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Hiring good people can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly. If you’re in a constant cycle of hiring, I don’t have to tell you about the time warp it can cause — but what about the cost?

The more interviews you do, the more you spend. And the more time you spend absorbed in lengthy interviews the more likely you are to take shortcuts and make mistakes. And according to Dr. John Sullivan, the hiring process is getting even harder:

“Aggressiveness, the need for counteroffers, higher rejection rates, and a renewed focus on recruiting the currently employed will all return to prominence.”

What if I told you I could help you be more efficient with your time, and get the information you need to make decisions for next steps — in about half the time you’re currently committing?

The advantage of reducing your hiring time will add to your bottom line, perhaps more than you realize. A report from UrbanBound illustrated the time demands, and how costs can add up:

“Onboarding can be an extremely time-demanding project. It can cost up to 1/3 of an employee’s salary to onboard and train new hires, especially when that employee’s job description does not have to do with onboarding. Therefore, if a small company has a flawed onboarding plan, they risk having a bad retention percentage which can be extremely costly.”

Considering this, it’s logical to believe organizations would be better off spending less time overall on interviews, but more quality time during that initial conversation. So, how would one shorten the time commitment and reduce overall costs, and give a better interview in the process? Consider my process for a 30-minute phone interview, below.

How to Run a 30-Minute Phone Interview

I know what you’re thinking … 30 minutes seems really short when you are trying to find a fabulous candidate, how do you make it worthwhile? You’re probably asking yourself:

• What questions do I ask?
• How do I prioritize the questions?
• If I run such a tight agenda, how will we connect?

Okay, maybe not that last one. But if you structure a simple agenda, prepare quality questions, and are disciplined throughout your time in front of candidates, I believe you can answer all of your questions after just a few interviews. Let’s start with time management.

Managing The First 5 Minutes

If you’re going to pull off an effective interview in 30 minutes or less, you have to be organized and efficient. You’ll want to start strong and there’s no better time than the first five minutes.

4 Things to Cover in the First 5 Minutes

• Introduce yourself: “Hi, I’m the Managing Partner of Revenue River Marketing. We’re growing quickly and I’m looking for the very best marketers in the country.”
• State your intent: “We’re hiring for position XYZ and I’m looking for a specific type of candidate. I’d like to move quickly so we can both decide if there’s a good fit for us.”
• Set the agenda: “I’d like to spend 10 minutes asking you a few questions, then I’ll give you an equal amount of time to ask me anything you’d like.”
• Confirm buy-in: “How does that sound?” (If they say anything other than ‘absolutely’ or ‘I’m ready’, I’d be concerned. Anyone who just starts rambling clearly isn’t picking up on your goals.)

The Next 10 Minutes: Getting Answers to Key Questions

If you’re going to get through enough quality questions in 10 minutes, you’ll want to ensure you’re on point with your preparation. You’ll want to prepare a set of direct questions and count on the candidate being perceptive enough to answer with brevity.

I’ve noticed that observing how candidates handle the pace of this section can be very telling. If the candidate decides to grandstand during replies to your questioning, it’s a clear disqualifier.

Instead of interrupting to get through your questions efficiently, I advise you let them talk. They’ll cost themselves the chance to answer the remainder of your questions, and likely a chance at employment with your organization.

Conversely, a good candidate understands that you’ll ask follow-up questions if you want more detail. Some of our very best hires have quickly and artfully answered our most direct and pointed questions with quick-witted responses.

While I can’t provide the exact types of key questions you should ask for your own specific position, I can give you a sense of qualities you want to look for that are predominantly universal for any job.

Giving Them 10 Minutes to Pass the “Test”

Now it’s time for your candidate to impress you with their prepared questions. Your goal for this ten-minute segment is to see how prepared the candidate is and how much they want this job in particular. You want to know if they’re just looking for any job they can find, or if they’re truly interested in a career with your organization.

Good candidates prepare well. They study your website, your bio, your team, and your offering. They have a list of specific questions that demonstrate their understanding of your business, and hopefully even some observations on how they believe they can add value.

Many candidates won’t realize how important this segment of the interview is, and they’ll reveal something about themselves you missed previously. The candidates that used active listening during the first five minutes will operate at the same pace you did and respect the agenda.

Insight to Gain during Candidate Questioning

• Did they study your website? Test them on it.
• Do they understand what you do? Ask them questions about it.
• Are they more interested in compensation or job duties?
• Are they more interested in benefits and vacation or company growth trajectory?

Remaining 5 Minutes: Wrapping Up with Next Steps

Something to remember during this initial interview is that the goal is not to hire, but to qualify for next steps. Each candidate is either ready for another interview or they’re being ruled out. You’re not hiring them today, so don’t overdo it. Just get through the critical questions you think need to be answered and wrap things up.

