Running an Alignment Meeting

Question 1

Intro #1: Client Joins the Meeting

Answer 1

(Greetings and Normal Small Talk. When it feels right) “Kicking things off I’ll start out with introductions, and if you don’t mind sharing your role and responsibilities with everyone that would be great, then we can dive into a Q&A session about the positions requirements. Do you have a hard stop at XYZ Time?

Question 2

Discover #1: Reason for need

Answer 2

What’s the reason you opened this position?

Question 3

Discover #2: Setup the meeting with understanding urgency

Answer 3

Looking at the calendar, how many weeks from today realistically would you want the person you hire for this position to start?

Question 4

Discover #3: Urgency & Pain of Timing to Fill

Answer 4

What is the impact if you don’t have someone start in this role by XYZ date? Who is effected? *affected

Question 5

Discover #3: Age of Position

Answer 5

How long has this role been open? (weeks, months) Why?

Question 6

Discover #5: Identify Risk of Competition

Answer 6

Outside of us, who else are you working with to fill this position? (Agencies, Internal, Self Recruiting?)

Question 7

Discovery #6: Candidates in Play Risk

Answer 7

Do you have any candidates setup to interview already? (How many, what stage)

Question 8

Discover #7: Job Title

Answer 8

What’s the official job title for this position?

Question 9

Discover #8: Location

Answer 9

Do you have any requirements related this persons work location or time zones. Will they be expected to come into the office… if so what’s the address

Question 10

Discover #9: Employment Type & Duration

Answer 10

Is this a full time, contract, or contract to hire position? Duration?

Question 11

Discover #10: Compensation

Answer 11

FTE: What’s the budgeted salary for this position? bonus?

CTH: What’s the budgeted bill rate for this position? Expected Conversion Salary? Contract Duration?

Contract Only: What’s the budgeted bill rate for this position? Duration? Possibility for extension beyond that duration?

Flexibility: Do you have any flexibility for the right candidate?

Question 12

Discover #11: Budget

Answer 12

Is the budget for this (position or consultant) approved? Do you have the budget approval to use an agency?

Question 13

Discover #12: Work Authorization Status

Answer 13

FTE: Would you consider candidates who have a work visa?
CTH: Would you consider candidates who have a work visa?
Contract Only: Skip

Question 14

Discover #13: Details of Job to Share with Candidate

Answer 14

Can you please provide us with a job descriptions to share with candidates?

Question 15

Discover #14: Additional Stakeholders

Answer 15

Outside of yourself let’s talk about who else will be interviewing? (Technical screeners, Coaches, Champions, Teammates, Executives, HR)

Question 16

Discover #15: How they interview

Answer 16

Describe for us the typical steps in your interview process? (make sure to get length, Video or in person, zoom or teams, etc)

Question 17

Align Stage #1: Get the Day to Day Responsibilities

Answer 17

What are this positions primary task? How would you break down the percentage of time they spend on each task? Who will they interact with the most either internally or externally?

Question 18

Align Stage #2: Boil down the most important things that the recruiting team can search for to find the right candidate.

Answer 18

List the top three things that you must see on a candidates resume in order for you to want to interview them?

Question 19

Align Stage #3: Remove all doubt when a customer is talking about position requirements

Answer 19

What are the nice to haves in a resume, but not MUST haves?
Tech Skills: Technologies & Proficiency Level
Functional Skills: Size, Scope, Scale, Industry
Intangible Skills: Personality, Culture, Interpersonal Skills

Question 20

Delivery: Introduce Them to our Resume Review, Set Process Expectations, and schedule next steps.

Answer 20

Let me tell you about our resume review process.
We are going to align a team of recruiters dedicated to the delivery of candidates for you based on the requirements we discussed today.
We do everything in delivery iterations

<NAME> Delivery Leader
How many candidates do you think is reasonable to delivery on for our first iteration?
<Name> #5
Ok, how does 5 quality candidates sound to you <Manager>
<Great!>
Based on the requirements <Delivery> how long do you think your team will need to deliver on the first iteration?
<X>
Does that work for you <Manager>
Great!
What does your schedule look like on that day (Lock in a time 30 min or an hour, send invite)

Set the Agenda > "The typical agenda for a resume review is each recruiter will give you details of their candidates experience based on your requirements, what we need from you really is feedback on what you like or don't like, and at the end who you would like to interview. Does that sounds good?

Mitigate Risk > Are you ok with seeing the resumes for the first time in our meeting, or would you like to receive them a certain amount of time beforehand?

Mitigate Risk > would it make sense to invite the other interviewers to our first meeting so we can learn from their feedback as well?
</Manager></X></Delivery></Manager></Name></NAME>

Question 21

Align Stage #4: (Time Sensitive) Team, Project/Work and Impact Details

Answer 21

What’s the size of the team and the roles of the people on it, What work needs to be accomplished, which other teams are involved or impacted by the success or failure of this work?

Question 22

Align Stage #5: (Time Sensitive) Selling Points to Candidate

Answer 22

Share with us your pitch to candidates on the company, opportunity, and any perks we need to know about?