The candidate process
Our candidate process, and how far you take it
Two firms hiring the same role often need different things from us. You decide which steps a candidate finishes before they reach your desk, and you pay for those steps and no others.
From the owners
Why the
choice sits
with you
What you already have in house decides how far the process goes, and paying us for steps you can run yourself is how hiring budgets get wasted. You decide how deep to go on each search.
Before the search starts
The role you
need is not
always the one
you called about
You need talent → Recruiting takes time → We handle the hard part → We understand the industry and the market → We screen and qualify candidates → You meet the candidates who fit → You make the hire.
Plenty of searches start with a firm asking for one role and finishing the intake call needing a different one. An advisory practice asks for an advisor when what is actually bottlenecking the owner is a client service associate. A tax practice asks for a preparer when the work on the desk is review work.
Working three industries every day is what makes that conversation quick. We would rather spend twenty minutes on the intake call getting the position right than run a 120 day search for a role that was never the answer, and we will tell you when we think you are hiring the wrong title.
Every search
What happens on every single search
1
Set the compensation range
Compensation research for that position in your market, not a national average. Plenty of firms come to us unsure what the role should pay, and that is normal: the research is what answers it. You get the number before the ad goes live, which is also the moment to find out if the budget and the market disagree, rather than six weeks later when a finalist declines.
2
Write and post the ad
We write the job ad and place it across major and minor job boards. You approve the posting before it runs, and the 120-day package window starts from that approval rather than from the day you signed.
3
Go find people
Posting an ad and waiting is not recruiting. We work our own candidate database and source directly, including approaching people who are not looking and would never see your posting. In three industries worked every day, that is where most of the good ones are.
4
Interview by phone
Every candidate presented has been through a phone interview first, and you get the written notes with them rather than a resume and a shrug. If someone reads well on paper and falls apart on a call, you never spend an hour finding that out.
After the short list
What happens once they reach you
5
You get the short list
Everyone presented has finished the steps you chose. The phone interview notes and the results of each step come with them, so you are reading evidence rather than sorting a stack of resumes.
6
You interview
The hiring decision is yours and we stay out of it. What we can do is tell you what the process turned up and what is worth pressing on when you sit down with each finalist.
7
The offer
The compensation range was set against your market back at step one, so the number should not come as a surprise to either side. That research is the reason offers at this stage rarely stall.
8
Placement, then the guarantee
The second half of the fee falls due on placement. The guarantee runs from their start date for 30, 60 or 90 days depending on the package, and it covers the person we placed.
What it saves you
The hours this
takes off
your desk
Every step above is a step somebody has to take. Run the search in house and that somebody is you, between client meetings. Research the market rate, write the ad, place it, work the boards, chase the people who never applied, screen everyone who did, and schedule the calls.
The hours are only half of it. The other half is what those hours buy. A search run around a full calendar tends to stop at the first candidate who is good enough, because starting again is expensive. That is how a role gets filled twice in eighteen months. See what the packages cost against that.
Your call
How much further you want to go
Basic
The four steps above, and nothing you do not need. Candidates are guaranteed for 30 days.
Right when you already have your own hiring tools: personality profiles, surveys, assessments or video interview platforms.
Standard
Adds a candidate personality profile and an integrity survey before anyone reaches you. Guarantee extends to 60 days.
Right when you do not have those tools and want personality and integrity matched to the role, while keeping the process fairly short.
Elite
Adds two skills assessments, a one-way video interview, and a personality baseline of your existing team that each candidate is matched against. Guarantee extends to 90 days.
Right when you want as much information as possible on a candidate before their file reaches you.
Why it works this way
More steps,
longer
guarantee
The guarantee reflects how much we actually know about the person we sent you. A candidate who has completed a personality profile, an integrity survey, two skills assessments and a recorded interview is a candidate we can stand behind for longer than one who has had a phone call.
Every package runs for 120 days from the moment you approve the job posting. Read the candidate guarantee.
Next step
Tell us what you are hiring for
One intake call and we will review your hiring scenario to see which level of the process best fits your needs.