You likely won’t have exactly five minutes here, but that’s okay. Let them know your plans for next steps and let them know your expectations for follow-up.

Follow-up should always be the responsibility of the candidate and never on the executive. I’ve been surprised by some great interviews that were followed by poor follow-up and their responsibility here allows them to demonstrate their skills further, one way or another.

5 Important Qualities To Focus On in a 30-Minute Phone Interview

1) Coachability

Employees that aren’t coachable struggle to get through tough times, and those who are receptive to instruction improve quickly. As Derek Lauber from Lightbox Leadership puts it, “Hiring for coachability can help you find those individuals with the traits necessary to becoming long-term valuable members of your organization.”

Example Question: What would you do if you found yourself struggling to meet your objectives after 90 days?

2) Transparency

You can substitute in the word “honesty” here. I love asking questions that allow the candidates the chance to prove they’re not completely honest. A transparent workplace is important in maintaining a positive culture, and you don’t want to let any bad seeds take root. Jessica Miller-Merrell of Glassdoor advises, “When one person is not aligned with the organization, it is significantly more likely that everyone below them will be out of line as well.”

Example Question: Why shouldn’t I hire you? (Please don’t tell me because sometimes you care too much)

3) Desire

People that really want something for themselves work harder than people who just want to live a life of leisure so I look for people who are hungry. These are the people you want in your organization, pure and simple.

Example Question: Why is this position the direction you want to go with your career?

4) Organizational Skills

The modern workplace is a massive game of dealing with distractions– organization creates efficiency and that means better productivity. In “Organizational Skills in the Workplace,” Rick Suttle advises, “Planning is a needed workplace skill, and it is particularly important as person advances into more supervisory or managerial roles.”

Example Question: How do you plan your day/week, and what tools have you used to do so?

5) Humility

The best players on any team have humility — ego and selfishness can cause cancerous behavior that can destroy what you’ve built. As John Baldoni put it in HBR, “Humility is more than an important characteristic for leaders, but for employees as well. It is this trait which allows leaders and employees to work well individually and as a team. A humble employee is aware of his own limitations and is willing to accept –- and give –- help as needed.”

Example Question: Those are some impressive results. To what do you owe that success?

Additional Questions & Comments

You’ll also want to spend a couple minutes on some resume specific questions. You should prepare a few direct questions about their resume you can mix in with the others. Here are a few questions I like to ask to see if I can get someone to complain, make excuses, or show inconsistencies for the character traits I’m targeting at this time.

• How was your relationship with your boss at this job?
• Which of these positions do you feel held your career back?

These can be clear indicators of disqualifiers for your role, so don’t shy away from them.

With Practice Comes Perfection

After you’ve used this 30-minute phone interview script with a few candidates you’ll perfect the process and refine your style. Once perfected, cutting your initial interview time in half with these concepts will save time and money while improving results during this step in the hiring process.

Start by spending a little more time setting up your own script, and you’ll be sure to benefit once you’ve applied these tactics.

There are more podcasts available today than anyone could possibly consume.

More than 10 billion episodes were downloaded on Apple devices alone in the last year. These days it seems the only thing as plentiful as podcasts are podcast producers complaining about how hard it is to get theirs discovered. And yes, that includes us.

We launched The Growth Show a couple of years ago and have grown a sizable loyal audience since then, but that audience growth  –  it took work  — or more like werrrk, with an e and three rs. So why on earth would we launch a second podcast?

Simple. We found a story worth telling.

A little further in the post, I’m going to tell you all about that story, plus the uniquely enthralling host who was under our noses the whole time, and the delightfully weird guests who have made up our first collection of episodes. But first, a few more words on that initial question:

Why would you launch a new podcast when there are so many already?

Time travel with me for a moment. It’s 2006. There are already 57 million blogs on the internet, but readership can’t possibly keep up. In fact, analysts start calling it a day. Ars Technica runs the following headline:

Gartner says blogs will level off because “most people who would ever use blogs already have, while others who may have been attracted to the growing trend initially have gotten bored and moved on.”

It’s 2006, Do you launch a blog?

This idea that content formats can reach a saturation point has bubbled up with every rising trend in the history of communications. How can you ever watch more than 20 TV stations? Who has the time for browsing the internet when there’s so much media already? Why would I watch Youtube or Facebook streaming when I already have Netflix?

It’s malarkey, and we know it.

That said, jumping on a trend for the sake of checking a box is worse than ineffective, it’s tantamount to pollution. The internet awards you no points and may god have mercy on your soul. Badly conceived and produced podcasts are as annoying to listeners as content farms are to readers.

We believed that firmly when we launched The Growth Show and invested heavily in the quality of it. With the release of a second show we asked ourselves the same questions. Can we do this right, with a unique concept, a strong host and meticulous production team?

Once we felt confident that the answer to all of those was yes, we returned to that all important question: Do we have a good story to tell?

