Tips for Redefining Candidate Evaluation Criteria

They’re the hardest to measure. The hardest to develop. The hardest to replace. And yet, they’re often treated like an afterthought. In reality, they’re what separate great hires from bad ones. 👉 Emotional intelligence. 👉 Problem-solving. 👉 Communication. 👉 Adaptability. 👉 Influence. These aren’t just workplace buzzwords. They’re the skills that drive innovation, collaboration, and leadership. As Peter Drucker put it: “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” But here’s the problem: - Job seekers struggle to prove these skills. - Hiring managers struggle to assess them. - Traditional hiring methods (resumes, interviews, even technical tests) aren’t built to measure them effectively. So how do you recognize spot these skills in candidates? 🔹 Go beyond the resume. Instead of relying on past job titles, ask about challenges they’ve faced and how they navigated them. Stories reveal problem-solving, communication, and adaptability. 🔹 Listen for “we” vs. “I.” UCandidates who naturally talk about teamwork, collaboration, and shared success tend to have strong interpersonal and leadership skills. 🔹 Test for adaptability. Throw in a curveball question. See how they respond to an unexpected change. Are they flustered, or do they roll with it? 🔹 Look for self-awareness. Ask about a time they received tough feedback and how they handled it. Someone with strong emotional intelligence won’t just blame others—they’ll reflect, adapt, and improve. 🔹 Pay attention to how they interact. The way candidates communicate with you in the hiring process is often the best indicator of their soft skills. Do they listen actively? Ask thoughtful questions? Show curiosity? Soft skills might be hard to measure, but they’re impossible to fake. And hiring without considering them? That’s a costly mistake. What are your go-to strategies for assessing these essential skills in candidates? Let’s compare notes. ⬇️

I just rejected the 'perfect' candidate. Harvard MBA. FAANG experience. Stellar portfolio. Why? Because I watched how they treated our receptionist. Here's the truth: The interview starts the moment they enter the building. My 5-point candidate evaluation checklist: 1. Pre-interview behavior 🔍 • How do they treat support staff? • Are they on time? • How do they handle waiting? 2. Real-world scenarios 📊 • No more "where do you see yourself in 5 years" • Instead: "Tell me how you'd handle [actual current challenge]" • Watch their thought process, not just the answer 3. Team interaction 🤝 • Informal coffee chat with potential teammates • See how they handle different personalities • Observe their listening skills 4. Follow-up quality ✍️ • Do they send thoughtful thank you notes? • Are they asking insightful questions? • How do they handle feedback? 5. Cultural contribution 🌟 • What unique perspective do they bring? • How do they handle disagreement? • What values do they demonstrate? The result? • Better culture alignment • Longer employee retention • Stronger team dynamics • Fewer hiring mistakes Remember: Skills get them through the door. Character gets them the job. What's your non-negotiable when evaluating candidates? Share your insights below! 👇 #HiringTips #RecruitmentStrategy #TalentAcquisition

Stop hiring and promoting the wrong people - What employers should actually value: Instead of looking for hours worked ↳Prioritize results delivered Instead of looking for a title that implies leadership ↳Prioritize true signs of leadership in any role Instead of looking for people who are like you and "fit in" ↳Prioritize people who bring new ideas and approaches Instead of looking for where people do their work ↳Prioritize whether the work is getting done Instead of looking for charisma, confidence, and extroversion ↳Prioritize humble, strong listeners with reliable performance Instead of looking for a person who says "yes" to everything ↳Prioritize a person who knows how to set boundaries Instead of looking for someone who never makes mistakes ↳Prioritize someone who learns and grows quickly Instead of looking for individual performance and achievement ↳Prioritize contributions to team success and culture Instead of looking for a perfect resume without gaps or steps back ↳Prioritize the right skills and attitude for the role Instead of looking for employees who avoid risks and follow rules ↳Prioritize employees who innovate and creatively problem-solve Instead of looking for degrees and hard skills ↳Prioritize soft skills like EQ, communication, and resilience Instead of looking for constant availability ↳Prioritize effective prioritization Instead of looking for someone who "checks all the boxes" ↳Prioritize someone with potential to grow beyond the role When interviewing new candidates, Evaluating existing employees, Or making promotion decisions, Focus on the things that actually matter and deliver results, Rather than vanity metrics or useless skills and priorities. A shocking number of organizations get this exactly backwards. You can gain a competitive advantage by focusing on the column on the right, And tuning out the left. Any others you'd add to this list? --- ♻️ Repost to help other organizations prioritize properly. And follow me George Stern for more content like this.

