Talent Makers: How to be a Talent Maker and Win Through Inclusive Hiring

Hiring is a team sport. And with the right coaching, structure, and playbooks, hiring teams can make good - no great - hiring decisions. If you’re looking for a great coach, Greenhouse’s CEO Daniel Chait and President Jon Stross are great role models. 

They recently published Talent Makers: How the Best Organizations Win Through Structured and Inclusive Hiring, which walks leaders, recruiters, and hiring teams through the recruiting “plays” they’ve learned over the years. 

We met with the Greenhouse team to get the scoop on the book. Here’s what you need to know. 

1. What’s one thing every talent leader needs to know about this book or the Talent Makers approach? 

Daniel Chait: The Talent Makers book helps leaders know what they need to do to help their company win at hiring. Most leaders know that people are their most important asset and that they have a role to play in building high-performing teams. But in practice, we’ve found that many leaders don’t know what actionable steps they should take to get there. That’s why we created a playbook for leaders to help them become Talent Makers.

In the book, we talk about how competition for top talent has intensified. Candidates have more choices than ever before, and to stand out, the best companies have transformed the way they approach hiring. Working with thousands of companies, we’ve seen how talent leaders can elevate hiring into a strategic business capability. In the book, we give leaders a proven framework and a clear understanding of what they need to do to create a culture of hiring that attracts and retains great talent. 

2. What is your best advice or the most overlooked strategy for companies who want to create meaningful messaging that helps attract qualified candidates?

Jon Stross: My advice is to acknowledge that hiring is a whole-company initiative. So many hiring managers and talent leaders feel pressure to fill roles quickly. But talent leaders really need to take a step back from the day-to-day and see what they’re doing as a strategic business-building activity. 

As we talked to and helped more and more companies over the years, we realized that there’s been this gap – this disconnect – when it comes to hiring. Hiring is extremely important and not something that only the recruiting team does. It’s not just posting job ads or sending offer letters. Companies are seeing that success is based on their ability to hire well, which means there’s this need for alignment that extends beyond the talent org. There has to be open and consistent conversation between hiring managers, recruiters and business leaders to understand what they should do to build the company together and achieve their goals. Hiring is the key factor in enabling business success. 

When hiring for any role, it’s key to first define and align on the skill set and competencies needed for that role. By prioritizing the attributes necessary for success, rather than looking for a specific degree or background, your team will be able to make more effective hiring decisions and discover top talent where you may not have expected. 

3. Diversity recruiting has become a hot topic. TA leaders are in the process of creating and measuring the impact of their diversity recruiting strategies. What’s the best way for talent leaders to know if their DE&I strategies are working?

Daniel Chait: Strengthening DE&I within a company means continuously getting better and improving practices that reduce bias in hiring. That’s why structured hiring is so important – by providing a consistent and equitable interviewing experience for candidates, structured hiring helps companies reduce bias and ensure that hiring managers are making more fair and equitable hiring decisions. 

Structured hiring is set up to reduce biases that can arise in the hiring process from the very beginning. We do that in a number of ways within the Greenhouse platform, but being able to define and measure against priorities for the role is key. In other words, if you're hiring for a role that requires five years of experience in the field, that should be more important than seeing a gap on a mom's resume for taking time to care for her kids, or seeing a candidate who’s changing industries and has transferable skills. Less opportunity for biased decisions comes from hiding details such as race, sexual orientation and gender during resume screening. You don’t need this information to inform an initial assessment.

4. In The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 research, 76% of companies said they want to hire more women. What is your best advice for companies who want to attract and hire more women? 

Jon Stross: From your report, I noted that “55% of jobs lost in 2020 belonged to women – and 30% of working moms are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce.” The report also outlines how the pandemic has added to the challenges women were already facing in the workforce, such mothers who are still working full-time jobs with reduced child care resources. These are challenging statistics to see. For talent leaders looking to hire more women, it’s an opportunity to double down on two key factors: building an employer brand that prioritizes DE&I strongly enough to attract women to your company and setting up your hiring process to eliminate the bias that limits female candidates moving through the hiring pipeline.

If you get structured hiring right and combine that with the intention to support women in the workplace, your company will start to reflect your DE&I goals. Having more women in leadership roles, featured on your website and showing up in LinkedIn searches when candidates are doing their research will reflect your company’s diversity priorities. Ensure your talent team is paying attention to gendered language in job descriptions, on application forms, in emails and on your company’s website so that your company is more inclusive to women. All of these actions show that you’re paying attention to gender biases and actively working to reduce them. Become an employer who builds diverse and inclusive teams – this positions you as a magnet for diverse talent.

At Greenhouse, we believe unlocking human potential in the workplace is the most powerful force for progress we have. It’s our job as leaders to create a place where every person can be their most authentic self in the workplace and feel included in terms of their gender, race, sexual orientation or ability.

Where can you find the book? 

Pick up your copy of Talent Makers today by visiting talentmakersbook.com.