101+ Recruiting Hacks

to Accelerate Your
Hiring in 2018
Foreword

Ive said it many times: the best recruiters arent necessarily smarter or Thankfully, there are so many tools, technologies, tips and tricks out there
better than their peers, they just know how to get 12 hours of work out of an that, with a little practice and experimentation, you can quickly find ways
8-hour day. In our business, its all about efficiency. We have to streamline to get 5 minutes, an hour, even a full day back on your calendar if you play
our efforts, avoid redundant efforts, automate manual tasks and multitask your cards right. This ebook is a fabulous compilation of some tried and
all day every day all while creating a seamless hiring manager and candi- true recruiting hacks to get you started on that path. Give em a shot and
date experience. No pressure, right? just watch how much more you get done. Happy recruiting, everybody!

If youve ever waited tables and been in the weeds with six large tables
all seated at once, then you have an idea what a day in the life of a recruit-
er is like. Just as a waitress cant afford to take 15 separate trips back to Stacy Zapar
the kitchen for each meal, the ketchup, the coffee pot and extra napkins,
Founder, Tenfold & The Talent Agency
recruiters cant afford to be inefficient and disorganized in their daily pro-
cesses. We need to figure out how to do it all in one trip, if you will. Multi-
task. Work smarter, not harder. Focus. Avoid distractions. Scratch things off
the list and move on to the next. This is the REAL key to recruiting success.
Hack [hak]: a strategy or technique adopted
in order to manage ones time and activities in
a more efficient way, derived from solving a
computer hardware or program limitation.

The above definition perfectly encapsulates what well be sharing in this In this ebook, we share tips that embody one or all of those qualities:
ebook - minus the computer hardware part. By hack we mean a creative creative, a shortcut, innovative, underutilized. Armed with these 103
shortcut, an innovative tactic that allows you to tackle a problem in a novel recruiting hacks, we hope teams can hit their most ambitious hiring
way. Hacks allow you to generate impact without maxing out your recruit- goals faster in 2018.
ing budget or overhauling your entire interview process. Oh, and theres
a certain secret sauce associated with hacks. Not everyone is using them, Need to step up your employer branding game? Refine your interviewing
because not everyone knows they exist. techniques? Leverage data to plan your 2018 headcount? Youre in the right
place. In addition to Stacy Zapar, we sought the advice of talent leaders
at Medallia, Netflix, Thread, Whisper and LevelUp to gather best-in-class
hacks across eight key elements of the hiring process. Were releasing them
rapid-fire, roughly in the order they fall in the recruiting lifecycle. Read all
the way through, or jump to the chapter that aligns with your most press-
ing recruitment goals.
Contents

1 Employer branding 8
5 Interviewing 32

2 Sourcing and referrals 14

6 Closing candidates 36

3 Hiring manager-recruiter collaboration 22

7 Data-driven recruiting 40

4 Candidate experience 28
8 Diversity recruiting 46
1
Employer branding

1) Hire a photographer to capture team photos employees minds. Whenever you see employees post on social me-

We know, were all photographers these days. Still, we promise that dia with other employees, reach out to ask them to use the hashtag.

hiring a professional to take headshots and team photos for one day At Lever, our employees are Leveroos and we use the hashtag #in-

will pay off. Youll be able to proudly use these photos in all your em- sideLever.

ployer branding efforts - whether on your website, in blog posts, or

even conference presentations. And youll help your employees put 4) Post on your employee blog biweekly
their best foot forward on LinkedIn and other social platforms where Start by creating a blog series that periodically spotlights a different
future hires are checking them out. employee. Use a simple Q&A format - with questions like Whats
your favorite [company] memory? and How would you characterize
2) Customize your careers page with employee spotlights your team? - and feature a high definition photo of the employee in

Candidates want to hear from current employees. Why did those the post. Dont forget - candidates want the inside scoop.

team members join? What does their role entail, and why is it
fulfilling? Use the pictures from the professional photoshoot above 5) Spend 30 minutes each week responding to company
to portray employees in their work environment. With Lever, seam- reviews on Glassdoor
lessly build a custom page that reflects your brand and encourages You can sign up for a free employer account on Glassdoor. Once you
candidates to apply. do, block off time on your calendar each week to respond to both the
positive and negative reviews. Express gratitude for glowing write-
3) Create a company hashtag for employees to use in social posts ups, and reply with concern to those that are less than stellar. The

If you dont have an employee nickname (like Eventbrites Britelings bottom line: 30 minutes will go a long way toward conveying your

or Quoras Quorans), poll your team to create one. Start plastering brands humility and humanness.

it everywhere in your office - with hashtag included - to ingrain it in

8 9
6) Analyze company reviews to learn which cultural 9) A/B test your job postings
pillars to highlight LevelUp, a mobile payments company in Cambridge, drove a 15
If you havent yet fully defined your employee value proposition, percent increase in the number of inbound applicants by A/B testing
Glassdoor reviews can be a great source of insight. Analyze your job posting titles and descriptions. With unlimited job postings in
reviews to find 5-10 common qualities that your reviewers find spe- Lever, you can write two versions of your impact description, see
cial about your team, and have your employees select which ones which delivers the most quality candidates, and stick with the most
resonate most. Then, make those the values you spotlight. effective.

