Last week Tuesday am, our Office MacGyver Joanna Savio resigned. It’s sad to see her go, but we all wish her the best of luck in her next position as a college recruiter for the good folks at Google.

The Office Manager is an essential position to the company culture and day to day operations. He or she makes a big difference in setting up the right environment allowing a group of people to actually operate as a team within an office. It’s a hire you don’t want to get wrong.

With a two weeks notice, I knew we had no time to lose. But I also was not prepared to compromise and hire “the first acceptable candidate” like many people do under time pressure. Here is how I did it:

Tuesday – Start Sourcing (5 minutes)

Recovering from the news, I selected my SmartRecruiters Office Manager Job Ad template (saved from when I hired an Office Manager in early 2012) and tweaked it as the role evolved a bit (8 people in 2012, 45 now…).

I posted to the recommended job boards (SmartTip: for an Office Manager in San Francisco the best performing job boards are LinkedIn and Craigslist) as well as my website, network (Facebook friends and fans, LinkedIn Connections, Twitter Followers, etc.) and job aggregators (Indeed, SimplyHired, Glassdoor,..). In less than five minutes my job ad was in all the right places.

Wednesday – Prescreening (1 hour)

By Wednesday we had the first 100 candidates. I flipped through the resumes, scanning for the main criteria’s I was looking for – startup experience, local, and that diversity of experience that makes a good SmartRecruiters employee. I also looked for the personal message that candidates wrote as introductions. Within an hour, I had shortlisted 10 people. We reached out to those 10 for interview and sent out a personalized feedback email to all others that didn’t make it.

Thursday, Friday  | First Round of interviews

Daniel, our Controller, did the first round of interviews with six top candidates on Thursday (If you’re reading this, thank you again for taking the time).

Three made it to 2nd round to meet with me on Friday (if you’re reading this, it was so close, hard choice).

Monday | Final Round

On Monday the Finalist met with three other teams members. They shared their feedback within the SmartRecruiters software. Share averaged a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. This collaborative approach confirmed my notion that she was a good fit for the job and would work effectively across departments.

Meanwhile, we ordered a Reference Check from Chequed (awesome). This is a great way to get a 360 degree feedback on your candidate from people who know her/him best.

Tuesday | Offer Accepted!

She accepted the offer! I am thrilled and I know for a fact that this will be a great fit for the SmartRecruiters team.

My Hiring Conclusion

Hiring top talent is not about being lucky. It is about being methodical in how you Source, Engage and Hire the right person. This boils down to 3 things:

1. Build a massive pipeline of awesome candidates.

2. Engage with everyone quickly (so you don’t lose the best) and nicely (candidates are human beings).

3. Use collaborative interviewing, add some science and don’t compromise.