THE HIRING PROCESS SUCKS! LET US DO IT ALL FOR YOU
We will find you the hire of your dreams by managing every aspect of this excruciating process, so you don’t have to… We guarantee it!
Building a business is fun and rewarding…
And no one said it wasn’t hard work, right?
After all, you have to fight hard to grow market share; tirelessly scrutinize your product quality; examine and re-examine your promotional messaging, your distribution, your value add; and then there’s the cashflow to manage, the monthly reporting to do… there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
Which is why all successful business owners agree on one thing:
Make the Hiring Process as Easy as Possible
There are too many horror stories – and we’ve heard them all – about businesses hiring the wrong people, or taking too long to find the right hire, or just holding back and stifling their own growth by not hiring at all.
Hear Josh’s Story
Listen to Josh Eaton of Top Speed Golf while he explains how hiring the wrong person twice cost him over $50,000 at a conservative estimate. He also shares how after discovering the right way to find the right people he was finally able to relax and take a vacation because things were finally running smoothly without him.
Wouldn’t it be great if…
…You didn’t have to waste all that time wading through mountains of CVs and resumes?
OK, you don’t. We do it all.. We get the information we need from you during our 60-minute dream hire call, then we take it from there. Our unique hiring process is proven to identify 70 different criteria and measure the candidates against them. We reject those who don’t meet your criteria which means you never have to see the tire kickers, perpetually unemployed, or other candidates that waste a huge amount of your time.
We often reject 99 candidates out of 100. That’s 99 resumes you don’t even have to look at.
That’s right. Bob the circus clown who dreams of being a CPA….you won’t be reading his resume.
…You never had to write another Job Description?
We do this for you – we use your information about what you need and we craft that material. We know how to attract the kinds of people you need.
…You didn’t have to waste hours interviewing completely hopeless candidates?
We interview the candidates for you as well. These are in-depth telephone interviews, just with the candidates who look good. About half these candidates will make it through the interview, you get the recording and pick the ones you’d like to see. You only get to see a very few candidates; those who are a very close match.
…You didn’t make any more awful hiring mistakes?
Our success rate in getting the right candidates is 88%. This means that 88% of our candidates are still dream hires a year later. Yes, we might occasionally find someone who just isn’t the exact right fit but if that happens, we will replace the candidate at no extra cost to you.
…You knew what the compensation range and package should be for your dream hire?
Let’s face it. This part is scary. How much money have you spent on overpaying for a new hire, or not paying enough to get the person who can come on board and make your life better? We are compensation experts and this service alone can save you many thousands of dollars with each hire. Many times this saving alone has been more than our dream hire fee.
Breathe: It doesn’t have to be like that
The perfect person to help your company grow is out there, somewhere. But to find them yourself, and to be really entirely sure they will hit the ground running, will take you days of hard work and cost more than you think. And let’s be honest, even if you can throw enough resources at the task of finding them yourself, you still need luck on your side if you’re going to get someone who will prove their worth and stick around longer than a year…
On Average, 30% of new hires leave within one year
That’s right. After being bombarded with applications, sifting through CVs, interviewing, training and doing all you can to make life a little easier for yourself, a third of new staff will leave before the end of their first year!
If you’re having to rehire for that position every year, can you imagine how much of your time that will take?
The thing is, hiring the right people, good people, the people who fit in with your business culture and meet the standards you set, is fraught with difficulty. It is something you can try to do yourself, or indeed you can put it out to regular hiring agencies who will be glad to receive a hefty percentage of the first-year salary…
But doesn’t it make more sense to put it in the hands of experts who have a proven system for getting you the right hire – your dream hire – and guaranteeing you will keep them for longer than a year?
The Vinehouse average for staff staying longer than 1 year is 88%
Our closely refined hiring system not only takes all the work off you, but it also hires better people faster, who stay longer.
It works for virtually any position in any business, anywhere in the English-speaking world, from the information marketer in Chicago to the nurse in the Australian outback. We have worked with clients in Australia, USA, Canada, Scandinavia, Ireland and the UK helping them all to find the dream hire they needed.
Finding the right person isn’t as simple as placing someone capable into the job on day one. The right person is the right person because they fit in. They enjoy working with you. They get as much out of working with you as you get from having them there. Not only are they great at the job, but they come with the right belief system and values to complement your organisation. In short, they just fit. And because of that, they stay.
If your new hire stays longer than a year then chances are they’re going to stay longer than three years.
To find someone who fits as well as that using conventional hiring methods requires a lot of interviews (at least three per candidate), a lot of candidates, and shed loads of luck. Unsurprisingly, as the statistics show, even after all that hard work, it rarely happens.
