Episode 01

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You Should Listen to this Episode if…

👉 You're curious about the inner workings of the hiring process and want to gain insights from a seasoned talent acquisition expert.

👉 You're a recruiter dealing with hiring freezes and looking for strategies to maintain candidate engagement and stakeholder communication.

👉 You want to learn how to assess soft skills accurately and equitably during interviews.

👉 You want to improve your interviewing skills by focusing on data points and avoiding biases.

👉 You're seeking advice on aligning candidates with roles based on their soft skills, motivations, and company values alignment.

In Today’s Episode

In the first episode of "Hiring Clarity," host Lavender introduces the series as a weekly stream designed for anyone involved in hiring (from Hiring Leaders to Talent Acquisition & HR Professionals to Candidates) to gain insights into the hiring process. She emphasizes the importance of understanding both sides of the ‘hiring table’, which she affectionately calls "The Hiring Games™️."

Lavender discusses various topics, including headcount, interviewing, compensation philosophy, talent attraction, sourcing strategies, and best practices in recruiting. She also shares insights from her experience with Fortune 500 companies and Tech startups/scaleups.

This inaugural episode covers how to navigate hiring freezes, offering strategies for recruiters to manage frustration and communicate effectively with stakeholders and candidates. Lavender stresses the importance of building rapport with candidates and maintaining communication during hiring pauses.

Additionally, the episode delves into assessing candidates' soft skills accurately and equitably, highlighting the challenges of evaluating intangible qualities like communication, critical thinking, and conflict resolution. Lavender provides techniques for drawing out these skills during interviews, such as behavioral-based questions and understanding candidates' motivations.

Listeners should tune in to gain a comprehensive understanding of a hiring process, learn strategies for overcoming common challenges, and discover how to assess soft skills effectively, all while gaining insights from Lavender's extensive experience in talent acquisition.

Episode Timestamps

1:40 🤔 What is the ‘Hiring Clarity’ Livestream Podcast + Who Is It For?

9:28 🎉 The Career Clarity CALENDAR!

13:33❓“As a Recruiting professional, I am extremely frustrated with the frequent hiring freezes (on and off). What strategies did you leverage to successfully navigate this challenging situation while ensuring that all stakeholders, including candidates, understood the reasons behind these freezes?”

43:40 🎯 How to Assess a Candidate’s Soft Skills Accurately and Equitably

• 44:08 What are the differences between Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills?

• 1:00:35 Ways to Draw Soft Skills Out of Candidates

• 1:13:27 As an Interviewer, What You SHOULD Be Taking Notes On

• 1:27:35 Candidate Alignment = Harmony (NOT "Same" NOT "Fit") 1:33:30 What being "Educated" REALLY Means

• 1:37:57 The “Only-Halfway” Interviewing MISTAKE™️

• 1:45:01 How to be OBJECTIVE As an Interviewer

• 1:46:13 Conclusion

• 1:47:24 Hey Candidates! Here's the "Truth" about Soft Skills

Episode Deets