How often do you do professional development trainings with your team?

Right now, formal professional development trainings for our team are something we plan on doing more of. We are in growth mode, so having an official leadership team is still something that is new to our company. We have two offsite meetings per year where we get out of the office and brainstorm, but we haven’t brought in external resources before our training with CFW.

Why did you decide to do interview training this year?

We decided to have CFW come in and conduct their interview training program for a few reasons. First of all, we’ve had a great experience working with the CFW team so far on the recruiting side. The people they’ve helped us bring on to our team, along with their continued informal guidance on our interview process, has led us to see CFW as a valued resource. While we don’t have a specific budget for professional development, we knew CFW would be worth bringing in for a formal training session.

Second of all, 2017 was the biggest hiring year since our company’s start! We’ve faced new challenges that we have never experienced as hiring managers. As a company, our interview process was a bit disjointed. We all had different processes, interview styles and even evaluation tactics. We originally thought we could all get on the same page internally, but we ultimately decided to have CFW come in and help us out.

What were you hoping to get from the training?

We were really hoping to walk away feeling more unified in terms of our interview process, as well as our candidate evaluation skills. We wanted to learn new tactics and ideas, along with best practices in the industry. Additionally, we were really hoping to walk away with physical worksheets and processes that would be useful (but not overwhelming!) which is exactly what CFW delivered.

For me personally, learning about the different types of interview questions and when best to use them, has helped me rethink the way I conduct my interviews. Overall, the team really recognized the importance of bringing CFW in.

Would you work with CFW for future professional development opportunities and why?

Yes, definitely. CFW was accommodating in every aspect. Rachel and Katie did a great job at managing the two hours we had, and incorporated everyone’s feedback and opinions. The session was a perfect balance of professional and casual, making it easy to ask questions and speak up throughout. Their presentation, accompanied by worksheets and live workshopping, allowed us to see how they designed the program for us. As we continue to grow, we hope to have CFW come in and deliver more trainings in the future.