Want to hire better than your competition? Start here! (Hiring High Performers Part 1 of 6)
Does this sound like a familiar story?
Once upon a time, there was a sports executive who was in charge of hiring a new Head of Performance for his team. This candidate came as a referral from a trusted network connection. According to this connection, in a past organization, this candidate was amazing and loved by the board, colleagues, and athletes alike. Given the great buzz, the executive came into the interview already with a positive impression, and therefore took a casual, unstructured approach to the interviews, mostly asking open-ended questions. He also didn't take any notes during the interviews, and relied on his memory to make a decision.
The hiring process took longer than expected and the executive ended up hiring this candidate who seemed like a good fit at the time, but ended up being a poor leader. Maybe this Head of Performance was great in a different environment, but since the DNA and values of every club is so different, there had not been any proper evaluation to determine if the candidate was the right person for this specific organization. The executive soon realized that his unstructured approach to the interviews had led to a poor hiring decision. After just one (disappointing) season, the Head of Performance was let go and the hiring process needed to be started over again.
You invest loads of time planning a meaningful strategy to make sure your athletes perform better than your competition.
Hiring is no different: if you want to beat your competition and win over the best talents in the market, good preparation is the key to success!
The problem with a casual approach to hiring
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Lack of interview structure increases the likelihood of making unfounded candidate judgments. Research indicates that a staggering 60% of hiring decisions are made within the first 15 minutes, and 25.5% are made within the first 5 minutes. This poses a particular challenge when aiming for a more diverse team, as the Harvard Business Review highlights that biased hiring inadvertently excludes qualified candidates from underestimated backgrounds. Despite our intention to be objective, many hiring managers and recruiters rely on quick decisions influenced by gut feelings, first impressions, and personal opinions, none of which accurately predict a candidate's skills or suitability for the role.
To enhance the effectiveness of interviews in assessing a candidate's job performance, it is crucial to establish a structured approach. Unstructured interviews, characterized by casual conversations and random resume-based questions, often result in on-the-spot decisions. Conversely, structured interviews maintain focus and provide interviewers with a clear understanding of the candidate's skills relevant to the position. By implementing a structured interview process, you can significantly increase the likelihood of making well-informed hiring choices.
How you can benefit from structured hiring
Structured hiring is the key to:
Avoiding bad hires (and costly hiring mistakes): did you know a bad hire can cost you approximately 14,000 EUR? A structured interview process can lead to more confident hiring decisions and reduce the risk of a bad hire.
Identifying the RIGHT person for your team: you’ll focus more on identifying key traits and behaviors to predict a candidate’s on-the-job success, rather than being guided by the classic recruitment trope of “with whom would you most enjoy having a beer?”
Efficiency: You’ll be able to evaluate candidates faster, leading to less time spent with wrong candidates, and lower costs associated with hiring. Clear criteria also mean clear expectations for your recruiter, allowing them to create you a most relevant short list of candidates.
Increase chances of hiring diverse talent: Having clear criteria allows you to keep focus on what’s important (and leave to the side criteria which are not relevant to the job). This allows you to consider diverse candidates, and make less of a biased judgement.
Employee retention: Structured hiring puts emphasis on hiring talents who don’t just fit your needs now, but who will add value to your team for years to come
Attract top talents through improved candidate experience: Some of the top recruiting leaders predict that in 2023, the link between candidate brand and consumer brand will continue to become more important (source). The interview process is an important chance to shape the reputation of your organization’s brand, especially when your candidates are likely to be fans of your team.
What structured hiring means in practice
So what are the concrete components of structured hiring?
Identifying job-relevant, descriptive hiring criteria, which are connected to your organization’s big picture
Ensuring each interview has a clear purpose related to the defined criteria
Ensuring all interviewers have relevant and standardized questions aligned with the purpose of each interview
A great job description based on the hiring criteria to attract top talents
It sounds easy, but you’d be shocked to know how many hiring teams don’t follow this simple format for guaranteed success.
In our upcoming blog series, “Hiring High Performers”, we will show you step-by-step how to implement structured hiring, plus give tips on how to make a job description that attracts top talent!
