# 2.4 Talent Recruitment & Development
High-performing engineering teams aren’t created by accident. Strong teams are created, maintained, and improved through a deliberate, outcome-oriented approach to team building that prioritizes both technical and non-technical professional development and which positions the team as being a robust and long-lasting entity.
# 2.4.1 Recruitment Process
Level: Basic
Your team uses a set selection process to evaluate potential new recruits. This process is effective at helping the team to identify strong candidates. Most or all team members participate in the selection process.
The use of a defined recruitment process ensures that all potential recruits can be accurately compared against each other. It’s important that most or all team members be involved in the recruitment process—incorporating a wide range of perspectives helps to ensure that no important competencies or skills go unconsidered during the recruitment process.
# 2.4.2 Onboarding Practices
Level: Basic
Your team has a dedicated onboarding scheme that includes strong use of training and documentation. This approach is successful at getting new team members up-to-speed in a timely manner.
Successful onboarding schemes focus on minimizing the inevitable amount of disruption that occurs whenever a new person joins a team. The onboarding process should not only consider the new team member’s technical adaptation, but also their adaptation to the team’s social and cultural norms. The use of a buddy system is an effective way to help acclimate new team members.
# 2.4.3 Knowledge Sharing Practices
Level: Basic
Your team practices active knowledge sharing through both informal collaboration and planned knowledge sharing events. Intra-team knowledge sharing has contributed significantly to improving the team’s overall skill base.
For both new and established team members, knowledge sharing is an irreplaceable method to increase the efficacy with which team members develop and improve their skills. Your team should have its own knowledge sharing plan that involves a mix of methodologies, such as brainstorming sessions, pair programming, team code reviews, and intermittent events such as hackathons.
# 2.4.4 Personal Development Practices
Level: Intermediate
All team members regularly pursue professional development opportunities and make use of individual development plans (IDPs) to structure and define their professional goals.
Teams that do not pursue professional development will become uncompetitive with their peers. Individual development plans (IDP) define each team member’s unique short and long-term career goals and describe the skills they will need to acquire or improve in order to achieve those goals.
# 2.4.5 Soft Skill Development
Level: Intermediate
Your team puts significant emphasis on developing soft skills. The team’s soft skills are well-developed, and aid it in its communications with both customers and other teams in the company.
Soft skills are skills that enable teams to communicate effectively and harmoniously with other people, and are necessary to ensure that team members can work together effectively. Soft skills are particularly vital in “handoff” situations where you need to provide or receive information to company leadership, another team, or customers.
# 2.4.6 Culture Fit Assessments
Level: Advanced
Your team evaluates culture fit during the recruitment process through culture fit assessments. These assessments are effective at enabling the team to identify recruits with good culture fit.
All teams have their own “ways of working”, and so should have input into how culture fit is approached during hiring. To prevent bias, all culture fit assessments should be formal and structured. Further, all traits your team assesses should be linked to clear hypotheses about why those traits will enhance the team’s existing work dynamic.