In this presentation, the speaker outlines the end‑to‑end hiring system used by their accounting‑focused, paper‑less firm. The process, shaped by early consulting with Dr. Sabrina and later refined with Danielle Mulvey of The All‑In Company, begins with broad, culture‑aligned job postings that include a unique application step: a 2‑minute video email titled “IRS Sucks.” This initial filter tests attention to detail and tech‑savviness. Qualified candidates then complete a Preview HR suitability test and any role‑specific skill assessments (e.g., bookkeeping knowledge, Microsoft/Google proficiency). Successful applicants move to a resume interview based on top‑grading principles, followed by a key‑competency interview where multiple team members rate the candidate on 1‑5 scales for each competency. The final cultural‑fit stage is an in‑person lunch with improv games to gauge team chemistry. Offers are extended promptly, typically within 7‑10 days, to secure “5‑star” talent. The speaker emphasizes that people problems drive business issues, citing mentor Kelly Roach, and argues that investing in high‑performing employees directly impacts profitability. The process is continuously refined based on past hiring mistakes.
Chapters
We were recently asked, what is our hiring process? I first wanna disclaim here that years and years ago, I met with a consultant named Dr. Sabrina, and she gave us a foundation. And then we since upgraded it by working with a lady named Danielle Mulvey. Her company name is The All In Company. A lot of their consulting guidance helped us frame our hiring process to what we have now. So by no means am I saying we are professionals at hiring process. We do have a system that's worked well for us, but we don't do hiring consulting. So just want to lay that out there. I'm just sharing this information with you because it was asked. And I am proud of what our team has come up with. So a couple ground rules when it comes to your hiring process. Not every position is going to go through the exact same process. Lower entry team members positions may not need as involved of a process. The more experienced the person is, the more money you're going to pay them, especially those who are going to be on your leadership team. Or executives of your company, they will have a much more thorough process. So it can range there. And based on the position, the things that— the skills that you assess also might change a little bit. So in general, we have the job posting. We put that out there on as many avenues, softwares, Job posting boards, wherever we possibly can. We want to have a really big net, right? So we post it wherever we possibly can. We actually start the process by having our job description the way that we write it. We write it in a way that matches our culture so that those who, one, don't want to take the time to read it, we know they're not a good fit. Um, we also put in our job description, some instructions that they need to take in order to do the next step in the hiring process. Attention to detail is really important in the accounting industry. And so we have that in there to see, are they going to see that detail on a basic level, even from the job description? Um, so you have the job description, The way they first apply to let us know they're interested is they send us an email with a video no more than 2 minutes long explaining why they're right for the job and what their favorite food is. In that email they send us with the video, they're supposed to use the subject line IRS Sucks. That's— for us, we know that that means they read the job description. Posting. Yeah. Okay. So that's the first step. And we also don't give them instructions on, well, how do I create a minute, a video that's 2 minutes or less? And then how do I get it to them? We want to know if they have some tech savvy already, because we are a very technology-based company. We're paperless. And so if they aren't comfortable with computers or learning new things on computers or with phones and things like that. Also, again, probably not going to be the right fit. So we filter people immediately that way. That automatically eliminates those who are just applying to keep their unemployment benefits or for whatever reason applying to 100 jobs all at once without actually taking the time to read it, which, I mean, you might not be looking for a job, right? Because you're probably looking at this for advice to grow your business, but it's crazy to me that people would do that. If you really want a job, take the time to learn about the company you're applying for. Okay, after they pass that, we have them take a suitability test. We use a software called Preview— Preview HR, I believe, is the full name— and it— by them asking some questions, it lets us know how suitable they are to the position they're applying for. Assuming they pass that, we also might have some other skill-based assessments that we give them depending on the position. Like for bookkeepers, what's their basic bookkeeping knowledge? Do they have any sort of know-how with Microsoft products or Google products? You know, like Word, spreadsheets, those types of things. Assuming they pass that, Then we do a resume interview with them. And in the resume interview, we are going through the last, you know, 3 to 4 relevant jobs that they had that are related to the job they're applying for. And we're asking them about their history with each company. It's a really great way to help you as the interviewer. Assess patterns. We learned this through top grading, which is also another hiring mechanism. Danielle Mulvey with the All In Company also confirmed that that's a good thing to do, so we keep doing that. So there's the resume interviews, see if there's any patterns in behaviors that we may not like in our company. From that point, if they pass that, then we do a key competency interview. Now, the competencies obviously vary based on the position. And then we have questions that we ask related to each competency that we want to assess them on. We have 2 to 3 team members of us, our current team members, in that interview so that each of them are evaluating the candidate based on their own feeling They rate 1 to 5, 5 being the highest on each competency. And then when the candidate interview, the key competency interview is over with the candidate, they review notes. From that point, if they, if we're like, yeah, this seems really good, then we want to make sure they're a cultural fit. So if they live within a distance, a reasonable distance of where we're located, because some of our team members are remote only. We invite them in, we take them to a team lunch, and we play some improv games with them. This is designed to help us see if they're going to mesh with our current team members. And then from there, before they leave, we give them the job offer, assuming nothing crazy happened while they were having that culture integration interview. So that's kind of a Run-through of the process that we have. Now, some people, when they hear this, they go, that's a lot of steps. We usually get through that process within, you know, 7 to 10 days, but we also have all the things scheduled as soon as possible so the candidate knows what our process looks like and when they can expect to have a decision. Because A-players, 5-star players, they're not going to wait. They have other offers usually, and so they're choosing between ours and somebody else's. So we got to get through there, that process. But you also— we don't want to hire someone who's not going to be a right fit, or maybe they're just good at interviewing but they don't have the skill set we need. We've made that mistake in the past. And so as we've made mistakes in the hiring process, we've adapted our own system so that we can maybe catch some of those mistakes that we've made. Back then. But there you go. That's our hiring process. This is very much related to the profitability of your company because at the end of the day, all the problems in your company, everything that's a frustration is rooted in a people problem. Even if you have bad systems, if the— all problems are people problems. I learned that through Kelly Roach, who's one of my business mentors. All business problems are people problems. So if you have the right 5-star people on your team, you have a much higher potential to grow your business than letting those who are not 5-stars stick around becoming poison, doing bad work. You know, we invest in our team, and in order for us to stay in business, we literally have to have some sort of return on what we invest in them. If not, That's a bad investment and we're not going to be able to be in business for long. So very much hiring process, having the right people, definitely correlated to the profitability of your business. Remember, profit is the choice. Have the courage and wisdom to choose it.
