# Hiring

# Interviews

When a candidate applied they'll have at least two interviews with two different interviewers before an offer is extended to them. One interview will investigate the fit on values. The second will be a competency based interview.

When interviewing to hire new team members, optimize for value-fit over culture-fit. Hiring for value-fit allows others to add to culture and thus fosters diversity and inclusivity.

# STAR interviews

Using the STAR framework candidates will be interviewed to describe their experiences in the past. Through their actions we hope to be able to predict their performance in the future.

For the interviewer a template is available with the STAR questions to make a copy of.

# Extending an offer

When a candidate goes through the full hiring process an offer might be extended to them. At such a time it's good to understand that the offer at that time is conditional on background checks. If the offer includes an equity component, this part is conditional on board approval of such a grant. Be sure to be explicit about these conditions.

Please use this template to stage an email.

# After an offer is accepted

Onboarding on our EOR provider, Deel, takes at least 3 to 4 weeks. The start date for a new employee should be at least 3 to 4 weeks out. When a conditional offer has been accepted you should immediately:

Create an onboarding issue on the admin GitHub project
Update the internal team overview spreadsheet
Add their stock options to the stock option request spreadsheets
- Copy or create a new monthly request sheet from this template

# Tax Residency

During the onboarding process on our EOR provider platform, candidates must either be citizens of the country where they will be working or possess a valid visa. Any requests for changes in tax residency should be communicated to the HR department and CEO at least 2 months in advance.

# Onboarding

Just before your first day of work at FlowForge, you will receive an email requesting your GitHub username and preferred company email address. An issue will be created on our internal issue tracker with steps for you and the team to complete once you start.

On the day you start, a message will be sent to your personal email address to grant you access to your FlowForge email address.

After setting up your password, you must turn on the 2-Step Verification. Otherwise, after a few days, you will be locked out of your account and will need an admin's help to log back in.

Once your FlowForge email is set up, you will have access to invitations to other services and platforms, including 1Password. Set this up as soon as possible to add a security layer to all your FlowForge accounts.

On your first day, after your email and 1Password accounts are set up, you should prioritize gaining access to Slack, the FlowForge GitHub organization, and completing your onboarding issue. Your manager will also assign work for you to start on in the first week.

# Greenhouse

# Opening a Job

When opening a job post, you'll need a couple of things:

A draft Job Description
Approved role availability
Support for a PeopleOps Manager to setup the role in Greenhouse

Once these are in place a pipeline needs to be designeed by the PeopleOps manager.

# Pipeline design

A pipeline needs to be designed, meaning; you'll need to define all stages of the hiring process.

# Accepting applications

Applicants for a job must provide their resume. Optionally a cover letter could be supplied. Furthermore, it's recommended to include one or two acceptance questions to filter applicants. These questions should be related to the position being opened. For example; for a developer you might ask what happens if someone types https://flowforge.com in their browser, after they press enter. Aim to be thought provoking with the question, though the answer shouldn't take over a minute or two to think of and type for a skilled candidate.

# Initial Review

The initial review will check the aforementioned question for validity, the resume, and the cover letter. Check for:

Alignment to Values
Capabilities align with the requirements for the role
Previous retention at companies
- We'd like people to join the company for the long term, if their previous roles suggest the candidate will not join for the long term please reject them

For each candidate we'd like to move forward with, a scorecard needs to be filled out based on the available information so the interviewer for the next stage can prepare and focus if the strengths are indeed strong, and the same for weaknesses or uncertainties.

The resume review should reject over 50% of all candidates.

# Screening Call

The initial screening call is intended as an additional filter for FlowForge, but also for the candidate. Screening calls are held on a video call, and the candidate should have plenty of time to ask question and understand if this role is right for them. During this call FlowForge should understand:

Alignment to Values
The candidate is enthusiastic about the company and the open role
Compensation range for the candidate
Notice period, or time from offer to start

For all candidates that are moved on the next stage a scorecard needs to be filled out.

