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Hiring is too important to get wrong

10-Mar-2011

Looking back over my management career, the worst experiences were without a doubt, having to deal with poorly performing or badly behaving staff members.  I remember the stress, anguish, not to mention the loss of sleep thinking about the tough conversations I needed to have.

I learned many painful lessons, and one of the most important was the realization that you can make things a lot easier on yourself, and achieve far better results - if you hire the right person in the first place.  

That’s where the Topgrading methodology has made a huge difference.  Studies have shown that the way most people conduct their recruiting, the hiring manager will only successfully hire an “A” Player 25% of the time.  Not good enough!  Whereas, if you follow this disciplined hiring methodology; you can increase your hiring success rate to 90%.  So if you want less stress, more sleep, and better company performance, those latter odds make a lot of sense.

(RESULTS.com defines an “A” Player as a person who consistently exceeds the performance standards required for their role; and who simultaneously demonstrates all your company core values – they are a role model for your culture.  Both requirements must be met).

Like most success factors we teach our clients, it requires real discipline to learn, implement, and follow such methodology.  You take hiring shortcuts at your peril.  Hiring is too important to get wrong!

The process starts with creating 1 page “scorecard” for each role.  The scorecard is the checklist against which everything must be ticked before you make a hiring decision.  

In broad terms, here is what your scorecards should contain for each role:

Core Values.

For any role in your company, the applicant must be able to prove that they are aligned with, and have demonstrated these behaviors in previous roles.  Otherwise they are the wrong fit for your culture – period.

Key Performance Indicators.

Every role should have a KPI. What 1 or 2 numbers will the applicant be held strictly accountable for attaining the required performance standard every month?  They must know how their performance will be scored, and be willing to be held accountable to achieve these specified results.      

Behavioral Competencies.

What specific behaviors “must” the applicant have demonstrated in previous jobs, in order to be highly likely to deliver an “A” Player level of performance for you in this role?  (When you specify these, it is possible to construct an interview process that performs “due diligence” on each of these areas)

Experience, qualifications.

Most companies only recruit for these factors – but they are really just table stakes.


Use the scorecard as the basis from which you construct your job posting for each role.  It will deter many unsuitable applicants from applying right from the start - which is a good thing.  You only want strong candidates applying.

The 1 page role scorecard is just the starting point for making great hiring decisions (we will explore the other steps in future articles).  Have you built scorecards for each of the key roles in your company?

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