How to create efficient hiring processes in a fast-growing company

In a nutshell

Here is the last story about our  journey with Resume.io. It is devoted to hiring, the thing TYPICAL had started with. Now we no longer bring fresh candidates to teams, but focus on workshops and consultations to help our clients polish the hiring process.

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Moreover, we have launched a course on hiring. What hiring should consist of? How to make the most of it? Who should participate? Is hiring the only solution or is there some other business problem to work on? What are the consequences of the ill-considered hiring? What impact can it have on the HR brand? The course will answer all these questions and cover other aspects of hiring, but now, let's get back to our collaboration with Resume.io.

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Resume.io is a free online resume maker to create CVs and cover letters in one click. The company has existed for five years and has attracted over 12 million users worldwide. The marketing office is in the Netherlands and the product office
is in Russia.

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You can learn how we've collaborated on the org chart here and read the story about the guys' personal brand development here.

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Collaboration period: February – June 2021

Our first steps

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Resume.io Request

<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Alex Taktarov, Resume.io</div>

In 2020, Resume.io had the one and only designer. This person used to complete all tasks, burned out and decided to leave the company. We needed a new one. So, Tikhon suggested asking TYPICAL for help, showed me its website, and I got interested. A new designer wasn’t our only target, we also wanted to learn the ropes of hiring. For example, how to build this process, what skills to look at, etc.

<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Tikhon Belousko, Resume.io</div>Companies’ websites speak for themselves, and you can realize that this is the one you need from first sight. When I saw TYPICAL's website, I thought: "Everything is very thought-out, the guys care about the design, so, they are sure to care about other fields too."</div>

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<div class='p-container'>Before TYPICAL, we had already worked with some HRs, but this experience was pretty chaotic. For example, they could give us a huge database of designers that lacked the fit ones. We could contact just a couple of candidates. And this couple of candidates from the database happened not to search for a job.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>Looking for people on our own was even worse. I read hundreds of irrelevant resumes, but nothing seemed to work. But hiring a new person was a must, so we asked TYPICAL for help.</div>

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<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Alex Taktarov, Resume.io</div>

My hiring experience was traumatic. Years ago, I wanted to get into one exact company that interviewed me for two months. I was nervous and exhausted. As a result, I was hired, but didn't want to work there anymore, stayed there for two months, and left. 

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Hiring in this company was ok, but still pretty stressful. Later I realized that hiring is stressful itself. So, not to let Resume.io' s candidates go through such a painful experience, I wanted to shape a smooth, well-structured, and pleasant process. With this thought, we tried some agencies, but got no positive results. Our request to get developers faced problems. For example, agents confused candidates' names, sent out the standard letter to everyone, and offered positions to people at the wrong level or from another area. So, to achieve normal results, I always had to get in. In a word, working with contractors was a losing game, because they were not involved, they just did their job.

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<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Valeria Rozova, TYPICAL</div>Our collaboration with Resume.io dates back to 2020 when we were still engaged in hiring. We introduced the first designer, Andrew, very quickly, in 3 weeks. He matched the guys' culture perfectly and they keep on working together.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>During these three weeks of searching, we acted like a real dream team. The guys met us halfway everywhere. If we asked to give the candidate detailed feedback, they did it. If we asked not to refuse yet, they did not refuse. As a result, the funnel worked very efficiently.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>The guys had great impressions from hiring Andrey, and although the "project" ended, we did not lose the touch. For example, we suggested Resume.io become a respondent in our large study about culture in companies of different sizes. Because of this, we constantly communicated. And then the guys came to us with a huge request. So, we started working on the org chart. Here you can read our story about this.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>When the org chart was ready, there were many positions to fill. I realized that the guys got lost thinking "We have to hire so many people." Therefore, we discussed each candidate in detail: which team he would join, what strengths and weaknesses he might have, what tasks he would complete, etc.</div>

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How the work was structured

<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Anastasia Minetto, TYPICAL</div>

After we made the org chart, we didn’t leave the guys and helped them figure out who they needed to organize this structure. We started with two products and a designer, who would be the core for the product team to build everything around it. Usually, when it is ready, everything grows as it should. 

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Drawing on the org chart, we described a profile for each candidate. From the profiles, we understood what experience the product was to have. For example, he would need to be skilled at attracting customers, proactive enough, and not be afraid of the SMO, because he would share a team with him. For Resume.io, we didn't need a simple product designer, but a person who can delegate tasks to graphic designers to create website content. And this person was supposed not just to delegate, but to be able to direct, control the process, etc.

