How to Make a Hiring Decision

Hiring is a high-stakes game and for managers, it’s one of the most important decisions they can make for their team. Each new hire shapes the future of your team and (depending on your size) even the company. After conducting an interview and gathering all the necessary data, the question is always: should we hire this person? There are only two choices—you're either inclined to hire or not. There's no room for indecision. But how do you make the right choice without letting biases and hunches influence you? The answer lies in a methodical approach to evaluating your candidate.

Write Things Down and Analyze the Data

Don't jump the gun on making a vote; think it through first. You may already have a gut feeling or you might feel conflicted due to a mixed performance. Silence that voice for a while.

If you’ve been following the Hiring and Interviewing series, you’ve seen me say this in every single article: write down everything important. We just established how important this decision is, so it follows you should write things down and let your writing lead you to the answer.

In previous articles, I've covered how to conduct both the technical interview and behavioral discussions. In these I shared my top tips on how to keep notes during the discussion – these are crucial to providing an objective assessment post-interview. Within the first 24 hours after the interview, review these notes and eliminate any biases that may have crept in. Compile a list of the candidate's strengths, weaknesses, and any concerns that arose during the interview.

Your next step is to create a clear and concise interview summary. This summary should be objective and focused on the job relevance of the data you've gathered. It should be well-organized and easy to understand, with specific examples that showcase the candidate's strengths or highlight any concerns.

Re(Calibrate) Your Observations

Calibration is essential in the hiring process. Your team should have a shared understanding of what constitutes a strength and what concerns can be coached over time. This calibration ensures that everyone is evaluating candidates against the same criteria.

For example, at Amazon there’s the concept of "the Bar" and every candidate is expected to exceed it, which means they are better than 50% of all employees in that role. Your company probably has a widely different definition of the criteria to get hired – make sure your summary and analysis was in line with that. You should not be bringing in your own criteria into the mix – trust and stick to the calibration.

Prepare the Final Vote

Now, we can start thinking of the final vote. As you’ve gone through your notes, removing everything that was not related to the role, summarizing strengths and weaknesses, and everything in between, you likely noticed a narrative forming naturally. This narrative is your guide, and you will see one of these situations:

• It’s matching your initial gut feeling: This is common and you might think to yourself that doing the exercise was a waste of time, but this is never true. Going through this exercise is important precisely to challenge yourself and prevent biases or blind spots from leading you to the wrong vote.
• It’s still looking undecided: If the summary is overly mixed and not leaning clearly in either direction, then I recommend you vote "Not Inclined". Even though the candidate performed well, they are not clearly meeting your calibration mark and it is safer to pass than it is to risk making the wrong hire.
• It’s clarifying your confusion: You started unsure, but after analyzing the data and summarizing things, you have a clear vote and the narrative explains it well.
• It’s countering your initial gut feeling: This is one of the rarer, but more powerful side effects of this method. This is why we don’t start with the vote – it would bias the summary. If the summary doesn’t match what you expected then you must reexamine and confront the potential biases that led to that. Inspect the case more deeply and refine your writing until you are clear on what the vote should be.

Once you’ve gathered and analyzed the data, written the summary, and reflected on it you will stamp an "Inclined" or "Not Inclined" vote. At this point, there should be no confusion or contradiction between that vote and the write-up you prepared.

The Vote is a Discussion Starter

Unless you're the sole decision-maker, the vote on whether or not to hire a candidate is just the beginning of a broader discussion. It's not an immovable position but an invitation to debate and consider the perspectives of other interviewers. Keeping an open mind and focusing on facts is crucial as you engage in this collaborative decision-making process.

In conclusion, hiring doesn't have to be a shot in the dark. By writing things down, assessing objectively, and engaging in calibrated discussions, you can make informed decisions that will benefit your team and company in the long run.