In any startup, one of the most crucial tasks is hiring new team members. The process of prospecting, evaluating, interviewing and negotiating can be very daunting and time consuming in relation to the other types of activities you may be performing on a daily basis. Like any business, it’s important that the final candidate fits into the environment that you’ve taken so much time to create and that he or she can perform in the role structure that you’ve created as well. So we’ve taken that four-part hiring process and added our own ingredients to really get at the root of “environmental fit” and “responsibilities execution.” Our approach to this just so happened to gain us coverage on ABCNews.com and San Diego’s CW 6.

Every job posting and role description on the web lists some type of responsibilities. These are the things that you can assume you’ll be doing on a daily basis. It gives you a good indicator of whether you’re qualified or have enough know-how that you’ll be able to quickly adapt to anything you’re not that familiar with. As a person doing the hiring, this is your list of checks and balances for one of the areas where you’re evaluating each candidate. As we were developing the lists of responsibilities for the Community Manager role at SuggestionBox, we decided to use a few of their responsibilities as part of the hiring process. Hence, enter video resumes.

Whenever you’re evaluating any candidates on paper, the paper resume can help you filter down to the most qualified in terms of experience and ability to perform some of the duties associated with the role. In this case, being in front of the camera, creative, engaging and proactive were some of the things we were looking for in each of the candidates. So we gave them the option of sending in your standard cover letter or a video stating, “Why I Am The Best Community Manager?” That simple question gave us the ability to see a candidate’s approach to their new role, how they were in front of the camera, did they add in their own creativity and to what lengths did they go above and beyond the assignment? And in addition to the initial video resume submissions, the three final candidates would be conducting their own video interviews with myself and our team would be giving feedback.

So by simple taking that standard “responsibilities” list and being innovative, not only were we able to find great candidates, but our approach received some recognition on the following websites:

Lights, Camera, Hire Me! - ABC News

Video Resumes Catch on in Tough Economy - San Diego CW 6