Don't miss interesting news
HR in our heroes’ niches is not just about “finding a candidate.” It’s a marathon with obstacles: when there are either impostors with glossy resumes or seniors who still need to be persuaded to take a call. It’s a speed work, where a candidate can “disappear” in 48 hours in arbitration. It’s stress, deadlines, and situations where your online interview falls apart along with the ironing board.
We talked to top HRs from MUUS, Leadpanda, and MI Agency about the most scarce candidates, aptitude testing, the most epic firings, demotivation, and keeping a team together when everything is on fire.
No theories here. Only real experience, working tools, and a little professional humor.
We work with different niches, and analyzing the market over the past 4 months, I notice a shortage of specialists who drive traffic through Google (PPC, UAC, Demand Gen). Of course, it is possible to find such employees, but most of the resources are spent on closing such positions.
In our niche (as in any other), it is difficult to find a unicorn. It’s possible to find all the others (and we do it, of course), the only question is the resources we will spend on the search.
The most difficult thing is to find a strong media buyer. On the one hand, there are a lot of candidates, but on the other hand, there are few of them who are really capable of bringing results. We work in niches where speed and results are more important than an impressive resume, so it’s not a question of quantity – it’s a question of quality. Candidates often present themselves well, but when it comes to real numbers and cases, everything becomes less rosy.
I advise you to check through practice. For example, you can simulate a situation to hear how a specialist thinks and how well they understand the issue. And do not forget to give candidates test tasks, they allow you to weed out.
We recently published a post on Instagram – “How to tell if a candidate is exaggerating their experience”. Read this post here.
Oh, you can read a whole lecture here, but in short, the devil is in the details.
In short, here’s the base that you shouldn’t forget about:
1) Run a couple of questions on STAR or PARLA.
2) Analyze behavioral markers (a sharp change in gestures or lack thereof, changes in voice, speech rate) + psycholinguistic analysis (for example, when a candidate starts using parasitic words or uses infinitives when answering about past experience, etc.)
3) Do not get carried away (there are experts with a black belt in interviewing), but try to be objective.
4) And, of course, collect recommendations, preferably from several people.
We focus on facts, not words. If a candidate claims to have great results, he or she should back them up with numbers: statistics, achievements, project growth. In addition, we always ask for references from previous jobs. And most importantly, we have our own psychological assessment methodology. It allows us to understand whether a person meets the request not only technically, but also in terms of thinking, communication, and motivation.
Of course, there were more than one such case in practice. I always prefer soft skills when communicating with candidates, because it plays an important role in making a decision. However, even good softskills are not enough, so a lot of responsibility lies with the mentor or team lead.
When we plant a seed, it’s important to remember to water it so that a good plant grows) It’s the same with newcomers to the team: the more time a mentor devotes to their adaptation, the faster they will start showing good results.
There were quite a few such cases in my practice. I am especially proud of the case of a recruiter from my team who came only after the courses, without understanding of arbitration and experience in recruiting.
The mix of a sincere desire to learn, understand the field and show results + the absence of fear of mistakes and emotional intelligence, which is so necessary for specialists in our profession, worked.
We have a lot of such cases. In the recruiting department of MI Agency, there are girls who came without any experience and became top performers. The approach works: we give a person a clear structure, the support of a mentor, and the opportunity to learn by doing. This builds confidence and consistency. If you have the potential and willingness to learn, experience comes very quickly.
I won’t call it an epic fail, but rather a funny situation: once at a conference, I tried to get an overnight guy to join the team. I tried very hard to interest him in the vacancy, but when I heard that he was the owner of the team, I turned the situation into a joke. We had a good laugh, parted on a good note, and we still keep in touch.
I’m pulling out a snapshot from the archives of the Covid period, just for reminiscing over a glass of wine. It was the beginning of April, the heating had already been turned off, and everyone had just been switched online. Imagine this: I’m sitting with a blanket wrapped around me, with a laptop on an ironing board and a shoebox, interviewing my colleagues for a management position in one of the company’s teams.
Backstory: I had to hunt this candidate down because there were no “free” candidates on the market (he was a highly qualified specialist). I negotiated with him for a long time to get him to the mark. Communication on his part was always as dry as possible, formal and without any obvious interest.
The interview is in full swing, the candidate is also “dry” in his communication with colleagues and the CEO, and at one point my whole structure falls apart, and I fall with it, trying to hold on to everything… Realizing the epic nature of the situation, I can’t help but laugh, my colleagues could not stand it, and the candidate followed us. This faux pas became a kind of icebreaker – after it, the dialog finally went smoothly and naturally.
P.S. The candidate was not hired, but I will remember this case for a long time 🙂
There are stories that we recall within the team, but we don’t want to bring them out in public. Everyone has faux pas, the main thing is to respond to them correctly. We learned lessons from each situation and improved our processes.
