Which package do you need? Start with what you already have

Most hiring conversations start in the wrong place. The question is usually what this will cost, when the more useful question is how much of the work you want to run yourself.

Answer the second one and the first settles itself.

Start with what you already have

The honest test is what is already in your own toolkit. Some firms have personality profiles, integrity surveys, assessment platforms and a video interview tool, plus somebody who knows how to run them. Most firms do not.

If you have those tools, there is no sense buying them from us a second time. What you need is candidates found, qualified and put in front of you. If you do not have them, the same search leaves you judging character and competence from a resume and an hour of conversation.

That is what the packages are built around: what your firm already runs, and how much you want to know before anyone reaches your desk.

What each step actually tells you

It helps to be specific about what each step buys, rather than treating the process as a single dial you turn up when a hire feels important.

A phone interview with written notes tells you whether someone can do the job and whether their resume survives ten minutes of questions. That is the floor, and for plenty of firms it is genuinely enough.

A personality profile tells you how they are likely to work day to day: pace, structure, how they handle client contact and pressure. In a small office that matters more than it does in a large one, because there is nowhere for a mismatch to hide.

An integrity survey is a standardized check you can point to later, worth having on file for anyone who will be near client money or client data. Nobody should treat it as a lie detector.

Skills assessments and a recorded interview move you from claimed competence to demonstrated competence. When you want the fullest possible picture before a file reaches you, that difference is the whole hire.

The mistake worth avoiding

The common error is buying the same process every time without asking what you already own.

Firms that run every search through the heaviest process end up paying a second time for tools already sitting on their own desk. Firms that run everything light get away with it until the hire that could do real damage is made on an hour of conversation and a good feeling.

Decide it before the ad goes out. It is a five minute conversation and it is the one that decides whether the search works.

A rough starting point

Not a rule, but it is where most of our conversations land:

• You already run your own profiles, surveys, assessments or video interviews: sourcing and a phone interview is usually proportionate.
• You do not have those tools, and you want personality and integrity matched to the role while keeping the process fairly short: add the personality profile and integrity survey.
• You want as much as possible on a candidate before their file reaches you, and a hire you expect to keep for years: add skills assessments, a recorded interview, and matching against the people already in the office.

If you are not sure which side of a line your firm falls on, that is worth a phone call rather than a guess. Sometimes the honest answer is that you need less than you were about to buy.

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Humans Being Resources is a direct-hire recruiting firm placing permanent employees for firms in financial services, accounting and tax, and insurance, in all 50 states.