7) Roll out a LinkedIn Profile Revamp campaign 10) Identify and remove bias from your job postings

Host a company-wide meeting at which you ask employees to add Detect and eliminate phrases that might deter women or underrepre-
three elements to their LinkedIn profile: 1. The impact of their role, sented minorities from reading further - terms such as coding ninja
2. What they think is special about your team, and 3. Their favorite or closer, to widen your pool of interested candidates. Textio, for
activities outside of work - whether thats concerts or chess. Recruit example, is a tool that teams use to write more inclusive, attractive
marketing team members to walk around and help employees craft job descriptions.
stories.
11) Run your jobs postings through user testing with employees

If you dont want to invest in a tool, leverage the insights of your

To make those job postings way coworkers. Arrange a meeting with a diverse set of employees, read

more effective... your job postings out loud, and ask them to react aloud to words
they do and dont like.

8) Create an impact description, not a job description

Top candidates dont just want a job that pays the bills - they crave
impact. When you post opportunities, describe what candidates will
accomplish in their first month, three months, six months on your
team. This will save time later in the interview process - candidates
will have a more concrete, inspiring sense of whats expected of
them, and hiring managers will have thought ahead to how they can
successfully onboard new hires.

10 11
 Ariel Jolo
Global Employer Brand Manager, Medallia

12) Ask candidates How did you hear about us? 15) Co-locate your teams and managers

Candidates dont hear about a role or company from just one source. To build a great employer brand, think globally and be inclusive.
Using Lever, we added a custom application question to all job post- We push for global mindsets and information sharing at Medallia by
ings: How did you hear about us?, with multi-select checkboxes having co-located teams and managers - for example, our Employer
for our common buckets (referrals, job sites, publications, etc). This Branding Program Manager sits in our Argentina office and reports
supplements the candidates origin and source data to shed light on to our Talent Operations leader in California. We also emphasize
what attracts them. being mindful of other languages and cultures. We partner with our
Inclusion Practice Lead and local Medallians to ensure our commu-
13) Schedule quarterly Employee Value Proposition nications initiatives send the intended message.
health checks

Your talent brand breathes, grows and evolves over time, whether 16) Leverage your internal experts for Talent Branding

you like it or not. Plan for change by scheduling regular EVP health You probably have subject matter experts inside your company that

checks with a few key individuals each quarter. Identifying the run programs you can use in Talent Branding, even if you dont

characteristics of your org helps you be proactive about making know it. For example, if youre planning an advertising campaign,

changes to your org, rather than reacting to them. talk to your Marketing or Demand Generation teams. They bring best
practices and can provide company-specific insights you wont find

14) Treat your brand like you treat your favorite family pet elsewhere. A great talent brand aligns to your product brand, and
this can be only be achieved through collaboration.
Take your brand out for a walk - go to events, have your engineers on
the floor. Or, even better, ask them to give a talk! Introduce people in
your community to your brand - host meetups and networking events,
and engage with people on social media. Feed your brand - crowd-
source information to fuel your brand with hashtag contests, calls
for information, and employee spotlights.

12 13
2
Sourcing and referrals

Hacks from

Stacy Zapar
Founder, Tenfold & The Talent Agency

A few sourcing hacks from our foreword author herself, Stacy Zapar

17) Use calendar chunking for sourcing, phone screens, etc.

Block chunks of time on your calendar for sourcing, phone screens,

candidate feedback, hiring manager meetings, etc. If you dont block
the time, it might get booked with other lower priority items (and
sourcing should be a daily priority!). Personally, I focus on sourcing
first thing in the morning and do my calls and meetings later in the
day, but find a system that works best for you. And while youre at it,
include a lunch break for much-needed recharging time. We all need
that too!

