Building and Retaining a Team

The goal of this module is to outline best practices for how to hire someone into a new role, successfully onboard them into your organization and ensure you can retain them over time. To achieve this goal, we recommend making sure that your existing systems are well documented and your existing employees (even if it is just you!) are clear on their roles and responsibilities and how those may shift when a new colleague comes on board.

This module will provide a host of best practices and links to tools used by LION and other journalism organizations that you can use and adapt to your needs. Some of the tips we provide are specific to revenue-generating roles, but most of what we’ve compiled are processes and systems you can apply to all future hiring and onboarding. 

Before hiring someone into a revenue growth role, you’ll need to solidify which revenue stream they’ll focus on and exactly what role you’re hiring for and why. That clarity will lead to a focused job description, which will ideally lead to a strong pool of qualified candidates.

How do I hire the right person?

Create a job scorecard

Before writing a job description, we suggest writing a job scorecard. 

A job scorecard details the outcomes, competencies and skills that your new hire needs to demonstrate to be successful in the role. 

For example, if you want to hire a major donors manager, you might include the following outcome in the job scorecard: bring in 20 major donors at the $150,000 level in the next year to be successful in the role. And the competencies/skills to help them get there might include being a strong relationship builder and understanding how to quickly and effectively prioritize different opportunities. 

The job scorecard is the backbone of your hiring process; everything you spell out in the scorecard should be incorporated into your job description, interviews and eventually, when you hire a candidate, their performance reviews. This provides clarity for you as you think through what the role entails and what success looks like, and it is invaluable for your employee, who will know exactly what to expect and how they’ll be evaluated.

Here are two ways to approach it:

• LION Template: LION adapted this scorecard from the book Who: The A Method for Hiring. This is the template we use for hiring at LION.
• American Journalism Project Hiring Scorecard Tool: This worksheet will help you get ready to conduct a search by helping you scope the role you’re designing based on anticipated outcomes, and what indicators you’ll be looking for when screening and interviewing candidates. AJP is grateful to talent recruitment firm Offor and strategic advisors John Roccia, Director of Career Services at Ama La Vida, and Susan Gluck Pappajohn for their support in developing this tool.

Write an inclusive job description

Your job scorecard helps you evaluate candidates; your job description helps sell the job to potential candidates. Your job description should be grounded in the scorecard, and use inspiring language to get potential candidates to see themselves in the role, and ultimately, apply for it.

Many news organizations are working to attract candidates from traditionally marginalized or underrepresented communities, so we’ve included some tips on how to ensure your job description language is inclusive and welcoming. There are six sections we recommend including in a job posting:

Basic information about the role (title; status; location; salary; benefits)

• Be clear about whether this is a part-time or full-time position and/or if there will be commission offered.
• Specify expectations about whether the person will be working from an office in a specific location and/or remotely.
• We strongly recommend posting the salary range. It gives potential applicants critical information and models your values of equity and transparency.
• We also recommend sharing specifics about your benefits. This could include more standard benefits like health care and dental, but also a flexible vacation schedule or a work-from-home monthly stipend.

A high-level description of the job that includes a one-sentence “mission statement” for the role.

• Use language that invites people to throw their hat into the ring even if they don’t see themselves in every single part of the job description.
• Here’s a structure you can use to write the job’s mission statement: To [primary output of your role] by [primary inputs of your role] for [who you’re serving].
  • Example: To increase LION’s revenue and impact by building programming, resources and community for aspiring and existing news entrepreneurs.

A breakdown of the person’s job responsibilities

• You can include language that spells out the anticipated job responsibilities, and of course, indicates that things may change depending on the candidate hired or the nature of the work shifting
  

 The desired skills and competencies of a candidate

• Everyone has a laundry list of ideal skills a new hire will bring to the team. Do not include that laundry list in the job description. Really hone in on a handful of must-haves, and then in a separate section, list things that are nice-to-haves or a “plus.” 
• Focus the job description on competencies, as opposed to anchoring the description in the context in which you’re operating. For example, say “we’re looking for someone who is a strong relationship builder and has experience making asks and closing deals,” not, “we’re looking for someone who knows how to sell local news advertising to businesses.”
• We suggest keeping this list succinct as well; aim for about 5-8 skills/competencies total.
• Articulating desired skills and competencies can help you find the best candidate by shifting the focus away from education level or years of experience in this exact role. Education is not a reliable predictor of job performance, and you might overlook a candidate with excellent transferable skills if you require a minimum number of years’ experience.

A short and inspiring description about your news organization/your team

• This can include links to work you’re most proud of and/or that a potential candidate might be excited or impressed by.
• If applicable, you can also include some broad, high-level details about your ambitions in the coming year and how you hope this person will help you achieve them
• It’s also good to include who this person will report to and/or who they will work most closely with.
• To make the hiring process more transparent, consider publicly sharing your hiring priorities and values, like WAMU/DCist did. 

Details on how to apply and by when

• Think about how you can flip the script on widely-accepted hiring practices. Is reading cover letters the best way to get to know a candidate or could short-answer questions that you design specifically for the role be more effective? 
• Set an application deadline. This helps create a sense of urgency, and gives people a sense of how quickly you’re trying to hire someone. You can always push it back if you don’t get enough quality candidates. We also suggest setting an end-of-day Sunday deadline for folks who may not have time to apply during weekdays.
• Give yourself at least 3-4 weeks to promote the job description and have candidates apply. This ensures you have enough time to reach folks out of your existing networks.

American Journalism Project job description examples: This collection of job descriptions developed by AJP and its grantees can give you ideas as you design your new role and think about the skills and qualifications that you will be looking for in candidates.

