Project:Sandbox

= Hiring Guide = This guide breaks down the 5 stages of hiring. At the end is a list of appendices where you will find the templates and tools relevant to this guide.

Stages of Hiring:
 * 1)
 * 2) Recruitment
 * 3) Assessment
 * 4) Orientation and Transitions

Deciding when to hold your hiring campaign
The timing for your hiring campaign depends on the needs of your organization and the expectations of your campus community. Some Kite organizations hold hiring only once a year, while others hold one executive campaign in the Spring and a general campaign in the Fall. Consider when potential hires will be looking for a volunteer opportunity and capitalize on those moments.

Creating a timeline
This timeline is meant to keep you on track with every aspect of the hiring process. The easiest way to build this timeline is to work backwards: what is the date by which you need the new team onboarded? Then, how long will you need for interviews? Then, how long will you make your recruitment phase? And finally, how long do you need to prepare for this process?

See appendix I for a template of a hiring timeline.

Understanding your hiring needs
This should be one of the first things you complete for hiring. With the help of your entire executive team, decide on the needs of the organization given the current capacities of members. Go through each portfolio to determine where you are lacking human resources; from there, create a list of openings and build each role’s description. Your organization will eventually reach a state where existing members take the leadership positions, without the need to hire someone externally. This is the time where you would decide who moves into the open leadership roles.

See appendix II for a job description template.

Components of the application
Decide what you will require from applicants in order to assess them properly. In the past, Kite member organizations have used Google Form to create a list of questions which they have asked each applicant to answer along with a copy of their resume. Consider what kind of information is necessary - for example, if you are hiring a graphic designer, you may want to receive a link to their online portfolio - while at the same time keeping in mind that you do not want to scare applicants away by creating a large and intensive list of application requirements.

See appendix III for an example of a hiring form. *It is useful to ask applicants questions related to how they heard about the opportunity for future application periods.

Social media and online promotion
A strong social media campaign is essential to the success of your recruitment. The campaign needs to be prepped before the launch date so that your event, posts, stories, and other elements of your strategy can happen seamlessly and on time.

Facebook
Kite member organizations have found that advertising their hiring campaign as a facebook event is a crucial component of the campaign. Creating and maintaining an engaging Facebook event is important in receiving a strong quantity and quality of applications. During the Preparation phase, the event should be created in draft format, with a write-up, a cover photo, and a schedule of posts. This is also an element of your campaign in which your entire team should be taking part, so take this time to engage with your team and reinforce that promotion of the hiring campaign on their social media accounts should become a part of their daily Kite tasks.

See Appendix IV for an example of a Facebook post schedule.

Website
Your website should include a page detailing your hiring period, similar to your facebook page. Again, this page should be in draft format in this stage, and ready to be published once the hiring goes live. This will be another platform to which you can direct applicants, and also boosts views on your website.

f. Promotional events and materials

To widen your campaign’s reach across campus, take time during the preparation phase to research and prepare for events and locations around campus where you can promote the opportunities available. These settings could include formal events such as conferences and fairs, or more informal settings such as setting up a booth on campus and speaking in classrooms. You may also consider hosting a yearly hiring event where you showcase your work and provide invitees the opportunity to interact with your members. Add these events to your calendar and prepare for them by scheduling volunteers to work them, as well as creating and ordering promotional materials. One thing to keep in mind is the audience at these events. Your hiring needs will most likely be diverse, so make sure to hit events with a variety of audiences - such as finance students for your finance needs, marketing students for your external communications needs, etc.

Promotional materials can include graphics for your social media campaigns, stickers, flyers, banners, and tshirts - whatever you feel will be the most effective. All of these materials will need to be designed and ordered so that they are available for the launch of your campaign.

'''II. Recruitment'''

Recruitment is the primary hiring task shared by the whole team. The following is a breakdown of certain tactics used by Kite organizations.

a. Scouting

Arguably the most effective way to find meaningful team members is to encourage friends of members to join the organization. Make sure each team member is scouting in their personal circles for new members.

b. Facebook event and website page

The Facebook event and the website, as outlined in the Preparation phase, are where the hiring campaign ‘lives’. While promoting, the primary intention is to drive potential applicants towards these two platforms as they have all the information. Once the two platforms have been created, they should be monitored for any changes that need to be made, and the Facebook posts should go up according to the schedule from the Preparation phase. Also consider using the Facebook monetary promotion - it is a cheap and effective way to boost your event’s visibility.

c. Promotional events and materials

During this stage, follow the schedule created in the Preparation phase for the researched events and boothing opportunities around campus. This is where you will be using materials prepared, such as the flyers, banners, stickers, etc. Make sure to include your entire team in these events.

d. Classroom announcements

Classroom announcements are important for both getting the word out and putting a face to the work we are doing, and is a very effective way to gather applications. It is also a good opportunity for your members to practice honing their presentation skills. During recruitment, encourage your members to speak at the beginning of their classes, and research classes that best suit your hiring needs and ask the professors for the opportunity to speak to their students.

e. Mailing lists

Emails are a less personal but more sweeping way of promoting your organization. As a non-profit seeking student support to run impactful projects, department communication staff are often willing to relay your messages to students. Reach out to department coordinators and student advisors who are working with relevant student groups.

f. Flyering

Small informational flyers outlining your organization and the work you do are an effective way to spread your organization’s hiring information. They can be used at the events and booths you hold during the recruitment phase as well as in classroom announcements and in general promotion. Leave some in high-traffic areas.