14 15
18) Make OneTab your best friend 21) Host team-wide sourcing jams

If youre a tab junkie like I am, who opens up multiple candidate Make sourcing fun and find new candidates faster by hosting a
profile links while you source, this life hack is for you. Use a browser company-wide sourcing session - complete with music, pizza, and
extension called OneTab. It will zap all of your open tabs into a sin- even beer. Be sure to kick off the jam by equipping everyone with
gle one so you can re-open each tab as youre ready to review it. sourcing best practices and templates, then display them on a large
screen so that your team can use them real-time.
19) Give tree ring sourcing a try

When youre sourcing candidates, start narrow and work your way 22) Tap into the People also viewed section of qualified

out. Use a Boolean AND operator for both required and desired people on LinkedIn

skills, and use a small zip code search radius, then slowly expand Look on the right side of most LinkedIn profiles, and youll see other
your search from there (if necessary). Its better to nurture the right profiles that are often searched along with that one. Think of the
candidate from the start than it is to bulk message 500 maybe can- most talented people on your current or former team, and dive into
didates, just hoping that something sticks. If youre not finding the that section of their page.
right candidates, slowly expand your search geographically or move
some of the requireds to desireds. 23) Pull all candidate profiles from online hubs into your ATS

Forget the hassle of keeping track of candidates on GitHub, An-

20) Find any candidates email address gellist, and LinkedIn. Bring their information into one centralized
Did you just come across your dream candidate, but you arent sure location - reach out to all your candidates in your ATS.
how to contact them? Work emails tend to follow a pattern, like
firstname@company.com, or FirstInitialLastName@company. 24) Set up a Google alert for your top prospects name
com. To find the pattern, create this string using the companys
If theres a candidate youre courting, use Google Alerts to get noti-
URL:
fied when theres an article published about them online. That way,
contact OR email * * company name.com you can send a related follow-up to show them that youre paying
attention. We bet theyll be impressed.
To get you started, heres the spreadsheet I use to track company
email patterns.
25) Throw quarterly referral-a-thons

Wasting time asking your team to submit referrals at every company

meeting? Plan a referral-a-thon once a quarter - an hour-long referral
You can find more stellar hacks from Stacy here. party at which employees race to submit as many referrals as they
can. Schedule it in the morning when employees first get in and have
energy, and provide breakfast and fun tunes while youre at it.

16 17
 Special sourcing hacks for
Lever Nurture users

26) Send automated follow-ups to check in with candidates 29) Send for your hiring manager to increase candidate

Second and third follow-ups can double your candidate response response rates

rate, but its not easy to remember to send them. Save yourself time Having trouble getting candidates to respond? Try sending for their
by automating your follow-ups in Lever Nurture. future manager or an executive. Theyll be much more likely get back
to a sender who they recognize or know theyd be working alongside.
27) Capitalize on engagement notifications

One feature in Lever Nurture allows you to see when candidates 30) Identify, clone and improve your best performing

open and click your emails. Even if they dont respond, this is key reach-out templates

info that can drive you to reach out again. Oh, and guess what? To help you really think like a marketer, Lever Nurture Reports help
When candidates do respond, we automatically progress them to the you look across every reachout from your team and see which ones
next pipeline stage, so you can stay organized and quickly see whos get the most opens, clicks and responses. Find whats working,
ready to engage. socialize that with the rest of the team, and your overall sourcing
effectiveness will rise. If you notice one sourcer or recruiter has a
28) Use Lever Nurture Recommendations to resurface particularly popular reach-out, call them out! Ask them to share
archived candidates which technique they think is driving their success at your next team
meeting.
Why spend hours searching for new talent when you already have in-
credible talent sitting in your ATS? Lever Nurture Recommendations
will suggest qualified candidates youve already pulled into your
recruiting software - who you perhaps didnt hire because the timing
was wrong - who could be the right fit for your open role.

18 19
 Hacks from

Tennyson Jones
Recruiting Researcher, Netflix

31) Reward employees who submit referrals 34) Pore through your coworkers connections
with restaurant gift cards Connect with an existing team member on LinkedIn, source their
Bottom line: referrals are one of the most rewarding recruiting tactics connections, send that employee the names of the people you found
around. In fact, our research shows that one in 16 referrals are hired, in their network, then ask for a simple Would you refer this person?
compared to one in 152 candidates who apply through your website yes/no?. Its an easy way to get referrals you may not have gotten
or job boards. But it helps to incentivize your employees to submit otherwise.
them. If you dont have a referral bonus ins place, publicly acknowl-
edge and reward the employee whos submitted the most quality 35) Find where candidates hang out (online)
referrals with a gift card to the restaurant of their choice.
No need to make it to every candidate meetup when you have the
internet. Are you looking for Social Media people? Try Instagram.
32) Share a new Sourcing Tip of the Week/ Month Engineers? Try Github. Or maybe Reddit. Or Twitter. Designers? Try
in team meetings Dribbble. Or Tumblr. Or Pinterest. Different communities of people
Learning tips from your peers is way easier than scouring the web have different online forums they flock to. Not everyones on Linke-
for them. Start a tradition of team members sharing new tips regu- dIn.
larly - that way, youre always keeping your tactics fresh, varied, and
effective. 36) Build rapport with candidates who arent right