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<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Valeria Rozova, TYPICAL</div>Just like during our first collaboration, everyone had a feeling of real teamwork. It is so pleasant when you don't need to get used to each other for years. Our task was to determine who was needed and whether this need was real. Together, we shaped each demand within the org chart. Then, determined all these people's competencies and framed them in job descriptions. Next, took over the placement and all the first stages of the funnel, such as resume screening and initial interviews. Only after that, we could send someone to an interview with the guys. Additionally, we compiled all the necessary templates, explained what a person needed to write, how to refuse, and how to make an offer.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>We also told Resume.io about different compensation schemes: something that can be offered to employees additionally to money: options, etc. The guys grasped everything on the fly: when we proposed an idea, they immediately took it into development.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>Although we had the first part of the funnel, all the stages of hiring were so closely connected that we had to keep on communicating. We called on the phone for each new vacancy. For example, the guys said: "Now we want to hire four people, let's talk about each of them and discuss together where to hire them, figure out whether they are really needed, and when they should start working."</div>

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<div class='p-container'>All positions had peculiarities that influenced their funnels. To give test tasks to designers, you screen their portfolios, but when you search for a product, you go the other way. Also, the new org chart required engineers. Then we realized that the stack limited us with just a few candidates on the market who could match us. As a result, we concluded together that Resume.io needed to diversify the stack.</div>

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<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Tikhon Belousko, Resume.io</div>

It was a true partnership. As a result, our hiring process finally has got healthy. Now we don't get any "wrong" candidates. All the people introduced by TYPICAL were worth talking with, and their portfolios deserved consideration too. 

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Besides, I also realized how lots of things should be. For example, what a cool job looks like, and how the whole process should be organized in general. We constantly consulted with the guys on such things as whether it was necessary to give a test or not, or whether the task was OK. 

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<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Alex Taktarov, Resume.io</div>While building the org chart, we allocated three or four teams for the future and decided to recruit the two of them immediately. Valeria advised to move from top to bottom, not to grow teams by yourself, but hire a Head of Product and then move on. So we did, and that's when we got Ivan Shishkin, our current CPO.</div>

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How Resume.io picked up the hiring process

<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Ivan Shishkin, Resume.io</div>

I saw a product vacancy at the TYPICAL channel, read about the project, and it hooked me. A few years ago I had a screening at TYPICAL because I wanted to get feedback. Therefore, when a vacancy appeared the guys immediately recommended me to Resume.io, and then everything went on quickly. 

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Meanwhile, Tikhon and Alex were looking for a second product for the Acquisition team. Thanks to my expertise in hiring products, I decided to do it on my own, took lead on test tasks, conducted the interviews, and, in the end, organically became the CPO and hired all the other guys. 

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<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Valeria Rozova, TYPICAL</div>After we found Ivan, he was already engaged in hiring to a greater extent and with his approach. For example, he skips a maximum of candidates at the first stage of the funnel. We usually don't do that. We had a lot of conversations on this, but in the end, we agreed that Ivan knew better how Resume.io wanted to scale. The main thing was that the company united people of the same culture.</div>

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<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Tikhon Belousko, Resume.io</div>

Ivan came and quickly ruined everything: "It should be done differently", "It would be better to change this", etc. As a result, we realized that Ivan should be the CPO to lead people in three areas: Acquisition, APP, and LTV. 

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At the same time, he did not change the org chart. There were the same teams with the same names we had discussed with Valeria. Ivan just deepened them to understand how each team was performing, who was missing, etc.

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<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Ivan Shishkin, Resume.io</div>I've kinda complicated everything. When I was hired, there was only one product left to find, but I proposed my scheme with three more people to be hired.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>When I entirely took over the hiring, I worked with TYPICAL a lot as a hiring manager. I was involved in searching sources, platforms to place jobs, and working with portraits. As a result, we hired three more products, and we are raising the fourth from one of our designers. Now Resume.io's team consists of over 30 people, but from the hiring point of view, this is only the beginning. Our next step is to grow 2-3 times.</div>

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The results

<div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Tikhon Belousko, Resume.io</div>

We use about 90% of the materials left after working with TYPICAL. They include various templates and checklists for hiring, onboarding, etc. Now we have a knowledge base with such resources as job descriptions that can be reused for fronts, products, and designers. 

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We also have a checklist for the first day of the employee that our new people receive on their first working day. There is also a checklist of a curator who mentors the fresh blood.

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In addition, now we are focused on how our employees work in general. We conduct quarterly surveys, monitor the company's health as a whole, and study how people feel with this sharp growth. We check whether they understand who is who and who to turn to with what. 

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<div class='p-container'><div class='h3 color-green font-25'>Alex Taktarov, Resume.io</div>Hiring usually takes a lot of energy. You need to think the whole funnel through and keep this information somewhere. It's always kinda traumatic. With TYPICAL, we have left this trauma behind. We realized that there are people for whom all this is also important. The ones who are easy to communicate with. The ones whose work is systematic. We immediately got a common board. So, everything went without any extra bureaucracy and unnecessary calls. Everything was relevant and transparent.</div>

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<div class='p-container'>Besides, our candidates were glad too. Their feedback was about liking our hiring process,  test cases, and experts from TYPICAL. The funny thing is that many candidates haven't realized that experts were from another company. This is how organic and seamless everything has been.</div>

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