Mavenology.

While some companies may be putting their hiring efforts on pause for the moment, that certainly isn’t the case for all. We have been encouraged by the number of clients who are driving hiring efforts forward. How? By getting creative and going the extra mile.  

If your organization is trying to navigate how to address hiring, interviewing and onboarding while working remotely, we hope this blog gets your creative juices flowing and you too will come up with a few innovative ideas to keep business moving while we all adjust to a new normal. Our advice to you? Don’t let your competitors get ahead because they took a risk and thought outside of the box while you hit pause until things resume to how they traditionally were. Now is the time to adapt, and here’s how some of our clients are doing just that:

One of our favorite clients is a name-brand food delivery company in downtown San Francisco. When their front-running candidate expressed a wish to see the office space... they got creative. By looping their Head of Culture into the interview process to paint a vivid picture of their office, our candidate was able to get the information she needed about the company’s culture and office space. Not only that, but our candidate got a front row seat in experiencing how scrappy, resourceful and committed they truly are. Last week, our candidate was extended an offer and she accepted!

A prominent San Francisco Venture Capital firm has offered to take their candidates on virtual FaceTime tours of the office space. We have several Executive Assistant candidates in interview stages with this client - so in other words, thinking outside the box is working. Even just a glimpse of the office layout, décor and floorplan allows candidates to visualize themselves really working there and can make all the difference as they decide to move forward.

Another client of ours is a global investment firm that traditionally involves a case study in their onsite interview process. While the ability to conduct in-person interviews is currently not an option, our client didn’t want to compromise the written portion of the interview process. Their solution? Incorporating the written case study assignment via Zoom so that the client could still get a sense of the candidates’ written communication and way of thinking while maintaining a sense of accountability and continuity as well.  

One of our other Venture Capital clients extended an offer to a Maven candidate just last week! They’ve updated their onboarding process to allow for remote provisioning of the employee’s laptop, so she has access to all the programs and applications she needs to do her job successfully.

One of our high-profile clients is hiring an Estate Manager. Given that the majority of the role requires the individual to be onsite in order to manage household staff, monitor construction projects, maintain inventory and plan events, it doesn’t make logistical sense for the client to hire someone in a full-time capacity given the current state of things. As a result, the client has reduced the role to part-time and fully remote so the person they hire can still address the critical needs of the family and their estate. Once things resume to normal, the individual will ramp up full-time. We are suggesting this idea as a potential solution to our clients who are hiring Estate Managers as well as Office Managers.

These are just a few examples of the adaptive thinking our clients are currently practicing to continue driving their businesses forward and ensuring they remain resourced and ready. And, if you’re grappling with a challenge concerning your interview process or how to adequately assess talent remotely, we welcome the opportunity to contribute our expertise and advice!

Written by: Haley Garrison