Great people know great people - if Ive built a great rapport with a
33) Integrate open role spotlights into your companys candidate who ends up not being right for the job, they almost al-
weekly all-hands ways have zero problem sending me the names of other great people
To drive referrals that count, make key roles youre trying to fill top who may be closer to what Im looking for. So always ask for referrals
of mind for the whole team. When you give the recruiting updates if you feel comfortable - this tactic has resulted in a few different
during your next company-wide meeting (you do do that, right?), success stories of mine.
focus on the highest-priority positions. Be sure to highlight the qual-
ities, skills, and experience youre looking for so that team members 37) Use the Find more people like... feature
recommend the most fitting candidates.
LinkedIn Recruiters search bar allows you to type in an exact name
and pull profiles similar to that individual. I like to use this with the
existing team, dream hires, or even people weve passed on whose
backgrounds were great otherwise.
20 21
3
Hiring manager-
recruiter collaboration

38) Go through 10 resumes with your hiring manager 40) @-mention your hiring manager within your
before kicking off every candidate search ATS to communicate easily

Print out a batch of candidate profiles, then push your hiring manag- Forget lengthy email threads. Use @-mentions - just like you use
er to tell you what excites or deflates them about each one. This will on Twitter on Facebook - in Lever to quickly sync with your hiring
clarify what theyre looking for, help you bring candidates in that partner.
match their ideal template, and propel your search forward.
41) Block off time on your hiring managers calendar
39) Account for attrition when you headcount plan so they can shadow you

If you havent already synced with your hiring manager about As someone whose job is to hire candidates, your hiring managers
headcount planning for 2018, time to get on it! But when you do, benefit immensely from seeing you in action. Theyll instantly learn
dont forget that turnover is inevitable. As you strategize together to new, effective questions, and even absorb best practices like allotting
build their team, discuss the reality that youll likely need to hire into substantial time for the candidate to ask questions or selling them
backfills. It may be unpredictable, but promotion and attrition will on company culture. And dont forget to ask for their feedback after-
require you to recruit more talent overall throughout the year. Look wards - you can learn from them as well.
at past turnover to assess how many more candidates you may have
to hire in 2018.

22 23
42) Shadow your hiring manager in return 44) Send hiring managers a brief feedback survey midway

During your search, sit in a couple of your hiring managers inter- through your candidate search

views to make sure they feel empowered to ask the most effective Create a survey through SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. Ask ques-
questions. By seeing whether or not they ask every candidate similar tions like Do you currently think were targeting the right candi-
questions, for example, you can help them reduce unconscious bias. dates?, Which qualifications would you like to focus on more heav-
And afterwards, set up a casual meeting to share any feedback you ily?, and What can we both do better to hire the right candidate?.
emerge with. Afterwards, you can make slight but impactful adjustments to match
what your hiring manager is looking for.
43) For faster cycles with your hiring manager, use their
favorite communication channels 45) Sync your emails with your ATS

Chances are your hiring manager doesnt hang out all day in your Did we mention your hiring manager is insanely busy? This will
ATS. Oh, and theyre probably in back-to-back meetings. In your make their life easier. Empower them to communicate with other in-
intake meeting, ask about the best way to get hold of them, and terviewers and candidates wherever they are - whether thats in their
leverage your ATSs integrations to speed up the conversation. The email or applicant tracking system. The full history of candidate
Lever + Slack integration, for example, allows you to set up interview communication should live in both places!
reminders, send interviewers candidate profiles, and send feedback
reminders right in Slack.

24 25
 Hacks from

Melissa Trahan
Head of Talent, Thread

46) Make a list of your reach candidates with your hiring manager 48) Orchestrate a coffee meetup between your candidate

These can be candidates who are not ready to leave their current and hiring manager

role, or those whom you know youll have to woo considerably be- End your hiring process by giving your finalist candidates the chance
cause theyre at the top of their game. Regardless, return to this list to meet more informally with their future manager. This is a great
to ensure youre keeping the hiring bar at their level. Not getting a time for them to surface questions, build more rapport, and hear
response from them? It goes a long way to send as the hiring manag- more detail about their potential managers journey at your com-
er or CEO/CTO/whoever is the most relevant stakeholder. pany. Often, it can be the turning point meeting that drives your
candidate to say yes.
47) Institute quick 5 minute feedback after every meeting

In this brief feedback session, ask questions like: How could the 49) Support your recruiter/hiring manager conversations with data

meeting have been better?, and How can we improve upon the Know the market, and be able to share exactly how many leads and
overall process?. That way, future meetings will go more smoothly, emails youve sent. You can make smarter hiring decisions togeth-
and you can ensure that youre continuously creating better experi- er when you know realities such as which recruiting methods are
ences for candidates. leading to the most hires, how many candidates are applying and
replying to sourcing reach-outs, and your offer acceptance rate.

