Does your organization struggle to find the time and resources to hire?

Do you find yourself making compromises to get a role filled?

Hiring is hard, but it’s one of the most important things any organization does. And if you’re a non-profit, putting the right people in the right places isn’t just about staying in the black, it’s about changing and improving lives.

Of course, as great as any hiring consulting or recruiting service might be, the costs involved put them out of reach of many nonprofits. What cruel irony that the very orgs that have the most dramatic need for increased capacity can’t afford the tools and services to get it!

(Full disclosure, I have no idea if that’s actually irony. But you get my point.)

I’ve spent most of my career working in and with small-ish nonprofits. I’ve done a fair bit of hiring, and I want to help other organizations hire better, faster, and stronger. 

I can do everything from writing job posts, to conducting phone screens and creating & evaluating candidate exercises. I can jump in later in the process if you need help pool-building after a failed first round. I can do candidate prospecting and spread the word far and wide about your opening.

In short, I help you with whatever you need help with, at almost any budget. My specialities include administrative, operations, HR, and entry- to mid-level positions. 

Ranavain services include:

  • Job Description Review/Writing: Get the right candidates excited about applying, and help them put their best selves forward in the application process.

  • Reducing bias and barriers in your process, ensuring that you’re selecting for the skills and attributes your org really needs, rather than for arbitrary background traits that don’t correlate to success on the job.

  • Candidate Prospecting: aka, digging around the web, finding niche communities and making sure your job gets seen by all the awesomest potential talent.

  • Phone Screening and Exercise Creation/Evaluation: We get 100% aligned on what you’re looking for, so I can work through the initial steps for you. Instead of being daunted by a pile of resumes, you’ll spend your time evaluating a small pool of very promising talent.

Interested? Let's get hiring! Reach out at kim@ranavain.com to get started. 

How it Works:

Ranavain charges a flat rate of $50 an hour. Generally, full service (job post, application evaluation, candidate exercise, and phone screens) for any given entry- or mid- level position will run 40-60 hours, total. At roughly $2,000 to $3,000, that’s still much less expensive than a recruiter placement, which will typically demand at least 10% of the position’s annual salary.

Of course, not every org has $2,000 to speed up a hiring process. I can handle smaller facets of the process, saving you and your hiring managers valuable time. For instance, you might: 

  • Hire me to do your initial round of application review. This might take around 10 hours and cost $500, but it will allow your hiring manager more time to focus on a smaller pool of really promising candidates. 
  • Hire me to help build your process out. This helps ensure your job posting, exercises, and interview evaluation tools are well-thought-out and mitigate bias where possible, and gives your entire process a fresh perspective. We can work together to build out tools and rubrics that work for your org, and then let your hiring manager run with them. 
  • Hire me to build your pool. Maybe you've been hiring for the same position for awhile, and just haven't found the right person. Hire me to help you build out and diversify your pool, attracting new applicants.

Hiring Code of Conduct

Employers should be dedicated to treating people with respect and thoughtfulness; if not because it’s the right thing to do, then because it’s much easier to hire and retain exceptional staff when you have a reputation for treating people well.

(You might squinch at the word “branding” but it’s a very real thing: your reputation in your field has a big impact on who works for you and who doesn’t, and those who work for you in turn have a big impact back on your reputation.)

So these are some things that I hope each organization I work with will consider doing, if you're not already. If you're not sure why one or more of them is important, please get in touch: let's talk.

  • We post the salary range in the job description. I’m willing to hear arguments about why you truly can’t, but I’ll warn that I’ve rarely heard compelling ones.

  • Every candidate hears back, regardless of how far they make it into the process.

  • We don’t reject candidates for bad reasons. We’ll agree on what “bad” means together, in the context of a particular job, but “bad” reasons are often things like minor typos (when minor typos won’t matter on the job), not having a college degree (when the position, like most, doesn’t truly require it) or not meeting a specific “years of experience” bar (but they otherwise seem well-qualified). We’re hiring a person, not a pile of statistics and accolades, an idea I keep top-of-mind throughout the process.

  • We don’t ask for references as part of the application. It’s bad for info security, as most people don’t like having their names, phone numbers, and email addresses blasted to random strangers they’ve never met. You can collect references later from your finalist(s).  

  • I’m up-front with candidates that I’m a contractor representing your organization in phone interviews (and earlier in the process, if it comes up). I don’t pretend to be an employee of your organization, and really, there’s no reason for me to.