'''III. Assessment'''

This stage of the process requires organization and dedicated chunks of time to work through both applications and interviews. Find the best tools to keep you organized - calendars, to-do lists, filing, categorization, Doodles, etc.

The first stage is to review the applications. Previous Kite member organizations have organized the applications by position, and then reviewed each application position group by position group. Once you have reviewed the applications and made your decisions, you have to send out emails to everyone who applied with a response.

See appendix V for templates of email responses (interview stage).

Interviews

To build the schedule, first survey those on your team that will be conducting the interviews in order to build a working schedule. Ideally, the executive director will be conducting each interview, along with the members of the team who would be working with the candidate the closest. Once the schedule is created, reach out to applicants with available timeslots.

When interviewing for non-executive roles, group interviews are a beneficial format for two reasons. First, they reduce the number of interviews you have to hold, and second, they provide you with an opportunity to view the applicants working in a group setting. One-on-one interviews are preferable for executive position applicants.

The committee should agree on basic interview questions, and a basic assessment rubric before interviews start. This makes it easier to compare candidates who were not interviewed by the same person. It can also help reduce bias.

See appendix VI for examples of interview questions and assessment rubrics

Kite Best Practice - Interviews This stage of the hiring process also requires you and your existing executive team to devote a few solid hours to. Use any methods you feel are useful for ranking and ordering names - previous Kite member organizations have used blackboards, sticky notes, coloured markers, etc. This is a big moment for your organization, and you have all worked hard to reach this point - celebrate this stage!
 * Conduct both individual and group interviews for all candidates
 * All interviewers agree on standard questions to ask everyone (Appendix VII for example questions)
 * All interviewers agree on basic assessment rubric (Appendix VII for example rubric)
 * Each candidate assessed by at least two different people

Once you have made your decisions, you now have to email everyone who is still waiting for an answer. This stage may require some careful timing, as you may end up having a first choice candidate back out of the offer, which could leave you hanging if you’ve already rejected your second choice. Previous Kite member organizations have emailed the “yeses” first, waited for confirmation, and then let the second choices know.

In this email, you will also need to include the date of Orientation you and your team will have decided on during this stage. Orientation should happen shortly after the decision-making period as to avoid loss of momentum.

See appendix VII for templates of email responses (decision stage).

V. Orientation and Transitions

Orientation is a very important stage of hiring as it represents the new members’ first encounter with the organization from the inside. Showcasing an organization that is professional, hard-working, transparent, and youthful - and whatever other qualities you wish to portray) will set the standard for the rest of the volunteer’s time with the organization.

a. Schedule

In preparation for orientation, create an agenda for the day. Consider including timing in the schedule - the more detail in the agenda, the smoother the day will run.

The agenda should include an icebreaker and a volunteer introduction period, an introduction to Kite and to the organization’s portfolios (ideally given by the portfolio leads), a group activity such as a professional development session, and a chance to onboard all new members to the drive and other communication platforms used (e.g. Slack). You may consider sending this agenda out to the attendees so that they have a sense of what to expect.

See appendix VIII for an example of an orientation agenda.

b. Materials

Powerpoint: prepare a professional and engaging powerpoint to structure your day, based off of your agenda. This slide deck should consider all of the “rules” of slides (e.g. minimize the amount of text, use engaging images), making it a visual representation of the agenda.

See appendix IX for a template of the orientation powerpoint.

Hiring packages: Each new member should be presented with a package that includes information they need to be engaged at the orientation and beyond. This package should include their contract, a description of the organization, a breakdown of their responsibilities and expectations as volunteers, and manuals which explain the tasks that make up their portfolio.

See appendix X for a template of hiring packages.

Transitions

Given the high turnover of a student organization such as Kite, almost all hiring periods will also include transitions. The length of the transition stage depends on the availability of the outgoing executives and will vary from portfolio to portfolio, but a good starting point is one month. This phase mainly applies to executive roles.

The easiest way to manage transitions is through a transition report. This report is given to the incoming executive, and should include information about Kite and their portfolio, a timeline of the transition process, a checklist of to-dos during the process, and other information that the incoming executive will need to do their job well, such as a list of skills required to do the job, a list of relationships that the outgoing and previous executives have built, a list of pending issues, and anything else. This transition report is updated by the outgoing executive just before the incoming executive is onboarded, and should be included in the orientation package.

See appendix XI for a template of the transition report.

Apart from the transition report, there are many more soft skills and experiences that the incoming executive will have to learn to be successful. This comes with observation, trial-and-error, and collaboration between the incoming and outgoing executives, and so these two volunteers should expect to work closely with one another during the transition period.

Appendices - Templates and Examples

I. General hiring timeline

II. Job description

III. Hiring form

IV. Facebook posts schedule

V. Email responses (interview stage)

VI. Interview questions

VII. Email responses (decision stage)

VIII. Orientation agenda

IX. Orientation powerpoint

X. Hiring package

XI. Transition report