, which explains how people relate to themselves and to the world around them. Using these tools not only helps us understand their behaviors and preferences but can also help predict how well they will fit with the team, how likely they are to pursue professional/personal development, and how any potential red flags may surface.

Throughout each step of this process, always trust your gut. If at any point you feel like something is off or you feel hesitant to continue with a candidate, trust your intuition. It’s better to start the process all over than to hire the wrong person.

4.     Offer / Acceptance / First Week – We deliver our offers either in person, on a video call or by sending a video. The reason for this is that we want them to know how excited we are to have them join us and we can’t convey that well enough through email. Once they accept (assuming they say yes, duh!), our team works behind the scenes to make sure the new hire has their technology ready to go and is set for success on their first day. We also schedule a team lunch during their first week. I want each employee to go home on their first day feeling GREAT about their decision to work with us.

There you have it – the playbook on our hiring strategy! We've crafted a process that not only seeks skilled humans but also prioritizes cultural alignment and character. This approach may not work for every industry and maybe your organization would benefit more from a Help Wanted sign in your window. Regardless, we’re all on a journey together and can learn and grow by swapping insights with each other along the way!