26 27
4
Candidate experience

50) Streamline and shorten your application 52) Hire a candidate experience specialist

Give your candidates a better experience by stripping your appli- In a competitive talent market, making every candidate feel special
cation of unnecessary details or questions. Use a modern ATS that can literally be a full-time job. Recruit a new team member who
allows you to create simple, intuitive applications that candidates can take them on a company tour, bring them from one interview to
can quickly complete. This is no longer a nice-to-have, by the way another, and serve as their main point of contact.
- a poor digital experience will lead candidates to question how
forward-thinking your organization is compared to others theyre 53) Introduce roundtable questions to stimulate lunch conversation
evaluating.
If your interview schedule includes lunch, help everyone at those
long lunch tables get to know your candidate, and vice versa. Buy a
51) Send a pump-up email to your hiring team before set of roundtable questions to spark fun topics; examples include:
the first interview of the search How would you spend $1 million?, and What superpower do you
Spend 10 minutes crafting a message that will align and excite your wish you had and why?.
interview squad. Use bullet points to list info such as: a link to your
candidates ATS profile, any fun or interesting facts youve learned 54) Snooze candidates to prompt regular check-ins
through your research, why your candidate wants to switch roles,
Is the candidate you just reached out to not ready to switch roles?
and your candidates potential impact on the team. This will help
Make sure youre top of mind when they are. When you snooze
them give candidates a better experience.
candidates for a custom number of months or weeks in Lever, youll
receive a reminder to reach out at the future date you set, along with
any notes so you can pick up where you left off.

28 29
 Hacks from

Michelle Hart
former VP of People Operations, Whisper

55) Personalize a short video for your candidate 56) Place a culture book featuring company stories

Make a video for every candidate who receives an offer, to let them on your lobby table

know how excited you are. First of all, this makes them feel special, Dont let your candidate sit in your lobby twiddling their thumbs.
and secondly, you can increase acceptance rates - and promote your Help them pass the time by featuring employee stories or interesting
brand even if the candidate turns down your offer. In the video, be facts about your team while they wait for interviewers! This is a sim-
sure to feature different team members, gorgeous footage of your ple way to get them energized about the team before their interview.
headquarters with the landscape around it, and mention the compa-
ny benefits they have to look forward to. Everyone in the video can 57) Host a 10 minute tour before every interview
also address the candidate by name and tailor their message to what
If you can, leave a 15 minute buffer between every candidates arrival
theyve learned about their interests. For example, our team mem-
time and interview. Show them the lay of the land, help them envi-
bers will joke: Cant wait to challenge you in that foozball match, if
sion what their day-to-day would look like, and even introduce them
they talked about it during the interview process.
to any team members they may not meet during their interviews.

30 31
5
Interviewing

58) Use Easy Book to help candidates self-schedule 61) Bring in your sales leader to teach the team how to sell

Make it effortless for candidates to schedule their own interviews Recruiting and sales have so much in common. At your next inter-
using Easy Book, and you can spend less time coordinating them viewer training, bring in your most seasoned sales leader to share
yourself and more time on strategic recruiting. Bonus: The interview- their strategies for finding new business, building rapport, and
er and candidate will both receive a calendar invite once the time is ultimately getting their prospect to say yes.
booked.
62) Customize each hiring process with interview kits
59) Give every new interviewer a cheat sheet Build these kits in Lever, and you can give each interviewer a set list
Theres a lot of information youll want to share with interviewers of questions, change up scorecards according to role, and include
about how to effectively interview for your open role. Create a quick additional info for interviewers to keep in mind. Remind your inter-
cheat sheet with details like sample questions, qualities to prioritize, viewers of all the important info you relayed at the beginning of your
and tips for how to authentically share their own story and that of candidate search. And give your interview panel complementary
the company. questions, so your interviewee doesnt have to repeat themselves five
times over.
60) Organize a quarterly interviewer check-in

Lets say youre looking to build your sales team. Chances are youll
hire several sales development reps, all of whom will meet with the
same interviewers. To help those interviewers do their best work, or-
ganize a quarterly interviewer check-in. Ask your hiring manager to
lead the check-ins with you, as you share process updates and revisit
interview best practices.

