How to Dramatically Improve Your Hiring Hit Rate

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Most leaders pride themselves on their ability to read people, but research, not to mention the track records of many organizations, tells a different story. Studies show that most of us overestimate our skills. Overconfidence in hiring decisions costs organizations money and time, tarnishes reputations, and demoralizes people who suffer through the revolving door of colleagues.??

Gut feelings can quickly overtake our decision-making process because they lead us down the path of confirmation bias. If our instincts about a person are strong, and we are great at reading people, then we must be right! However, hiring the wrong people can have major financial consequences for the organization, so shouldn’t we introduce some skepticism into the process??

Here are a few ways to help reveal your blind spots before you make a final decision.?

1) Use unvarnished candor about what you are looking for. ?

Leaders know to look at a candidate’s experience and industry knowledge, but too often, they overlook less obvious information. How someone works is just as important as what they know.?

One CEO told me he finally realized that they “hired people for what they know but fired them for who they are.”?

Ask yourself what the person needs to do and what attributes they need to make their ability even more valuable. Conversely, what are the deal-breakers? More than good on paper is needed.??

2) Don’t overlook bad behavior.

When a candidate seems perfect on paper, it’s easy to overlook red flags. Lateness or treating others rudely (ask your assistant about their interaction, for example), is a big problem you may dismiss as a “one-off.”?

A CMO made a disastrous hiring decision after he rationalized a candidate’s bad behavior. He felt his opinion was “too subjective.” However, he based his view on observable behavior, not supposition or amateur analysis - he saw what he saw, and it was inarguably bad. The person was hired as an SVP and fired 120 days later, but only after riding roughshod over his colleagues and embarrassing the CMO.?

3) Trust, but verify.?

It’s not uncommon for leaders to take what candidates say at face value, but due diligence can avoid some very unpleasant surprises. Kevin, the CEO of a rapidly growing company, hired an executive without verifying his academic credentials or confirming that he was fluent in the languages he claimed. Later, he discovered that the person he hired didn’t have the education he claimed, nor was he multilingual—both essential abilities needed for the job.?

The candidate bet that Kevin would not verify his credentials, and he was right. A rookie mistake, right? It happens far more often than you’d like to believe.?

4) Examine your decision-making process.?

Cognitive biases can’t be avoided by naming them as if that were a preventative incantation. Examining your process can be extremely helpful, especially when you have a set of outcomes to tell you what you do well and what could use sharpening.?

Think about, and even write down, some of the hiring decisions you made or helped to make. Rate the quality of the decisions from very good to poor. What was different in those that turned out well? You can ask yourself:?

• Was the role clear, including essential outcomes and authority?
• Were the needed resources available?
• What credentials were deemed necessary, and were they substantiated?
• Do your excellent hiring decisions have something in common?
• Are there any essential characteristics that you tend to evaluate poorly? What are those, and is there a pattern to your mistakes?

While you’re at it, ask yourself if you have a bit of fun in interviews. If an interview is painful, you have your answer.?

My fascination with how people make decisions continues unabated. I launched a podcast When I realized I wanted to share how super smart, successful people make decisions in the wild. The Decision Doctor?, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major platforms. My guests are intelligent and generous humans, and I know you’d love to know more about them.