What Is Structured Hiring?

Structured hiring is an approach to recruiting designed to provide a consistent interviewing experience for all parties involved. This hiring procedure provides a uniform method of evaluating candidates, encourages evidence based decisions, minimizes interviewer bias, and reduces the time/cost of hiring. Candidates feel their time and effort is respected, recruiters can predict when the vacancy will be filled, interviewers know what is required, and hiring managers have an increased chance of finding applicants who meet the criteria. Below are suggestions for establishing a structured hiring process.

  • Specify Requirements: Decide on the requirements of the position and define the skills, traits, strengths and qualifications needed to meet these requirements. Include a mix of well-defined abilities (i.e. knowledge, computer skills), personality traits (i.e. confident, adaptable, conscientious) and qualifications (i.e. degrees, certificates or career experience). 

  • Generate Job Postings: Generate precise, concrete job ads in order to attract proficient candidates. 

  • Create an Interview Plan: Using the requirements generated, create a structure that tells the interviewers which skills and traits they will be assessing and what questions they will be asking. Include role-specific questions and general interview questions. Choose a rating scale (5 or 7-point scales work best). Checklists and scorecards are a concrete way to structure the interview process. Determine who will conduct the interviews. Consider a panel and include skilled employees with a similar role. 

  • Carry Out Interviews: Using your checklist, scorecard and rating scale, begin interviewing candidates using the same questions and procedure for each applicant. Make notes while interviewing. If the interview process is not working, have the recruiter and hiring manager meet and make modifications. 

  • Hire the Best Candidate(s): Hold a meeting including the recruiter, hiring manager and interviewers. Share the data from your checklists, scorecards and rating scale. Compare notes. Share feedback and insights on each candidate. Determine the top candidate. 

Structured hiring identifies talented candidates in an unbiased way, reduces the time and cost of hiring and creates a  process that is easy for the candidate, recruiters, and hiring managers to navigate.

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