We know how to do it though. In fact, so confident are we in finding the perfect person for your business long-term, that we can offer our 100% satisfaction guarantee:
One Year 100% Satisfaction Guarantee
If your new hire doesn’t work out for any reason in the first 12 months, we will replace them free of charge.
Don’t take our word for it. Here’s what some of our clients have to say…
Lesley and her colleagues needed to carry out a difficult task
The current team didn’t have the skills to perform the task to a high standard
Using this method she was very quickly able to identify those that would perform the task well
Four team members were recruited this way and are still doing well!
In Lesley's words...
I’d run a small-scale research program for three years using a small team of staff. With the prospect of running a much larger scale project, I had to look at my current team and consider whether I had the right people for the job. None of us particularly enjoyed the laborious background research nor felt it was where our strengths lay.
I realised we needed a team of skilled researchers who not only excelled at the task but also enjoyed what they were doing. Nancy’s process helped me select a team who produce accurate results and also love what they do.
The key was in the preparation and how to do it properly. Once that was done it was so easy to quickly identify who would be good at the job early on in the process which saved so much time. This approach is completely different to anything I have seen before and remarkably simple. I will definitely be using this process again for future hires!
Paolo Lencioni - Partner, APL Accountants, Brisbane, Australia
Paolo needed another accountant for his very busy practice
He had had a few problems finding people who carried out the role to his exacting standards
We identified the key behaviours and values of the person he needed
His new employee did not come across well at interview but is great in the role
In Paolo's words...
I get this warm fuzzy feeling when I think that our competitors will be taking on the candidates we didn’t ... just because they have good resumes! It’s what we would have done before.
Normally he and his team spent up to 30 hours searching through 100s resumes
After diligently searching through resumes he usually found somebody, but whether they would stay long term or do the job well was questionable
We set up a process so that he now only sees a few qualified candidates for a final interview
Now he is able to identify in 45 mins if the final candidate can do the job
We have done the same for his sales roles and customer service positions
In Alec's words...
Working with Nancy and Vinehouse in our hiring process has completely transformed the way we hire new employees and has made the process extremely simple and 100 X more successful than our previous frustrating efforts.
In our previous hiring process often we would hire a candidate we through was the best candidate only to find out in their first few weeks of work that they were very poor at the job they were hired to do.
I highly recommend anyone who is not thrilled with their hiring process to call Vinehouse and make all their hiring problems disappear.
I have referred several of my friends and colleagues to Vinehouse all of whom have had the same experience as I had. The time and resources that go into a single hire have been reduced from up to 100 hours per hire down to a handful of hours with much better results.
Before I met Nancy, I used to hire like everyone else. I'd write a boring advert and try to attract as many people as possible. And when I think back to my interview technique I cringe.
The result of this guesswork was shown up in both my PL account and stress level. What Nancy did was to help us implement a streamlined and scientific process that saved time by putting off the bad candidates long before I could interview them. She also taught me how to conduct effective interviews, so I became very good at spotting who was right for my business.
The results were explosive growth in both revenue and profit and transformation of team culture. I cannot recommend highly enough and will be forever grateful to Nancy and her team.
Prior to working with Vinehouse we had done some hiring ourselves and we had stumbled across one person who turned out to be really good. The next time we posted a job it seemed like the number of applications just wasn't coming in and it didn't seem like we were getting the type of applicant and we needed. We ended up going with the best one. That was a total failure.
We ended up trying to train someone we never should have trained or hired. At that point we were just scared to stick our neck out to hire because we felt we didn't have the necessary tools to do the hiring properly but we needed a couple of new people on our team to manage the growth we had going. So we worked with Vinehouse. We were really just going after one new employee, but we found two great people who have helped us grow – our growth has been 60% year on year.
What it's really done is allowed people in our company to spend time on things they are good at and less time doing stuff they are not good at. So using this hiring process to find the right new employees has helped us in a pretty big way. It's helped take a lot of the evening and weekend stuff off the plates of our main team members and has really created a better environment for everybody. We are just starting on the next vacancy and are using Vinehouse.
I hated recruiting and hiring. Actually, I was scared of it. And that had become an impediment to our growth.
The Vinehouse team was key in giving me a different, systematic way to approach developing job descriptions, posting them, screening applicants, and doing the hiring. I'll never wake up every day yearning to recruit, but, this is no longer a persistent stumbling block.
We've now got a great team of people and continue to rapidly expand — with multiple years of 50-100% year-over-year employee growth.
