Most businesses don’t have a consistent hiring process and make decisions largely based on their gut feelings.
I’ve worked for the smallest and some of the largest companies in the world, and none of them had a consistent and formalized interview process. Even when I worked at NASA, they didn’t either.
Whenever someone quit or the need arose to hire someone, HR wrote a job description, posted it online, collected resumes, interviewed a few people and hoped they’d hired the best candidate, but half the time they were dead wrong.
Even though they interviewed ten or more candidates, which was plenty. The number of candidates wasn’t the problem.
What they didn’t realize was that they didn’t have a clear picture of the role.
They weren’t clear about the competencies, character attributes, skills, and experience that needed to be present in anyone hired for that role.
They weren’t clear about the outcomes of what anyone in that role needed to accomplish in the first year.
They just hired whoever sounded the best.
The description of the role might require 5 years’ experience, a bachelor of science degree, and knowledge of certain software programs.
But none of that tells you what success looks like in the job, and that didn’t matter because they never defined success in the first place.
So before I interview candidates, I always start with this question:
What does anyone in this role need to accomplish in the first 12 months for us to consider them a great hire?
If you’re hiring for a sales role, maybe that question is structured around building a $1 million pipeline.
If it’s an operations role, maybe product delivery times need to be reduced by half.
Or if it’s an office manager role, maybe scheduling, billing issues or customer complaints are the focus of the role.
What ever it is, it needs to be defined before anything else happens.
I call these first-year accountabilities.
Once you define them, your interview process shifts from asking yourself whether you like a candidate or not to asking yourself, “Did we find enough evidence that shows they can accomplish what the job requires?”
That’s a small distinction, but it explains why the wrong people get hired for roles they fail in.
A candidate can have a terrific resume and perform well in the interview, but still be wrong for the job.
And the opposite happens too.
Someone who doesn’t look perfect in the interview might be right for the role.
That’s why I’m not a fan of adding more interviews, more tests and more requirements to the interview process.
More steps don’t mean you’ll make better hiring decisions, but clarity does.
Before you start looking for your next employee, write down the three things you need that person to accomplish during their first year.
Don’t go beyond three or you’ll find yourself looking for a unicorn or a purple squirrel.
Then build the rest of your hiring process around finding evidence that shows they can do those things.
Once you do, finding the right candidate becomes so much easier.
But whatever you’re hiring for, you need to quantify or clearly define the accountabilities so you have something to hire against.
Otherwise, you’re just hoping.
Keep playing the long game!
When you start a business, nobody hands you a manual. That’s why I write The Long Game.
Each week, I share stories, insights, and observations from the lessons I’ve learned—and the ones I’m still learning—about building a business, hiring the right people and creating a culture people want to be part of.
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