1.
Hire for Excellence
Our 5 Step Process to

2.
Sarah Chambers
Director of Support
Jamie Edwards
Co-Founder and COO

3.
Grow your business through better customer service with
Kayako, the unified customer service platform.
Used by over 131,000 support heroes to deliver effortless
customer service
kayako.com
@kayako

4.
Our 5 Step Process to Hire for
Excellence
Phone screening
The first round interview
A take home test
Second round interviews - the “Focus” interview
Founder fit interview
BONUS: Chasing up references

5.
The first step before ANY hiring!

6.
The first step before ANY hiring!
Align your hiring team

7.
You need a candidate scorecard, and an interview structure.
How to align your hiring team

8.
How to align your hiring team
The Scorecard:
The scorecard is not a list of job requirements. It’s a
description of the results you want the candidate you hire to
achieve.

9.
Scorecard: Behavioral traits and skills
CSS
HTML
Troubleshooting
Honest
Intuitive
Respectful
Empathetic
Detailed
Customer support
Written communication
Problem solving
Time management
Technical Skills
Personality traits
Skills
Good to have
Experience in (your industry)
Remote working experience
Second language
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
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10.
How to align your hiring team
Mission
You are trying to accomplish a specific mission and you need
a candidate who can do it.
Outcomes
Many job descriptions go wrong because they describe
activities instead of results.
Competencies
Define the characteristics of the candidate you are trying to
hire. Competencies are both behavioral and cultural.

11.
Phone Screening

12.
Phone Screening
Why phone screen?

13.
Phone Screening
How to use a 30-minute phone call for
screening candidates

14.
The first round interview

15.
The first round interview
Use the Topgrading approach to interviewing
The idea is to find out is to find out
how their career path has progressed
You are not trying to grill the
candidate into submission
Source: topgrading.com

16.
The first round interview
Use the Topgrading approach to interviewing
For every job in a person’s career history,
ask the following questions:
Source: topgrading.com

17.
The first round interview
Use the Topgrading approach to interviewing
For every job in a person’s career history,
ask the following questions:
What were you hired to do?
What accomplishments are
you most proud of?
What were some low points
during that job?
Who were the people you
worked with?
Why did you leave that job?
Source: topgrading.com

18.
A take home test

19.
A take home test
Create a test that is concise, but will help you evaluate core
competencies that are most important for the position.
Hi Support,
Your system is impossible to use! When tickets are closed, I want them to stay closed.
Why can customers keep opening them? It means I can’t get the right data from closed
tickets. Why don’t you have a status beyond closed to keep tickets from reopening?
This is ridiculous, I need you to fix this yesterday.
Thanks.
Jesse.

20.
Second round interviews
the “Focus” interview
What is a Focus interview?
Geoff Smart’s, Who: The A method to hiring

21.
Focus interview best practices:
Three team members conduct separate, one-on-one
interviews
Interviews last between 45 and 60 minutes
Give your team members a scorecard to focus their
attention and questions around
Uncover specific items on your scorecard within these
themes:
Technical skills
Personality traits
Essential skills
Good to have

22.
Founder fit interview

23.
What is the founder fit interview,
and who is it for?
Founder fit interview

24.
BONUS: Chasing up referencesBONUS: Chasing up references

25.
BONUS: Chasing up references
How to contact a candidate’s references,
and what to ask them:

26.
BONUS: Chasing up references
How to contact a candidate’s references,
and what to ask them:
Be open about wanting to contact their
reference
Review your interview notes to select the
people to call to get the information you
need

27.
“In what context did you work with the candidate?”
“What were the candidate’s biggest strengths?”
“What were the candidate’s biggest areas for
improvement back then?”
“How would you rate his/her overall performance in
that job on a 1-10 scale? What about his or her
performance causes you to give that rating?
“The candidate mentioned that he/she struggled
with in that job. Can you tell me more about
that?” (Learn to listen between the lines.)
Some questions to ask references:

28.
Introduction and screening call
First interview
Take home test
Interview with you and a team lead
Founder fit interview
We like to follow these hiring steps
Your interview should have
taken this structure:

29.
Questions?
Interview structure is the way to
hire for excellence!