Bryan Todd - President, Perry S. Marshall & Associates
The Vinehouse recruiting system has now helped us through two significant hires for our company (and another key one in process now!). In each case the hire has taken our business to a better place.
The recruiting method is rigorously 80/20 and has saved us massive amounts of needless work, it has helped us clarify our own needs and our own culture for our benefit and that of our candidates, and it has brought to light the strengths and weaknesses of every applicant we've considered, so that when we make the final decision we know exactly the kind of person we're bringing on board. We're sold on Vinehouse. We would not and will not hire any other way.
I wanted to send you an email letting you know how much I've appreciated working with Nancy Slessenger to bring on board my new Director of Client Services.
In the past, I've overseen and ran the process of hiring my staff, with limited success. By contracting with Vinehouse, the hiring process was a great deal simplified, and bottom line, I was able to hire a new Director of Client Services who had both the technical skills, and a personality that also meshed with our office culture.
It's been a month since she started, and I couldn't be happier with the results. Another part of the process that I really appreciated is the ongoing consulting that Vinehouse provides to make sure that over the first year the relationship continues to improve by making sure that I'm giving the correct feedback to help my new hire grow in effectiveness as time goes on.
Bottom line, I’ll never hire someone on my own, I'll be using and recommending Vinehouse in the future.
All my best, Dale.
Normally, when we needed to hire, I would say to everyone: "Does anybody know someone who is interested?" and I would chat to them for 5 minutes. It wasn't very successful.
We'd come to the end of where we could get people through our systems. We had got to the stage where we didn't want to advertise and didn't want to bring in anyone. The Job Centre has made it so difficult to put an ad on their site – we got 20 CVs and nobody turned up for an interview. We didn't want to put an ad in the paper – it cost £250. I thought we might as well employ Vinehouse instead and I'm glad we did. The system worked really well.
The advert they put in attracted the right sort of people we were looking for. The screening process got rid of people who weren't really interested. The application form and telephone interview told us a lot about the person before we got to the final interview.
We were only looking for 1 person; we interviewed three and took two of them on.
I consulted with Nancy over 6 months to help me expand my gym business. Up until that point, I was hiring friends and family members but eventually hit a roadblock where I wasn't able to hire qualified employees to deal with the growing demands of the business as we opened up more locations.
Nancy helped me define the roles and tasks that each position required and also create a hiring system. She essentially helped us create our very own HR system for a small business.
On a personal level, she provided guidance on how to be a manager and deal with different types of employees. Thank you Nancy!
Benji Rabhan - NY Times Best Seller & CEO of MorrisCore Inc.
Vinehouse changed the course of my entire business... and helped preserve my sanity!
After years of wasting time and energy on hiring bad-fit team members — costing hundreds of thousands of dollars — everything has flipped for the better since hiring Vinehouse.
Now, every hire we've made has been exactly what we were expecting. The best part was that they handle all the parts I don't have time for — even the interviews. Vinehouse is and will always be an integral part of our hiring process.
We were stuck. We needed a new employee and were having great problems finding the right person.
Nancy made some suggestions, some of which were a little radical for us, but we went with them anyway.
Result: we have an excellent new employee. If you're having problems recruiting the right people, I'd recommend talking to Vinehouse.
Nancy and her team have been phenomenal at their job. I would have never figured out who I really needed to hire for the position, if not for them.
We went through many kinds of questionnaires, to make sure we attract only the right kind of candidates and when that was done, they did even a more detailed job of interviewing them and leaving us with a few exceptional candidates to choose from.
I’m very excited to get started with my new employee and all this thanks to their team!
Scott Alberts - Scott Alberts, CEO, Voiceplace, Inc.
Working with Vinehouse was like a dream come true. They took one of the most painful aspects of our business..hiring...and did ALL of it for us. Their "Done For You" process has saved us so much time, and aggravation. We don't need to comb thru hundreds of resumes and set up endless interview appointments anymore.
They are really experts at what they do and have found some amazing team members that really fit our culture.
Herb Jones - Chief Marketing Officer, Fracture. fractureme.com
The Vinehouse team truly helped Fracture find a needle in a haystack. We were looking for a Director level position with many technical and soft skill requirements and we could not be happier with the leader they found for us. She's been an incredible addition to our team both from an execution and culture perspective.
Christopher Blair - CFP Blair Financial Planning, Denver
We first used Vinehouse in 2013 to find our Administrative Manager. We found the process to be very simple and we were able to find the perfect candidate out of a large pool of applicants. Because of this hire, our firm doubled in size and required us to hire a new Administrative Assistant. We contacted Vinehouse again in 2020 and found their process to be even better than before.
