Sometimes, it seems good employee are hard to find in the US and Western Europe. This is often true, especially when the market is saturated with vacancies.

However, there are places where the dynamics are different. You probably know about India or the Philippines, but there is also Eastern Europe, where there are usually more good candidates than jobs.

This market is filled with employees who are eager to learn and work within a competitive budget, people who are interested and do their best.

My video editing company has over 100 employees in Eastern Europe and we are more than happy. So how do we hire in this market? I would like to share our approach, which will be especially effective for hiring line personnel.

Step 1: Investing time in preparation

First, we need to determine what type of personality we would like to hire for a particular position.

According to Competence-Loyalty Frameworkeach employee can be placed on a scale and fit into one of four categories:

• High competence and high fidelity
• Low competence and loyalty
• High competence and low loyalty
• High fidelity and competence

For us, it is important to find and train very loyal employees, even if they are a little less competent. Everything we do during this employment process it aims to find the potential.

Our system is designed to help people improve and grow over time. It is important to mention that this system only works if you have a strong department head who can guide their employees.

After deciding on the desired characteristics, we describe the candidate, describe his responsibilities and write an attractive job description. We publish it on paid and free channels and move on to the next stages.

Connected: Here's what to expect in a job interview in today's job market

Step 2: Collecting the right number of applications

We have specific expectations for each employment situation. For example, we know that out of 70 applicants, only one video editor will be suitable. When hiring a manager, we usually have to consider 100 candidates. This helps us project how many applications we need to collect.

These sizes have proven stable, with only minor fluctuations, allowing us to plan for the scaling of our team. We've learned that hiring the required number of people from fewer applications simply won't get us the results we need.

We are ready to continue once we have reached our target number of applications.

Connected: How Long Should a Cover Letter Be in 2023?

Step 3: Conduct two interviews

Since we usually get so many applications, doing over a hundred INTERVIEWS it would take weeks.

That is why we have implemented a more efficient approach – group interviews. We usually invite 10-15 candidates to these sessions. We evaluate candidates' experience, how well they match our position and company values, and observe how they interact in a competitive environment.

This method also saves us a lot of time when introducing the company. Instead of doing it 10-15 times, we do it once for the group.

After the group sessions, our hiring manager discusses the candidates with the head of the relevant department. Together, they identify the people who impressed them the most and schedule one-on-one interviews.

They are more traditional: we talk about a candidate's ambitions, discuss how our company can support their career growth, and ask detailed questions about their previous work experience.

Step 4: Giving test tasks

The next step in our hiring funnel is a real-world testing task for candidates who have made it this far. We give them a few days to complete it, making sure the assignment reflects the actual work they would be doing with us.

Over the past year, we've had to redesign all of our testing tasks to be AI-proof. With AI helping candidates, it has become more difficult assess their true skill levels.

Once assignments are submitted, I review each assignment for customer facing positions. For technical roles, the responsibility of our video editing department takes over.

We provide detailed feedback on each candidate, regardless of whether they are a good fit or not. We highlight what stood out, areas for improvement and advice for their job search. In this way, we ensure that everyone who invests their time gets something valuable in return. Plus, it leaves the door open for future hires.

Connected: 5 personality traits hiring managers should look for in candidates

Step 5: Practice

After this review, we invite top candidates to join us for a two-week paid internship, which is a serious opportunity for skills development. This experience allows them to learn more about our work environment and demonstrate their skills.

During this period, top candidates work on real tasks under the supervision of a manager to put their knowledge into practice.

It's a win-win for everyone. Candidates get a real taste of what it's like to work with us and we get to see how they perform in a real-world environment.

It's not just about hard skills. We give them a mentor who provides guidance and observes how well candidates can listen, take feedback and adapt – in other words, whether they are a good fit for our corporate culture.

If they do, that's a strong indicator that they have potential for growth and success on our team, and it's also a major green flag for us.

In the end, we stick with the candidates who do it best. That's how we went from 100 candidates to 2.

In the world of employment, both parties have to put in a lot of effort. It's not just about time, it's also about emotional investment. However, the energy we get from a successful hire is multiplied. Once we've completed our process and fine-tuned our approach, there's no turning back.

We will lose much more than we save if we miss any step in our hiring pipeline. However, if we do it all, the payoff in the end makes the effort worth it, giving us a fantastic return on our investment.