32 33
To get the fastest feedback in the west 67) Standardize 4-point ratings instead of 5

(or east or north or south)... Dont give interviewers a neutral or middle option - they may
just sit on the fence. Instead, ask them to form an opinion. At Lever,
we use the following categories: 1: Strong no hire, 2: No hire,
3: Hire, and 4: Strong hire.
63) Block 15 minutes on each interviewers calendar after
the interview to get feedback in
68) Increase your technical interview efficiency
Submitting feedback is a crucial part of the interview process. Help
with coding challenges
your interviewers allot time for it by including it in their interview
invite, and save them from viewing feedback as an extra burden. Coding-based assessment platforms like HackerRank and Codefights
reduce the need to rely solely on resumes that cant possibly capture
all of your candidates qualifications. Evaluating candidates on their
64) Automate interview feedback reminders
performance rather than experience will help you hire better and
How frustrating is it to send your interviewers one message after
reduce interview bias.
another, pleading with them to submit feedback? Instead, set up au-
tomated feedback reminders in your ATS. Bonus: Your interviewers
69) Schedule a retrospective with all interviewers once
will receive emails that dont have your name on them, and you dont
you hire a hard-to-fill role
have to be the bad guy.
Debriefs can sometimes be stressful or time-consuming. Structure
your post-mortem right, however, and itll save you time on your next
65) Enforce a 24-hour feedback submission deadline
candidate search. Ask questions like: What went well in the pro-
Ingrain this rule in your interviewers minds during interview train-
cess?, What went wrong?, How could we have filled the role more
ing, emphasize it in your interview kit, and reiterate it during your
quickly?, and Where could we have found more qualified candi-
quarterly check-ins. Timely feedback is a crucial part of your recruit-
dates?.
ing success - youll update candidates faster and move them through
your process more smoothly.
70) Spotlight new hires at company-wide meetings

Take your whole team behind the hiring scenes by sharing facts
66) Give a gift card to the interviewer with the fastest
about new hires interview processes before they join. Talk about
feedback submission throughout each process
their background, how theyll impact the team, and what you
Everyone is motivated by gift cards, right? Encourage your interview-
learned in the process. At Lever we like to share the turning point
ers to log their feedback at record speed by rewarding the person
- the moment when the balance tipped in favor of the candidate
who does it the fastest. You should be able to measure this right in
joining the company - to help us recruit better in future.
your ATS!

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6
Closing candidates

71) Mail your candidate your snazziest company swag 73) Use one simple tool to conduct background checks

To woo your candidate, surprise them. By sending them branded Background checks may be uninspiring, but theyre a necessary step
gear - like a cozy sweatshirt or socks - youre relaying the message in the interview process. With tools like GoodHire and Checkr, you
that you really want them to be a team member. In fact, you clearly can screen employees with exceptional speed and accuracy. Not only
already see them as one. are these tools intuitive for the company, but theyre optimized for
candidates as well.
72) Collect and permanently log candidate compensation data

While its illegal in some regions to ask candidates about current 74) Send a welcome email to new employees, GIF included

compensation, you should still meticulously track information like It takes 5 minutes or less to make a GIF, but theyre incredibly mean-
your candidates expected compensation and their competitive offer ingful to candidates. Here at Lever, our recruiting team sends every
details, all in one place. First, it will set your team up to give your new hire an email with a GIF of their future team cheering excitedly.
candidate the most appropriate, competitive offer. Second, youll be And heres the bonus: they include the entire company in the email.
able to use this data to inform how you compensate future candi- Then, every Leveroo sends a welcome email of their own - which
dates for the same role. often feature more hilarious GIFs. But this can be a closing strate-
gy as well! Even if your candidate hasnt yet said yes, you can still
send them an email with a GIF and ask your team members to reply
expressing their excitement.

36 37
 Hacks from

Ray Carroll
VP of Sales, Engagio

75) Uncover your candidates favorite hobby, and send them 78) Call to close - dont email
a photo of your whole team performing it Conversations are always more meaningful over the phone than by
You can always give a big boost to your close with thoughtful gifts email. You can clear up any questions, hear the emotion in your
or gestures. Say your candidates favorite hobby is dancing - think candidates voice, and convey your excitement way more easily. Its
about how much joy theyll experience when they receive a photo of simple, but crucial. Pick up the phone every time youre speaking to
your whole team pretending theyre in a dance battle. a candidate youre pumped about. Email just wont cut it.

76) Send candidates a custom mug with their 79) Easily send offer approvals to hiring managers when filling out
potential employee number your offer template

If you keep track of employee numbers on your team - i.e. the 33rd Worry no longer about emailing your candidates future manager an
person to join your team is employee #33 - this gesture could be approval form to fill out, or having to drop it on their desk. In Lever,
particularly meaningful. Send them something thoughtful and ever- sending that offer approval form is a step in creating your candidate
lasting like a mug that reads #45 so they know that youre already offer letter.
reserving that spot for them.
80) Ask candidates to write their favorite snack on your interview
77) Create a GIF saying We want you! sign-in sheet, and send it to them

At Engagio, we make a team-wide GIF for candidates we want to join. When your candidate signs in for their final interview, have a box
Its a personalized, light-hearted, and simple way to show amazing on the form that asks them for their favorite snack. That way, if you
talent that theyre special. Our message is: we want you more than decide to send them a gift that shows that youre thinking of them,
the other teams youre considering, and were doing everything we you can mail their favorite one!
can to make that clear.