Vinehouse’s process is elaborate and diligent yet required minimal effort on our end. They determined our very specific needs for the role and were able to fine-tune their process to only return the best candidates. Out of over 2000 applications, we only had to interview one candidate, who ultimately was offered the position. She has been the perfect fit to our team.
We have now found two incredible candidates out of very large pools of applicants. Because of this success, we will continue to use Vinehouse for all of our future hiring needs.
Christopher Blair
Maestro Associates
This has been the easiest hire I have ever done. You and your exceptional team made everything go so smoothly. The communication was excellent and you found us someone I believe will fit the role very well.
We are so pleased with your services and the results.
It was a true pleasure to work with you and your team.
Thanks again,
Teresa
Teresa Sedmak
President
Everbrite, Inc.
Nancy and the Vinehouse team are such a pleasure to work with!
I was fortunate to work with them first as a recruit for a position they helped me secure, then as an HR Director when I partnered with Vinehouse to support our company's recruiting needs. They have a unique approach to recruiting that blends effective use of SEO tools to attract the right candidates, managing a pipeline of candidates, genuine human interactions, efficient scheduling, and thorough interviews. The team really does not overlook any detail from the job description keywords and accurate job titles on postings, to the type and progression of interview questions, and even hand-written, encouraging, congratulatory letters.
Whether you are a job seeker, or business leader needing help attracting top talent, Vinehouse is a company that gets the job done right. Thank you for all you do!
Luc Cisna
“She’s really a super hire, 5x more than I was hoping for/expecting.
When I need another person – you’ll be hearing from me again! Thanks for a great job.”
– Rick Dawson, Deedgrabber
Vinehouse's expertise is attracting and matching candidate's personal characteristics to the needs of a role and culture of team.
Vinehouse's demystifies the process of skillfully screening candidates. She then presents descriptive detail on the ways a person fits a role or the challenges they may introduce as part of a team. This kind of detail is invaluable if you are committed to hiring quality employees who will help your company excel. Or, if your aim is to enhance the functioning of a team, Vinehouse can expertly assist with the steps needed to increase team health and effectiveness. All of this is grounded within a profound understanding of human personality and behavior that they have refined through extensive experience putting these ideas in action.
Jonathan Kaplan
“I knew very little about how to hire, and have made some pretty expensive mistakes along the way.
Nancy had a great ability to focus me on my need. The first thing she did was interview my best worker to find someone who could actually work with me well. We worked on goals, how to search, who to search and what I really wanted them to do. We found a great candidate, and I feel safe in knowing that if he doesn’t work out, Nancy will still be there to find a replacement. That feels safe - if you are like me, take my advice and spend the money on Nancy’s excellent service.
It’s an investment in speed, efficiency and ultimately better profit performance. A wrong hire is way more expensive than Nancy!”
Jeremy Chance
MD, BodyChance
Recently I was offering a workshop for singers in London and was looking to hire an accompanist at the last minute. I contacted the Royal College of Music and they sent the job description to their pool of accompanists. Eventually I ended up with several qualified candidates and was at a loss about who to choose. Since the workshop was only days away, I called Nancy in a panic. She calmed me down and helped me come up with several key questions to help identify the best person for the job. I did exactly what Nancy said and the candidate I went with worked out perfectly. If she was that helpful for a one-off job like this, I can only imagine how indispensable she will be for much bigger jobs.
I will definitely be using Nancy and Vinehouse for all my future hiring needs!
Peter Jacobson, Director of Total Vocal Freedom
Do you want to know how we ensure we can provide such a valuable service to you?
This is the time when many system owners would go secret. They would hold back from giving you the details in case imitators tried to replicate it. But we have no such fears about our system. It has taken a long time to develop this level of expertise about how to research, find, screen and filter down to the perfect candidate. These are all skills unique to our staff, and we train and nurture them all very carefully. We know our process cannot be copied easily because so much of it is in the way we truly understand our clients’ needs, and screen applicants accordingly.
The Vinehouse 10-Step Plan To Dream Hire Success
Step 1: 60 Minutes
We get together on the phone for a 60-minute dream hire call. It’s easy. We ask a bunch of questions that are designed to really flush out what it is you need. Even if you aren’t sure exactly what the job entails yourself, we will help you define it and come up with the profile of a candidate that would be your dream hire.
Step 2: Job Description
We produce a job description and objectives. Once completed, we send it to you for your review.
Step3: Person Specification
We produce a person specification so we know what we’re looking for in exactly the right person for the job.