High ROI is an advantage in arbitrage. The candidate is evaluated for the ability to “make a profit”, quickly scale relationships, and find approaches that work. Classical marketing values strategic thinking, consistency, education, and certificates.
Also, the selection stages are different: while in IT, a candidate has to go through the stages of acquaintance, technical interview, and terms of reference, in arbitration it’s easier: 1-2 interviews, and you’re in the team.
Hiring itself is not really a big deal. It is only in the affiliate sphere that speed and flexibility in decision-making are more important than anywhere else. We also pay special attention to the candidate’s reputation due to the increased risk.
Speed. In arbitration, decisions are made instantly. If a candidate is in search now, he or she may no longer be available tomorrow. Therefore, interviews, feedback, decisions – everything should happen within 24-48 hours.
In classical marketing or IT, there are more stages, more measured decision-making, and more attention to the “perfect fit.” In our niche, the main thing is to act quickly, otherwise the candidate will no longer be relevant.
I think instability can demotivate the most. Especially if the role is a media buyer. Traffic is unpredictable – one month you have a good profit, and then you lose money for several months. I advise in such cases to involve HR, hold regular 1:1s, communicate and support teammates.
From my own experience, such communication “unloads” employees, and support gives them the strength to move forward.
If we talk about specialists who came from another field, then from my experience I can say that the biggest demotivator is instability: approaches, requirements, results.
How I “treat” it:
Expectation of instant results. Newcomers often think that after the first week of work they will already have cool offers, gratitude from clients and recognition. But in reality, there is adaptation, learning, and mistakes. We explain this right away. The support of a mentor, “van-tu-vans,” and a team help you get through the first stage without losing motivation.
For me, the role of HR is, first of all, to be for people and about people. Employees need HR to be involved in team life as much as possible. They don’t care about the tables, metrics, cookies in the office, or other things we do. They care about live communication, a sense of support, and sometimes even advice.
Work on the atmosphere in the team, on regular informal communication and corporate culture.
When I worked at HRG, I was often interested in the lives of the Mates: I knew the names of their pets, how they were doing in their personal lives, and what they were doing in their free time. And it wasn’t about “asking questions” as if I were being interrogated. I was really interested, and they wanted to share it. It was a win-win.
I get to the core motivations of a person and work with them and, by default, hire those whose motivations match the culture and challenges of a particular position. My zero rule of motivation is not to demotivate!
If a specialist is in the right place, we give him or her the tools to achieve results and remove what is in the way. All the other buns are a seasoning that we select individually to achieve the perfect taste.
The first thing is honesty. We do not hide the fact that there are tense periods in our work. But at the same time, we always support: There are regular meetings with the team, discussions of complex cases, and assistance in prioritizing tasks. We also have a strong team culture – people know that they will not be left alone with a problem. This creates a safe environment even in the “fire” of deadlines.
Absolutely never! One toxic person in the team will at least worsen the atmosphere, reduce productivity, and at most increase staff turnover, cause stress and even conflicts. No “top” results are worth a toxic team environment.
If you find such a person, have a conversation, ask for feedback from others, and then make a decision.
Never. But I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand, but deal with this toxicity, often there is more behind it than is on the surface.
In our culture, toxicity is a red flag. Even if a person delivers results but destroys the atmosphere, we are not ready to turn a blind eye. The team is more important to us than one “star” player. If we see problems, we always start with feedback and look for solutions, but if nothing changes, we say goodbye.
I like to use AI as it significantly reduces the time spent on tasks and, consequently, increases productivity.
I will give an example from the interview process: remember the time when there was no AI – you had to write down the entire dialog in a notebook. Now it’s much easier: you connect AI to Google Meet or Zoom, and after the interview, it gives you a summary of what you discussed with the candidate. It’s convenient because you can quickly review all the important topics discussed in a concise form.
Wherever I can optimize my work with AI, I look for opportunities to automate routine, increase efficiency, and focus on strategic tasks.
It’s hard to imagine that we used to manage without AI – it has penetrated literally every process. In short, for me, it is an automated routine that freed up time and simplified monotonous work.
AI has been helping us in our work for a long time. We have automated some of the routine processes: filtering candidates, preparing reports, onboarding. The greatest value is analytics. AI allows us to better understand the market, make forecasts, and analyze funnels. But soft skills, motivation, and cultural feedback are still beyond the scope of algorithms. This is where a human is needed.
A masseuse!) Sitting down does your back a disservice, so when I open my office, I will hire a masseuse!
If there are no restrictions, then fixers who would arrive where they are needed here and now and fix everything.
Recruitment Operations Specialist. A person who is responsible for the quality of all processes: documentation, reporting, funnel analytics, PBX system, automation. This would allow the team to focus on working with people, not on routine, and to scale our results even more.