Hire slowly, fire quickly
That’s the advice from Colleen McCreary, former Chief People Office of ZYNGA
Colleen McCreary, former Chief People Officer, ZYNGA believes a thorough interviewing process leads to more successful hiring which in turn means a better-functioning workforce
The average interviewing process at ZYNGA involves one or two phone interviews (or an on-campus interview for college graduates) then a whole day at ZYNGA during which time each candidate would meet somewhere between four and seven people.
They can make a decision the same day if necessary but Colleen herself approves every offer worldwide by looking over the interview feedback. If subsequently they terminate someone’s employment she will go back to this feedback to see what they missed. Nine times out of ten they will have seen why that person eventually didn’t work out. Colleen calls this the “Iceberg of Interviewing”. The tip that you can see is the technical skills and experience. The bit under the water is what usually causes the problems. That’s what the interviewer should concentrate on. People who consistently hire people who do not work out are stopped from hiring at all.
The advantages of this process to ZYNGA are that they get the chance to really get to know who they are taking on. They do not know where each person will work till they arrive so they need to know as much about them as possible.
The advantage of this process to each candidate is that they get to meet more people so have a greater chance of finding someone they really click with.
Colleen says they make smarter hiring decisions and therefore do less firing.
SPEAKER INFO:
Colleen McCreary was a key speaker at Wavelength Connect event On Your Marks 2013. To view more videos from this event go toOn Your Marks 2013.
Click on the link to view more videos from Colleen McCreary.
COMPANY INFO:
Zynga Inc. is a leading developer of the world’s most popular social games that are played by more than 100 million monthly consumers. The company has created evergreen franchises such as FarmVille, Zynga Casino and Words With Friends. Zynga’s NaturalMotion, an Oxford-based mobile game and technology developer, is the creator of hit mobile games in popular entertainment categories, including CSR Racing, CSR Classics and Clumsy Ninja. Zynga games have been played by more than 1 billion people around the world and are available on a number of global platforms including Apple iOS, Google Android, Facebook and Zynga.com. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.