Oh, do we ever.

Let’s Get Weird

We call the new podcast Weird Work and  —  true to its name  —  it’s about people who make living in really unusual ways. As an industry we are obsessed with start-ups. We glorify their founders. We even use fancy words like entrepreneur to describe them. And we should. Starting a company is really freaking hard. But all too often these entrepreneurs follow an overplayed formula. Become the Uber for X, the Tinder for Y, the Amazon for…well, there’s really nothing left that amazon doesn’t cover. You get the idea.

We wanted to talk to people who went completely off-the-beaten path with their business ideas. People who found a profitable niche at the end of their passions. Weird Work is a celebration of those founders who live life outside of the 9-to-5, doing jobs you’ve probably never heard about.

Like what? Well:

Writing Dinosaur Erotica

Whispering 

Getting your mom off your back on your wedding day

At first glance, it looks like this show doesn’t have much to do with marketing, sales, and customer success. But we think otherwise.

Weird Work is the natural extension of our obsession with how people work, and why. Make no mistake, these aren’t hobbies. They’re businesses. While they may seem peculiar, each offers insights about product-development, strategy and marketing. 

Don’t underestimate these founders. Because one thing we’ve realized in making this show is that unusual perspectives can be just the influence you need to break out of incremental thinking. 

Weird Work is hosted by Sam Balter, a 30-year-old HubSpotter who has had his share of odd-jobs. While he’s been a liquor-auditor and a road-side sign holder, Sam is the first to admit he’s not a household name. (Actually, “Sam Balter” is a household name, just not our Sam Balter.) At least not yet.

Each week beginning September 28, 2017, Sam will dig into the stories and personalities behind some of the weirdest businesses out there. I had Sam on the Growth Show to talk a bit about Weird Work and the one simple word he (pretty inconveniently) can’t pronounce. 

Here’s a trailer of what you can expect from the show

If you want to hear more, please subscribe to Weird Work on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, RadioPublic, or ask Alexa, “Play the Weird Work podcast”. You can also subscribe to The Growth Show there to hear more from me on topics like the rise of bots, building an introvert-friendly office, and innovating in a crowded space. 

And yeah, I’m going to do it, I’m going to ask you to give us a review and share the podcast if you like it. Because in a format short on discoverability tools, word-of-mouth really matters to fledgling shows. So, if you help us take off, Sam will help you find some truly original perspectives in a world chock full of knock-off ideas.

So you’re ready to start looking for a skilled freelancer to help your project (and productivity) take off?

Whether you’re engaging a freelancer for a small project or looking to bring them on for a longer engagement, here’s what you need to consider to find and hire the best freelancer for your project.

How to Hire the Best-Fit Freelancer for Your Next Project

1) A well-laid plan for your project has to come first.

If you don’t have a clear idea about what you need done, don’t hire a freelancer — at least not yet. Why? Before you can successfully source the best freelancer for your project, you need to know as much as possible about what you’re engaging them to do. Be sure to provide a project brief with deliverables, timeline, and payment schedule. This is important for both sides:

• From the freelancer’s perspective, knowing the project and skills required up front helps them to determine if they’re a good fit. A job post lacking the right information is often the first thing to turn a high-quality freelancer away.
• On the client’s end, you should be able to describe your goals in detail to help ensure the deliverables meet your needs. Have the logistics of how the freelancer will collaborate with your company ironed out so you can get started without wasting each other’s time after the contract is signed.

This raises another question: Exactly how much do you need to know about your project? You’ll definitely need to have an “eagle view” — the high-level goals you’re looking to accomplish with freelance help — but you should also consider a “mouse view” — the nuts and bolts of what you’re comfortable delegating, who they’ll need to be introduced to on the team, what systems and documents they need access to, and how the work will be coordinated internally.

2) With that information nailed down, write an awesome job post that appeals to the cream of the crop.

It’s important to remember that you’re competing for the best freelancers. Your job post should stand out in the crowd. The more detail you can provide about your project (say, niche tools or specific areas of expertise), the easier it is for freelancers to submit accurate proposals.

For example, say you need a mobile developer to help you build out your mobile app idea. Will it be native, hybrid, or cross-platform? What technology do they need to know to build the app? Then, what next-level features might the app include that the programmer should have experience building? Details like these will enable a potential freelancer to check off all the ways they’re a good fit for your project.

A great job post follows a certain formula:

• It reveals plenty about who you are, your business, and your objectives.
• It leaves no room for guesswork about the work, deliverables, and deadlines — but does leave room for discussion and input from the freelancer.
• It includes as much detail as possible. This might require that you do a bit of research so you have a solid idea of what you need from them.
• It indicates whether your preference for the project is fixed-price, hourly, or a longer engagement – but the freelancer may have good input here, too.
• It lays out any competencies and experience the project requires.