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7
Data-driven
recruiting

81) A/B test your reach-outs 83) Know your companys high-level goals cold and

Experiment to see whats engaging candidates. Try sending the same tie your asks to them

message for your hiring manager and as yourself, for example. Or try If youre in charge of hiring, have a clear grasp of your teams overar-
asking Can we set up a 15 minute call this week? at the end of one ching KPIs. That way, when you want to advocate for something like
email, and be less pushy in another by asking Would you be inter- more budget to hire, you can directly tie that ask to a goal your team
ested in hearing more about the role? in another. Subtle changes is invested in.
like these can sometimes make all the difference.
84) Regularly check your conversion rates throughout the process
82) Use flexible requisitions and postings for headcount planning Once a month, step back to look at the percentage of candidates who
Maybe you want to hire 10 people for one job posting, and five for make it to the screening process, to an onsite, to offer, and to hire.
another. No worries - in Lever, you can do both. Its easy as can be to Are your rates changing for better or worse? Where do you lose most
link multiple requisitions with one job posting, or multiple postings candidates? What can you do differently to improve conversions?
to a single requisition. Sounds like a great topic for a team brainstorm.

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85) Reward teams or locations that have a faster 88) Set goals for how many sourced hires you want in a given
time to hire quality candidates quarter, and plan a team offsite if you hit that number

When you hire exceptional talent more quickly, the benefits are in- Most people can get inspired by the promise of a celebration. If you
numerable. You give those candidates a better experience, cut costs, discover that sourcing is the surest way to find high-quality candi-
and help your company experience their contributions sooner. Look dates, motivate them by planning a team outing if together, you can
in your ATS to uncover which team is moving the fastest and give source your target number of candidates.
them a small reward!
89) Use interview calibration reports to identify
86) Publicly call out team members who are doubling down bias in interviewer feedback
on the strategies that drive the most hires In Lever, you can identify patterns of negative vs. positive feedback
Say you dig into your recruiting metrics to see that sourcing is your from interviewers. Who is consistently rating candidates harshly?
most successful recruiting strategy. Share that context with your If you do notice a trend, we suggest proactively checking in with
team, and give regular kudos to the recruiters who are ramping up that particular interviewer. Perhaps theres something they want to
their sourcing efforts. change about the candidates youre sourcing.

87) Initiate a team check-in once you know how

workload is being distributed

In Lever, you can see which recruiters are screening and interview-
ing an inordinate amount of candidates, and which team members
arent as busy. Pull that information, then schedule a team meeting
to discuss ways to redistribute the work.

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 Hacks from

Pat Morey
Recruiting Specialist, LevelUp

90) Shift interviews that lead to a hire earlier in the process 92) Build SLAs to get back to candidates faster

This has the potential to seriously uplevel your overall success. An SLA (service-level agreement) is essentially a standard that is
In one specific instance, we found that every candidate who received set to get back to someone by a certain time. It usually relates to
a 1 or 2 for a live-coding, problem-solving session resulted in a non- customer service functions, but weve explored it here to get back to
hire after completing the exercise while on-site with us. We then candidates in a certain timeframe. If roles are taking too long to fill,
changed our traditional hiring manager phone screen to include a look at the stages in your process where candidates stay the longest
piece of this session, so if a candidate failed the exercise, we knew and install time limits to make a decision on a candidate within that
it probably wasnt worth the time to have them complete a full-on stage quicker.
site. While it may filter out more candidates, it gave our hiring team
a more solid data point to judge before moving a candidate to the 93) Schedule post-mortems to analyze recruiting
next stage and helps maintain a higher bar for candidates we meet data from the process
on-site. I really like using Levers interview feedback calibration to
After a role is closed, I look in Lever Reports with my hiring manager
effectively do this.
to see where the process could be improved next time around. I like
to look through interview feedback to see which key traits we should
91) Set annual KPIs for recruiting metrics hone in on when hiring this position in the future, which data points
Establishing KPIs (key performance indicators) is crucial if you want werent looked at enough during the interviewing process, and which
to measure and improve success. I suggest setting pipeline speed members of the interview panel had the most helpful and accurate
and offer acceptance rate KPIs because theyre pretty simple yet insights to share. Conversion rates that dont meet your benchmarks
they measure both the effectiveness and efficiency of your recruiting can also help diagnose specific stages of the process that might need
process. The quicker the better when interviewing and closing candi- to be reanalyzed for future hiring rounds.
dates, and pipeline speed helps track that. The acceptance rate is a
good measure of how well your process delivers candidates that are
a good mutual fit for the role, and then how well you convince those
candidates to join. There are countless other metrics you can track,
but these act as great vital signs for your recruiting efforts. Check
in on them monthly to make sure youre on track to hit your annual
goals.

