2. How to choose the right person?

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The Hiring Playbooks

5 min readOct 4, 2017

‘How to choose the right person’ is the second chapter of Hire, the fourth book of The Hiring Playbooks, 5 ebooks that will turn all your hires into wins. Created by the Homerun team.

This chapter will help discuss candidates with colleagues and review candidates based on scorecards and personal traits.

On average, only 19% of all hires are successful. Yes, we were surprised
to discover that too.
Hires rarely fail because they lack technical aptitude; hires fail because
they don’t fit into their new workplace. To hire successfully you need to
choose the right candidate for your team — not the perfect candidate
on paper. Therefore focusing on somebody’s specific skills and
education won’t help improve your success rate; but asking questions
to explore their personality will.
Having the right attitude and an ability to learn can make someone a
better fit for a position than a fully qualified candidate who is simply
difficult to get along with. It’s a delicate balance, but if you follow the
steps below, then you’ll increase your chances of making the right
decision.

How do I choose?

1. Have clear benchmarks for each round
The previous article in our playbook, How to interview candidates
objectively, touches on the importance of having benchmarks for each
round of interviews.
Even if you’re familiar with it, it’s worth repeating that including
benchmarks into your interview process will make it much easier and
more effective.

After each round of interviews, get together with your hiring team to
discuss feedback.
• Ask everyone to provide you with a list of the candidates that
they believe met all of the benchmarks, together with reasons or
examples to back up their choices.
• Calibrate your assessments. If you agree on enough of the
candidates to move forward, that’s awesome, if not…
• Work through any differences of opinion by having each member
of the team present their examples and reasoning until you all
agree on someone.

If you’re still struggling to find common ground, pull out your
scorecards again and go through each candidate’s answers to see
whose responses fit the profile you laid out in your job brief.
Remember, even if it sounds a lot of work, this process can be fun
too. After all, you’re doing it for your team, so try and make it personal
(without losing sight of your goals). A user-friendly, streamlined process
will make everyone’s life easier and keep the mood positive.

2. Let your scorecards narrow down the finalists
When you’ve completed the final round of interviews, it’s time to pull
out your scorecards again — so make sure nobody throws them away.
Each member of the hiring team should review their scores for the
remaining candidates and select their top pick.

• Try not to go in with your mind made up. If necessary, hide the
candidates’ names when reviewing your scorecard.
• Look back over each question and column on your card, noting
the best answers as you go. The candidate whose answers are
most in line with what you’re looking for is the obvious best pick.
• If your intuition doesn’t align with your scorecard, try to
understand why. Don’t ignore your gut feeling, but also keep
in mind that your feelings can be swayed by things that have
nothing to do with a candidate’s qualifications (appearance,
handshake, body language).
• Once you’ve made your pick, write down your main reasons for
choosing them.

After everyone has made their selection, get the team together to
discuss the results. Go through a similar process as you did when
moving candidates along to the next round of interviews:

Reveal your picks.
• If you’re in agreement, it’s high fives all round!
• If not, get out your job brief and review the requirements one last
time, paying close attention to culture fit.
• Once you’ve reviewed this together, ask everyone to explain the
reasoning behind their choice and deliberate until you come to a
decision.
• High fives all round!
If you still can’t decide, don’t despair.

3. Consider these seven attributes
There’s been lots (and lots) of research done on the personality traits
that make for great employees. These seven attributes have been
shown to predict that a person will be an incredible hire.
Internal locus of control — Look for people who base their successes and
failures on their own work and believe that they control their lives. In
contrast, avoid hiring people who believe that life just happens to them,
and that they have no control over negative outcomes.

Grit — Look for someone who has a history of persevering through
challenging situations. These aren’t necessarily painful or difficult
tasks, but can also include a mind-numbingly boring project like data
entry.

Rigor — Look for people who are able to assess large quantities of
information to make an informed decision.

Impact — Look for people who understand how their actions impact
the people around them and the companies they’ve worked for. Hire
someone who appreciates how what they do affects their team and
employer’s goals.

Teamwork — Look for people who understand their own weaknesses
and abilities, and appreciate the skills and input of others. Empathetic
people perform much better in team situations.

Curiosity — Look for people who are innately curious about the world,
who are always looking to grow and improve their understanding.
Curious people are more likely to become better employees over time.

Thoughtfulness — Look for candidates who think through their actions
from start to finish and take the time to communicate clearly.

If you’re still stuck, Willem from Homerun has a story for you.

“Boris, the founder of The Next Web, told me that when he’s stuck between
two equally qualified candidates, he thinks about the elevator in his
old office. It used to jam all the time, so he would often get stuck with
a colleague in the lift for 30 minutes. However, it wasn’t a problem as
he always enjoyed the chat. When he hires someone now, he considers
whether he would have a good time if he was stuck in the elevator with
this candidate, or if he’d rather jump out of it.”