Step 4: Job Market Research
We conduct research to find out what the job market is for the post what the best job title will be, what package you need to offer, what the employment rate for your ideal candidate is and where to find the best people.
Step 5: Ad Testing
We design and test a very focused and targeted ad. This is critical. The wrong ad in the wrong place can result in really poor candidates. We make sure we get it right the first time.
Step 6: Elimination
We weed out poor candidates; our service includes designing TEST tasks based on what your ideal candidate will be doing in their new position. We ask the candidate to perform these tasks prior to their interview so we can see if they can really do what they say they can do. As an example, if they need to be good at spreadsheets, we ask them to take a very targeted spreadsheet test. Oh by the way, you still haven’t had to talk to the candidate yet. Enjoying your extra free time?
Step 7: We do your Interviews
We conduct detailed interviews with the good candidates – you get the recordings and transcripts. You let us know if they sound like a dream hire.
Step 8: We design your final interview
We give you the questions and structure for this interview and go through it with you afterwards to help you make the decision.
Step 9: Your Turn
OK Now it’s your turn. You get to talk to the person we recommend and who we are confident is your dream hire. It will probably be the 1 in 100 that makes it through our unique process. If you like them (we are confident you will) then it’s time to hire! If not, no worries, we will keep going and get another candidate to you.
Step 10: Hired!
It’s go time. Get the hire of your dreams and that very well thought out offer. Don’t worry, we are still here during “Offer Fun”
… And that’s it. We guarantee this is your dream hire to help you grow your business, or we start again. Free!
We are not the same as a regular hiring agency. We don’t charge a percentage of first year salary, and we never press a square peg in a round hole. Instead, we work to a fixed fee. And its the same amount whether we’re hiring a general manager or a virtual assistant. The roles may impact on your business differently, but our research and the application of our expertise remains the same. We are specialists at getting to the core of your precise requirements, even if you don’t know what they are yourself yet. Then, with that in hand, we go to market, we search, we screen and we filter; rinse and repeat, and we don’t stop until we can settle without fail on the perfect person who fits the precise requirements for your job.
We do all this so you can get on with what you’re good at: Running your business.
Would that provide some peace of mind do you think? Would it help to know that the vital human element preventing your business from scaling and growing can be looked after without distracting you or your current operation one bit? Perry Marshall, Dave Nicol and Peter Jacobson all thought so – here’s what they said…
Behind the scenes with Nancy Slessenger
See how Nancy Slessenger and the Vinehouse team have helped clients like Perry Marshall, Dave Nicholl and Peter Jacobson. Each of them had a particular hiring problem, and each of them were saved by the methods and practices of Vinehouse Hiring…
Want to know more about the Dream Hire Process?
For us, no hiring challenge is too difficult. Since 1995, we have been helping organisations of all shapes and sizes to hire effectively and grow. Our system and methodology for getting it right has been finely tuned through time. It has been strained and tested by every possible hiring challenge you can imagine. So whatever it was that brought you to this page, and whatever hiring dilemma your business faces, we can help.
It all begins with a question
What can we tell you to help you decide? Perhaps you know you will need a hiring service, not just yet, so you want to know when to start planning. Or perhaps you’ve already started the process yourself and want some advice to make it more effective… Do you want to know what our lead time is? Or how long the process takes? Or do you want to know what the fixed fee is…? Or perhaps you want to know whether we can cope with the hiring of someone who meets an almost impossible set of criteria. Whatever your question is, ask it here. We will give it careful consideration and come back to you within 24 hrs.
Your Next Step
We would love to hear from you about your Dream Hire.
Click the button below to learn more.
Get My Dream Hire
About Nancy Slessenger
CEO Vinehouse Hiring
Nancy Slessenger is an entrepreneur and consultant from the UK. She runs Vinehouse essential Ltd, a company that started off focusing on training and is now dedicated to hiring and recruitment for owner-managed businesses in the English-speaking world.
During her time in a ‘real job’ as a Production Manager at Mars, she was horrified to discover that the person in her team who was by far the most productive and had not a single failure over a whole year, was paid the least. This posed many questions and set her off on a journey. Many times she coached so-called “Difficult People” to turn them into useful employees. She started to wonder why they had been hired in the first place. Nancy’s work includes “How to Write Objectives that Work” – a booklet that has sold over 500,000 copies, a host of material on how to manage and motivate your team. She has coached and trained thousands of people on writing goals and objectives and many other leadership and management skills. Now, using everything she has learned, she is concentrating on getting the right people into jobs they will excel in and love. She has spent years developing and honing the process to make it more and more and more reliable. “It seems like magic, but it’s not, it’s just logical and carefully thought through”, she says.
