I waited 400 interviews to delegate this
Zack AllenApril 26, 20263:20
Why interviewing was the last thing I handed off, and how I trained someone on my team to take it over.
Until about two weeks ago, I was taking every single interview for our clients. That's over 400 candidate interviews.
I held on to it so long because I saw it as one of the most important roles I played in the firm.
Delegate the important work last
My philosophy with hiring is to spend my time on the things only I can do, my highest leverage work, and delegate the rest.
Some people want to hire for their most important roles first: a salesperson, a marketing person. For me, those are the lifeline of the business, so they're the last things I'd delegate.
When I started, I did everything myself: launching the campaigns, all the vetting, all the interviewing. Interviewing was the last part of fulfillment I felt confident handing off. It's a high-touch job. It takes someone who knows how to steer a conversation where you want it to go, a lot like a sales call.
I didn't delegate it to avoid work. I delegated it once I'd learned the skill well enough to pass it on, because my time had higher leverage uses elsewhere in the business.
How I handed it off
Watch first. I had my team member watch 10 or 20 of my recent interviews and make a list of what I did well and what I didn't.
Start with low stakes. Then she took the lower-stakes interviews, the candidates who hadn't scored the highest.
Review every one. The first few were rough, and we talked about them openly. I'd review each interview and give her notes: what she did well, what she could have said at a certain moment, what to try on the next one. Every time, one small thing to improve by 1%.
Reviewing took me longer than doing the interview myself. I knew that investment would pay off, and it did.
Eventually I hit my breaking point. I told her, "I'm so done with these interviews. I'm handing this to you. You're going to do a great job." She did. In the past week she's taken 10 to 20 interviews, and three or four of them have already turned into placements.
The fulfilling part
That ties into what I love about having a team and being a business owner instead of a freelancer. I get to watch someone play a crucial part in a chain of events. Our client gets great talent, the talent gets a great business to work for, and my team member gets to be proud that her interview is the reason the candidate was hired.
Start with the foundation
The takeaway: don't delegate the most important things first. Start with the foundational work that sets someone up to succeed.
If I'd started her on interviews, they would have been terrible. That would have looked bad to our clients, and she wouldn't have had the foundation from the rest of the vetting process to run a good interview in the first place.
It came from many reps and many iterations, one interview at a time, each one a little better than the last.
Transcript
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Up until two weeks ago, I was taking every single interview for our clients. I've taken 400 plus candidate interviews. And the reason why I took so long to delegate it is I saw it as a very important role for me to play in the recruitment firm. Now, that's been my philosophy with hiring in general is I'm trying to make it so my time is spent on the things that only I can do that are my highest leverage opportunities and delegate the rest.
It's like some people will want to hire for their most important roles first. They want to hire a sales guy. They want to hire a marketing guy. But for me, those are crucial to the business. That's the lifeline of the business. And so that's the last thing I'm going to delegate. So in the beginning of the business, I started with doing everything myself, launching the campaigns, doing all the vetting, all the interviewing.
And the last thing of that fulfillment process that I finally felt confident enough to delegate off my plate was interviewing. And it's because it's a very hightouch role. It requires someone to really understand how to push a conversation in the direction you want it. similar to a sales conversation. And I didn't delegate interviews because I didn't want to do any work. I want to delegate the whole business. It's because I see my time spent in higher leverage opportunities within the business once I was able to learn the skill and transfer it over to someone else.
So the process I took to delegate that task, such a big task of interviewing, was first I had my team member watch a bunch of the interviews that I've taken. She watched like 10 or 20 recent interviews and I had her make a note, make a list of the things that I did well and the things I didn't do well. And then I moved her on into the lower stakes interviews, the ones where the candidates did not score the highest and having her take those.
The first couple were very rough and we talked about it. It was a very open conversation of like this, this, this. I would go through and review and it would take me longer than if I just did the interview, but I knew that this investment of time I was putting in now was going to pay off. And of course, it did today. So I would go through and give her basically like a call review on what I think she did well, what I think she could have said here, what I think could be done on the next one.
And basically every time giving one small room for a 1% improvement and after enough iterations of that, she got pretty good at it. And eventually I got to like my breaking point. I was like, I am so done with these interviews. I'm delegating this to you. You're going to do a great job. And of course she did. She's taken within the past week like 10 to 20 interviews and I think four three or four of them have resulted in placements which I think also ties into the fulfilling part of having a team and being a business owner not a freelancer is that I get to experience that joy of having someone play such a crucial piece in this chain of events.
It's like our client gets a great talent on their team. the talent gets a great business to work for and it's very fulfilling to see my team be so proud of like this is something they made happen. Their interview was the reason why this candidate got hired. I think the takeaway here is not to delegate the things that are most important first. You start with the more foundational stuff that also leads someone up to be able to succeed in the the like if I would have started her off in interviews first of all they would have been terrible a terrible look on our clients on the company and second she wouldn't have the foundation of all the other parts of the vetting process in order to have a good interview in the first place through many reps many iterations one by one just looking at one interview being better on the next one being better on the next one being better on the next