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8
Diversity recruiting

94) State your commitment to building a diverse 97) Explicitly request a diverse range of referrals
and inclusive culture on your careers page Challenge your employees to think beyond the obvious past their
Even if you just add one simple sentence, you can send a strong mes- three best friends that may or may not be all from the same demo-
sage to your applicants. Add it at the end to your job descriptions too graphic. Emphasize that diversity requires deliberate effort, and its
to drive the point home! something all employees can help with by making introductions to
great people they know, even if they dont fit the traditional profile.
95) Conduct blind resume screenings It only makes the team stronger in the long run.

This will help you minimize unconscious biases. Studies have shown
that people with ethnic names need to send out more resumes before 98) Ensure that underrepresented employees are

they get a callback, and that resumes with female names are rated included in your interviews

lower than ones with male names when all other things on a resume But dont overload them either. As much as candidates want to meet
are equal. with their diverse potential coworkers, if your one female engineer is
in every single interview panel, its not fair to her performance and
96) Ban culture fit as a reason for rejecting a candidate sanity either.

When interviewers want to reject candidates for culture fit, or

a gut feeling, its an indication that unconscious bias is at play.
Challenge your interviewers to articulate a more specific explanation
its a great way to uncover hidden biases and have open conversa-
tions about them (never punish or shame people we are all inher-
ently biased a little bit!).

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99) Check the temperature of your office falling off after on-site panels at a disproportionately high rate. This

The temperature in most buildings defaults to whats most comfort- tells you there may be some sort of bias in a particular stage. With

able for men. Its entirely possible that some of your candidates cant this information, you can put on your detective hat: maybe its an

even be comfortable in their interview without shivering slightly and untrained interviewer turning those candidates off, or its the types

thinking about how cold they are. Planning outfits for interviews is of questions that are unfair to a specific group. Either way, time to

stressful enough - dont force them to scour their closet for that per- investigate and take some action.

fect mix of warm but formal attire before their next onsite.
102) Change the reading materials you have in your lobby

100) Stray away from oddball questions like How many If youre going to provide magazines, try to make sure them relevant
golf balls would fit inside a 747 airplane? to your industry as opposed to clearly gendered options. Unless

Brain teasers and off-the-cuff questions have been found to be youre in fashion, GQ probably doesnt belong in your lobby.

not that helpful in predicting great hires vs. those who need to be
rejected. Instead, map out structured interviews (planned questions, 103) Print inclusive bathroom signs
asked across multiple candidates) with behavioral questions. Focus Levers bathroom doors have a sticker that says For those who iden-
on the why and how to learn about the candidate what their tify as, above the mens and womens signs. Try doing the same! The
strengths/weaknesses are, as well as how they learn and prob- smallest bit of writing can send a strong message to future hires.
lem-solve.

101) Intersect your conversion rates with the demographic

data collected through Equal Employment Opportunity
(EEO) questions

Remember that conversion rate is the answer to a question like:

What percentage of resumes submitted are moved to phone
screen?. And whats demographic data? Its as simple as the
optional set of EEO questions that can be enabled in Lever. Try
examining these data points together. For example, you might find
that underrepresented candidates are passing phone screens, but

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Conclusion About Lever

We forgot to mention one thing we love about hacks: theyre easy to start Built from the conviction that recruiting is the responsibility of everyone at
applying today. Though after reading all 103 of these, youve ideally gath- the company, Levers Talent Acquisition Suite draws the entire team togeth-
ered that already. er to efficiently source, nurture, interview, and hire top talent through ef-
fortless collaboration. Incorporating best-of-breed automation, intelligence
and design, Lever helps employers develop stronger candidate relation-
But with so many hacks to choose from, where do you start? We recom-
ships in fewer clicks, by combining powerful ATS and CRM functionality in
mend going back through the chapters above and choosing a couple from one modern platform.
each one to tackle. And teamwork. We recommend teamwork. Share this
ebook with your colleagues, and ask them to start applying these hacks Lever was founded in 2012 and supports the hiring needs of over 1,400
too. leading companies around the globe including the teams at Netflix, Lyft,
Hot Topic, and Cirque du Soleil. With an overall gender ratio of 50:50, Lever
is also fiercely committed to building a team culture that celebrates diversi-
A huge thanks goes to our hacks contributors, without whom this ebook
ty and inclusion. For more information, visit https://www.lever.co.
would have been impossible. Cheers to Medallias Ariel Jolo, Netflixs
Tennyson Jones, Threads Melissa Trahan, Whispers Michelle Hart,
Engagios Ray Carroll, LevelUps Pat Morey, and Stacy Zapar from Tenfold & Follow us:
The Talent Agency for making us all a bit more savvy.

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