Market and promote the job opportunity.

• Build an outreach list. While your outreach can include local or national jobs boards, don’t be overly reliant on those. Some of your best leads will come from word of mouth, so also think about who you can share the job description with across local organizations, businesses or communities who will then share it out with their networks. And be sure to think about networks outside of your existing ones so you can reach people who have different skills, backgrounds and experiences. We strongly recommend taking time to build this list at the outset and getting other colleagues and/or trusted advisers of your business to weigh in on additional places to recruit.
  
• Look for folks with backgrounds outside of journalism/newsrooms. In many cases, you may not have a candidate that has a background in journalism, and that’s okay (and sometimes even preferred!). Other competencies to look for in someone without a journalism background or without deep familiarity with your business are: curiosity and eagerness to learn about journalism; deep empathy; an appreciation for the role local journalism plays in your community; understanding what it’s like to work in a beleaguered field, and how to inspire and lift up colleagues. 

LION sample Airtable job posting/tracking: At LION we use Airtable to manage our application and hiring process. You can see the template linked here for inspiration on how to organize your own hiring process, whether it’s in Airtable or not.

Review and vet the strongest candidates.

• To the best of your ability, lay out an ideal hiring timeline and communicate that timeline and process to all candidates you end up speaking with.
• We suggest doing 20-30 minute phone screeners in which the candidate answers questions like, “What are your career goals and how does this role fit into them? What are you really good at professionally? What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?” and give them a chance to ask you questions.
• Consider asking the most promising candidates to complete a short exercise that gives them the opportunity to demonstrate specific skills or knowledge about the role. With hiring exercises, provide clear expectations and boundaries. For example, tell them not to spend more than one hour on the exercise; give them at least 4-5 business days to complete the exercise (and ideally include a weekend in that timespan). If you have the resources, you may also consider compensating someone for their time. The work exercise can be an incredibly valuable way to differentiate candidates who look similar on paper, and to rule out candidates who might interview well but are not able to walk the talk.
• For finalists, use a longer interview time (60-90 minutes) to:
  • Talk through answers to their exercise questions (e.g. asking clarifying or follow up questions) 
  • Dig into the job competencies/skills. For each competency/skill you’ve outlined in your job scorecard, ask them to give you specific examples of when they’ve demonstrated that competency/skill. For example, “What are your biggest accomplishments in this area during your career?” or “What are your insights into your biggest mistakes and lessons learned in this area?”
  • Get a sense of what kind of colleague and team member they will be. Here are a few sample questions:
    • What’s most important to you to get from this job that you aren’t getting from your current job?
    • Tell us about the best team you ever worked with. What made it the best team? Were there any improvements that could be made?
    • Tell us about the worst team you ever worked with. What made it the worst? Did you or others try to make improvements? Why didn’t they work?
    • What is your communication style? 
    • What is your collaboration style?
  • Try open-ended questions to get to specific examples.
    • “Tell me about a time…” 
    • “When’s the last time…” 
    • “What was it like when…” 
    • “How does it work…” 
• Always be sure to ask the candidate what questions they have for you. Sometimes that can be the most telling part of their genuine interest in the role and the excitement and passion they will bring to it.
• We suggest sharing the job scorecard itself with your most promising candidate(s). Give them time to read it before you speak with them so they can ask you any questions they have about it. Sharing the job scorecard can be a powerful transparency moment and gives you the opportunity to communicate to a potential candidate that you’ve really thought through your news organization’s needs and that they’d be stepping into a clearly defined role.
• After taking the time to properly vet a candidate, the last step is asking for their references. The goal is to identify and corroborate growth areas, gain insight into what it’s like to work with this person and address any unanswered questions or red flags. We’d recommend asking for three references: at least two should be people who have supervised them in the past and one can be a mentor or peer who is deeply familiar with their work. The goal is to understand their past performance at previous jobs. Here are some potential questions you can ask:
  • In what context did you work with the person?
  • What were the person’s biggest strengths?
  • What were the person’s biggest areas for improvement back then?
  • How would you rate their overall performance in that job on a 1–10 scale? What about their performance causes you to give that rating?
  • The person mentioned that they struggled with __________ in that job. Can you tell me more about that?

Additional Resources:

• Harvard Business Review: Stop Eliminating Perfectly Good Candidates by Asking Them the Wrong Questions
• City Bureau: Never Ask for Cover Letters, and Other Hiring Lessons

Prepare an offer letter

• When creating an offer letter, be sure to follow applicable local and state laws. Some localities have more stringent requirements than others about what to include. You should consult with your payroll provider and/or legal counsel for an offer letter template.
• If you’re unable to offer a higher salary than what you originally shared on the job description, think about non-cash benefits that might be attractive to the candidate, like flexible work hours, extra vacation days, or the ability to work remotely. If they are currently freelance and you offer benefits, present them with the dollar value of those benefits to demonstrate that salary is not their only financial compensation. Since this is a revenue generating position, consider a bonus if a certain revenue goal is met (the hire will have raised the funds to cover this expense).
• Once you have an offer letter signed, be sure to reach out to all the candidates who applied for the position and let them know you’ve filled the role. Sending a personal note to candidates you interviewed but did not ultimately offer the role to is a nice personal touch.

A final tip: Put some thought into articulating where you are on your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion journey

If you are actively trying to diversify your newsroom with underrepresented voices from the community you serve, be prepared during the interview process to acknowledge the work you’ve done so far and the remaining work you want to do and how you plan to get it done. For some candidates, it is very important for potential employers to be candid, upfront and genuine about their commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it can be a make-or-break factor for whether they’ll accept the role.