IHUBApp Blog

At InspireHUB, we do paid auditions instead of interviews. Here's why…

Written by Sue Braiden | 2 October, 2020

 

Is your organization newly remote and looking for some inspiring ways to recruit future teammates? At InspireHUB, we do "paid auditions" instead of interviews. This allows both our team and the candidate to discover if we click, from corporate culture and communication style to work approach.

When I was coming aboard, I loved this! It gave me the chance to figure out if InspireHUB was a good fit for me as much as it allowed them to find out if I was a good fit for the team. It's a meaningful litmus test for the truest indicators of future productivity and retention: our shared goals and values, and our ability to "play together" as well as we work.

To that point, an aside: now more than ever, play is important! So much so that we even have a Mandatory Fun Officer :)

(Yes, really!)

Why does having fun at work matter so much?

  • Tweet This ▶  A study by BrightHR found that employees who have fun at work are:
    • less likely to take sick days,
    • more likely to report feeling creative at work, and
    • are more committed to their organization!

 

So how do paid auditions work?

Our first meeting happens through a video conference with our team and the candidate and includes playing a game together. It’s been a really interesting way to see how a prospective teammate approaches problem-solving and connects with us.

We toss the usual HR questions out the window in favour of things that invite a little fun while once again giving us the chance to see how someone approaches a challenge. One of our favourites? It’s a question we share with our “Big on Small” podcast guests. Want to see just how fun and unusual the results can be? Have a listen to our mini-podcast where we ask the question here:

 

 

 

Our entire team is involved in the first meet-and-greet, the game and the Q&A, and the candidates are invited to ask us questions too (which turns out to be both as insightful and often as hilarious as the results of the Horse and Duck question can be.)

One of my favourite moments from this practice arrived in the form of a candidate who actually turned our company into a live musical! True Story!  (Why not? After all, we’re InspireHUB!)

When we find the candidate(s) that feel like a great match, we offer them a paid audition in the form of a project with our team. Again, it gives both our prospective new teammate and us a chance to see how we work together and really find out if we’re a good fit.

 

Sound a little unconventional? It's worked for us! Here's why ...

⯈ We believe successful hiring has less to do with the paper or initials behind someone's name and more to do with the right fit.

That's why we are so effective and so committed to each other. We've passed on highly-credentialed candidates in favour of a junior recruit that better fit our culture and ended up with some of our strongest team leads ever.

The result? We've got everyone from rocket scientists and tech pioneers to human trafficking fighters, adventure divas and professors.

Guess we'll keep doing more of that ...

With one the most significant pandemic pivots being the global switch to work-from-home/the remote workplace overnight, the talent pool—and opportunities—just got a whole lot bigger!

Being part of a corporate social experiment designed to prove that putting the bottom line and people first are not competing ideals makes for some very cool "Aha! Moments".


 

Want to see some of the other experiments that have paid off at InspireHUB?

⯈ Read: A company culture based on empathy? 13 reasons why ...

 

What are some of the cool things YOUR team has discovered power up inspired recruiting?

⯈ We'd love it if you would tuck a comment in below and tell us about it!

 

Looking for more small business help?

 

The Ultimate Small Business Survival Guide is Here

We've been helping InspireHUB clients not just survive during this time but THRIVE! We collected all of our advice and made it available for FREE as our great big give-back during this difficult time. Included in this FREE Guide:

  • Transformation Readiness Assessment
  • Practical Marketing Help
  • Proven Strategies to Pivot Your Company

Check it out now!


 

Lead an Inspirational Remote Work Culture that Employees Love!

At InspireHUB, we get it. We've been a 100% remote workplace for more than 7 years, and are the first to admit we were UN-InspireHUB while we learned to grow into it.

because we saw so many people struggling as they've had to adapt to this new way of working overnight.

Here's how you can use it to grow YOUR small business too ...


Included in this FREE Guide:

  • Why your remote team is experiencing fatigue.
  • Understanding how leaders and employees have vastly different remote experiences.
  • The lines you cannot cross with employee privacy when working remote.
  • How to gamify your remote workforce.
  • The rules of virtual engagement when it comes to working remotely.
  • How the rules of meeting etiquette change in virtual meetings and why you must understand the difference!