3) Post a job and let proposals come to you, or proactively seek out the freelancers who have the skills you need.

If you know where (and how) to look, reviewing freelancer profiles online can yield some excellent prospects. Certain platforms make life easier by narrowing the search with filters for specific skills, languages, locations, and rates.

Keep an eye out for performance ratings, testimonials from past clients, and examples of prior work. Look for other signs that they’re top talent: Upwork, the largest online freelancing platform, includes profile badges like the Top Rated badge, Rising Talent badge, and a Hubspot badge to indicate a freelancer is also a thought leader in his or her field.

Don’t stop at posted profiles. Often, experienced freelancers will share their expertise and take the time to engage in online communities and discussions. Searching for a developer? See if they’ve contributed to a tech-related discussion on a site like Quora or StackOverflow.

4) Let freelancers in different timezones work to your advantage.

When you’re reviewing freelancer profiles, don’t let a different timezone be a disqualifier. If you’re able to work out a system for communication during overlapping hours, having the increased coverage of someone working in part of the world when you’re sleeping can boost productivity.

Ben Young, head of Nudge who frequently hires freelancers, says “the great benefit of having remote freelancers is suddenly you can have 16-hour a day coverage, 6 days a week. That incremental difference means your product iterates faster, bugs are handled quicker, and over a few years, suddenly you have a significant competitive advantage.”

5) Don’t be cheap.

“A mistake many people make is to be too cheap when paying a few bucks more will get you access to top-tier talent,” Ben adds. “Paying a higher rate means you’re getting the best out of tens of thousands of freelancers, many of whom have rates that they’ve worked hard to establish.”

That doesn’t mean they won’t be willing to negotiate on a per-project basis, though, particularly if there’s the prospect of more work down the line. A good rule of thumb is to gauge the complexity of your project and look for the appropriate level of skill. Know what you’re willing to spend, and keep in mind that in many cases, higher rates mean higher quality.

6) Be as clear about your deadline as you can.

Timing is especially important because it can often be an immovable thing for both parties.

Have a tight turnaround? Include this in your job post, and discuss it with potential freelancers. They may or may not have other clients or projects going on that conflict or dial back their availability. Be sure to ask if your timeline is realistic and how confident they are about meeting your deadline. Also, a freelancer can help you estimate timing of a project if you’re not sure how long it should take.

7) Consider how you’ll protect your intellectual property (IP).

Protecting intellectual property is a common concern among clients. You might have grabbed a freelancer’s attention with your job post but been intentionally vague — so when it’s time to provide more detail, discussing your ideas can be tricky. There’s no copyrighting ideas, but you can opt to have your freelancer sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Or, hire a freelancer through Upwork, which offers a terms of service agreement with a confidentiality clause.

This will allow you to have an open, productive conversation with your freelancer about the project without worrying about your IP.

8) Conduct a remote interview — preferably over video.

Once you have questions lined up, it’s time to set up an interview. Video interviews are a great way to meet a freelancer and chat with them “face-to-face.” You’ll likely be communicating via email in the future, so take the opportunity to ask specific questions and leave room for more off-the-cuff questions.

This is your chance to really “get a feel” for the freelancer. What would it be like working with them? Are they passionate about their work? Do they have additional ideas or suggestions? Are they looking to take on more responsibilities beyond this project?

A good fit is important, even with remote workers. Communication and collaboration are important and can really contribute to the success of your project. Source people who aren’t just a good fit but who also align with your business. Having someone you feel comfortable with could be the difference between good and great work.

9) Vet potential freelancers with a quick test project before finalizing your choice.

Found a few candidates and need to narrow the field before you commit? Try a smaller project to see how things go.

Ben Young also suggested “Hire a few individuals on a test brief, see who works the best, then bring them onboard. We do this quite a bit, often using new people on test or experimental projects.”

Having candidates tackle a small piece of the project lets you see how they work, adhere to timelines, and communicate, leaving you with a clearer choice, and a bonus: Your project will be that much further along.

10) Seal the deal with an offer and a thorough contract that works for both of you.

Once you’ve found that perfect freelancer, it’s time to make an offer and work up a contract based on what you and the freelancer have discussed. Don’t forget to take compliance considerations into account — hiring a freelancer is different than hiring an employee and has its own ins and outs to keep in mind — from legal and payment to communications — that you might not be aware of.

In the contract, lay out terms:

• What precisely is the work that the freelancer will deliver and when?
• Is the project fixed-price or hourly?
• If hourly, what is the hourly rate?
• When and how will payment be made?
• If fixed price, will you set up milestones during the project?
• What milestones are there, and when should they be met?

All of the above tips should get you started off on the right foot working with a freelancer, and ensure you’re both satisfied with the terms of your agreement. With that, you’ll be able to start getting great work done, faster.