Recruit, develop, engage: SaaStr 2022 J2 returns

SaaStr 2022 is over for this year!

And it's not surprising that the human dimension is present in almost every speech.

This is all the more important as business and technology skills are sorely lacking, and the prevailing economic insecurity is destabilizing recruitment policies in the technology sector.

In recruitment, characteristics rather than skills

Paul Albert, VP Global Sales at Payhawk, has grown his team from 30 to 240 employees in recent years. He reminds us of the importance of the qualities systematically demanded of candidates, and the importance of their alignment with the company's values. In fact, in junior positions, education or experience ultimately count for less than the candidate's abilities to be assessed during the interview. For example, Payhawk's values are as follows:

1. Professional ethics: is the candidate honest and collaborative?
2. Coachability: is the candidate receptive to feedback and works hard to coach himself?
3. Humility: for a strong culture and team spirit.
4. Data obsession: does the candidate seek to objectify his feelings when making decisions?

Arsenio Otero, COO of Celonis, spoke briefly about the 5 areas to be assessed when recruiting:

• The brain: does the candidate have the intellectual capacity to solve problems independently?
• Commitment: does the candidate demonstrate resilience and loyalty?
• Success: has the candidate already demonstrated results?
• Relevance: is the candidate's profile suited to the industrial or technical expertise required?
• Culture: does the candidate fit in with the company's values?

A recruitment experience

Speaking of the company's sales process, Paul Albert reminds us of the obvious: to attract the top 1% of the market, salary has to follow, whatever the employer brand. Beyond salary, Payhawk has also put in place a number of best practices to "seduce" candidates: a systematic moment of conversation between each high-potential candidate and a manager, a speech explaining the current importance of each position and its potential for future development, particular attention to diversity in recruitment, and a company project to respond to today's candidates' quest for meaning.

Recruiting in all countries, it has also implemented a 70/30 rule: 70% of the process is common worldwide and 30% is flexible to meet local specificities.

Finally, he talks about the importance of transparency and feedback to candidates in order to create a trusting experience.

An evolving recruitment process

Arsenio Otero (Director of Operations at Celonis), Paul Albert (Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Payhawk) and Firmin Zocchetto (CEO of Payfit) spoke separately about the importance of an extremely well-defined and rigorously executed recruitment process. There are two reasons for this: the first is linked to the'juniority' of profiles such as BDRs, which means that there is a high volume of candidates to process, coupled with a high turnover rate in the function. In order to recruit well, it is therefore necessary to recruit on an evolutionary basis.

The second reason has to do with the company's culture: the recruitment process is the first strong contact with employees, and all candidates, even those not selected, should leave with the best impression of the company's culture.

No compromise on top positions

At the most senior levels, Peterjan Bouten, co-founder of Showpad, Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo, and Jason Lemkin, founder of SaaStr, were unanimous about the impact of a poor managerial hire made in haste, or on the reputation of the previous company. All shared their negative experiences of such recruitment over the long term.

According to Lekim, a VP should spend 50% of his or her time looking for the best talent, as recruiting is a time-consuming and essential process. In particular, Henry Shuck points out that it's better to spend time recruiting talent than optimizing a process, because the former takes the team or company to the next level, while optimization can be achieved by cross-functional teams.

Finally, Jason Lemkin insists that recruiting a senior profile does not imply total delegation of the company: "Once you've understood that you're going to continue to run the business anyway, you get out of the mindset of looking for a sales manager and embark on the idea of recruiting a co-pilot, with values and qualities that bring you closer together.

Talent development

As with its recruitment process, Arsenio Otero has implemented a standard induction process that is structured and communicated to all, so that this clarity generates greater efficiency and less stress for new employees. Arsenio reminds us that just because induction is mainly on-the-job and function-specific, it doesn't mean the process can't be standardized.

Melinda Cormier, VP Growth Marketing at Lumapps, and Alfred Saad, CRO at Lumapps, also talk about clarity for new employees in setting goals, consistency of management over time and celebrating success.

This clarity is also extremely important so that each employee can develop autonomously in his or her area of expertise. At Lumapps, the employee experience has therefore been treated in the same important and structured way as the customer experience, in 5 phases: recruit, integrate, commit to a mission and culture, develop autonomously, then specialize in an area of expertise.

Finally, at Payhawk, Paul Albert has supported a policy of 50% internal promotions, which lends credibility to development plans.

An evolution that also involves managers

Henry Shuck, founder of InfoZoom, also returned to the obvious need to develop employees and the role of the manager. Indeed, employees aren't born champions, they become them, and putting more pressure on top talent without coaching them only sets them up for failure.

To do this, he reminds them of a practice they should put in place for their managers: practice having difficult, frequent conversations. As training and coaching are largely based on feedback, managers must constantly train themselves to give feedback. This feedback must be both sincere and engaging.

For employees experiencing a drop in performance, Schuck always seeks to understand in a sympathetic way whether the factors behind the drop in performance are exogenous or endogenous, so that appropriate action can be taken quickly.

Paul Albert agrees, reminding us of the investment the company must make to develop the leadership skills of each individual, in the same way as teams are trained in their technical subjects.

When it comes to technical skills, Jason Lemkin recommends systematically evaluating the team's top two talents. "With two top talents, you can understand the common success factors and quickly move on to five or six top talents.

If you only have one, secret sauce It's impossible to guess." He also returns to the need in sales functions to replay customer calls and videos with teams "be shocked and act. Make quick training decisions. A sales manager who doesn't spend a minimum amount of time per week re-listening to his teams' conversations with customers is a bad manager.

Commitment through a strong corporate culture

Not surprisingly, the various speakers reminded us of the key role played by corporate culture and values in both employee engagement and retention. This is achieved through rational measurement and feedback, as Pieterjan Boutan, co-founder of Shawpad, demonstrated. He also reminds us that taking care of employees' physical and moral health is essential in a SaaS world that is both changing and competitive.

Don't hesitate to contact Nadine Yahchouchi, CMO of Modjo, or Paul Berloty, CEO of Modjo, if you'd like to discusstakeaways from SaaStr, a very fine 2022 edition.

Finally, we leave you with Jason Lemkin's advice to all those just starting out in their professional lives: "Stay. Stay longer where you are and do more of what you love. If your manager, the product you're creating and the company you've joined are good, stay. Don't trade good for better; you'll learn more in the long run and with regularity than in constant change and the endless quest for perfection."