After this stage no more than 25% of the total number of candidates should remain.

# Skills assessment

For each role a skills assessment will be performed. This stage will be different for most roles. This is the main stage to asses the capabilities.

This round will again result in a scorecard, but also an indication what level this candidate would suit in. For example intermediate vs senior for developers.

When in doubt, reject the candidate.

# STAR interview

After the skills assessment, the last round includes a behaviour interview. STAR interviews are aimed at discussing the candidates past performance in certain situations, and hopefully predict the way they acted is in line with FlowForge expectations.

Again, a scoresheet will be filled out.

# Offer stage

First, read about extending offers.

At the offer stage all scorecards will be re-evaluated to understand what the candidate strengths and challenges are. Before the peopleops team extends an offer, explicit approval is required from:

A peopleops manager
- Check we hire in their location
- Notice period aligns with internal processes
- Total compensation is in FlowForge's range
The new manager of the candidate
CEO

When a candidate accepted an offer, proceed to onboard them.

# Closing a job

As soon as there's a pipeline that would support at least three strong candidates for the open position, take the job posting offline. Candidates applying for a job that's no longer available is a waste of their time and a bad experience with FlowForge and hurts our reputation.

# Offboarding

The purpose of the offboarding section in the handbook is to provide a clear and structured framework for employees at FlowForge to follow during the offboarding process. The offboarding process is managed by the People Ops Manager in close collaboration with the CEO, Reporting Managers, and Deel for Payroll at FlowForge.

When a team member or contractor decides to leave FlowForge, they will receive a detailed email before their final date of employment. The email will include information regarding the impact on benefits coverage, stocks, final pay, and the process for returning any company assets.

# Voluntary Resignation

If a team member decides to leave FlowForge they're expected to continue working to facilitate a smooth handover and enable us to find a suitable replacement. Please note that we generally expect the team member to work for the entire notice period.

If you are considering resigning from your position at FlowForge, we highly recommend discussing your reasons with your manager or the People Ops manager. We are always open to improving and making changes that benefit our team members. While we understand that sometimes leaving is the best option, we encourage you to explore all possible solutions before making a final decision.

Once you have discussed your concerns with your manager and the People Ops team and determined that resigning from FlowForge is the only option, please notify both your manager and the People Ops team of your intention to resign via email. Afterward, we will commence a discussion to establish the steps required to ensure a seamless handover.

# Involuntary Resignation

When a team member is being let go, it is usually due to either performance issues or a change in the company's needs that no longer justifies their role. If the decision is due to performance issues, we will have already provided feedback and given the team member an opportunity to improve. Unfortunately, if the issues cannot be resolved, termination of employment may be necessary. In most cases, we will ask the team member to stop working immediately. The final payment will be made according to the terms of their employment contract.

# Communicating Departures

When a team member voluntarily departs, we may ask if they would like to share their plans with the team. If the departure is involuntary, reasons of the departure will be at the sole discretion of the FlowForge management.

# Offboarding process

We will send an email to the departing employee covering the following points:

Final payment
Return of company property
Reimbursement of business expenses

At FlowForge, we conduct Exit Interviews for employees who choose to leave the company voluntarily. This provides us with valuable feedback on their experience, reasons for leaving, and areas for improvement. The People Ops manager schedules these interviews during the employee's last week to ensure they have an opportunity to share their insights. Our aim is to use this feedback to enhance our workplace culture and practices.

# Offboarding Issue

The People Ops manager will create a new off boarding issue for each instance of a team member leaving. The template maintained on GitHub, create a new issue though this link.

# Final Pay

Final pay consists of the statutory minimal payment dictated by our payroll provider Deel, and an optional extra severance package. Such a package might be dependent on on business requirements, standing of the employee, among other factors.

# Business expense

We will reimburse any outstanding expenses that comply with our handbook's reimbursement section.