🌟🌟🌟ATTENTION HIRING MANAGERS🌟🌟🌟 The traditional approach of choosing the right person for the job leans heavily on specific #experiences and direct background in a particular role. It's time to shift the focus towards a more holistic understanding of a candidate's capabilities, particularly emphasizing #TransferableSkills, power skills (#SoftSkills), and intrinsic qualities like #drive and #passion. ✅In today's fast-paced #work environment, the ability to adapt is crucial. #Candidates with strong transferable skills can quickly acclimate to new roles and #challenges, bringing an invaluable level of #flexibility. Skills such as #ProblemSolving, #CriticalThinking, and #adaptability aren't tied to a specific job but are essential in almost every role. ✅Power skills, like #communication, #teamwork, and #EmotionalIntelligence, are vital to the success of any #organization. These skills enable #employees to #collaborate effectively, navigate #workplace dynamics, and contribute to a positive work #culture. Unlike hard skills, which can be #learned and perfected over time, power skills are more innate and reflective of a person's #character and #attitude. ✅Focusing on what a candidate can achieve rather than what they have done before opens doors to a broader #talent pool. Candidates with the right attitude and a drive to learn can often outperform those with more direct experience but less enthusiasm. ✅When #promoting internally, organizations sometimes choose individuals without direct experience in the new role. These decisions are based on the understanding of the individual's broader skill set and potential. This same principle should apply to external #hiring. If an internal candidate can succeed with a learning curve, so can an external one. ✅Candidates from different backgrounds or #industries can bring new #perspectives and #ideas. This #diversity of thought fosters #innovation and creativity, helping #businesses to evolve and stay #competitive. A diverse workforce, in terms of skills and experiences, is a key driver for innovation. ✅As technology advances and industries transform, the nature of work changes. Focusing on transferable skills prepares organizations for future changes and challenges, as employees with these skills can more easily shift and grow with the company. So, while direct experience is valuable, it should not be the sole determinant in hiring decisions. Transferable skills, power skills, and personal attributes are equally, if not more, important. By broadening your perspective, you can fill the positions and contribute to building a robust, adaptable, and innovative workforce. It's time for a paradigm shift in hiring that values potential and adaptability as much as past experience.

Having conducted 100+ interviews during my career… This is what I should have learned much faster: Most interviews measure how much someone reminds us of ourselves, not how well they perform. Side Note: Narcissists outperform on interviews because they are good at bragging. So when you think a candidate “nailed” an interview, don’t be fooled: It’s easier to prepare for an interview… Than it is to do actual work. So, make sure you’re focusing on: ➟ Problem-solving over rehearsed answers It’s more valuable to understand how they think, than the perfect story they tell. ➟ Emotional Intelligence (EQ over IQ) Adding IQ to a Team does not equal high performance, instead, people with high EQ allow for better team dynamics and high collective intelligence. ➟ Novelty beats familiarity Hire people with unique skills, experience, and knowledge. You generally don't need more of what you have. ➟ Collaboration over competition Being able to work WITH others is far more important than dominating a conversation. Remember: The best candidate may not: • Have the best answers for hypothetical questions • Show up with a perfectly crafted narrative • Fit the traditional “interview mold” So, the next time you’re hiring, rethink your approach. Assess what actually matters for the role. Not just their ability to impress for an hour. The right assessment transforms potential into proven performance. And takes your hiring process from conventional to exceptional. ♻ Repost to share with your network. For more behavioral science insights and opportunities to connect, join the thousands of readers of my monthly Newsletter https://lnkd.in/dnKE4zFj

One of the most exciting aspects of writing "Make Work Fair" with my coauthor, Iris Bohnet, has been turning behavioral science insights and research evidence into practical, data-driven organizational design. Today, I want to share a powerful tip for improving hiring processes: structured decision-making. Unstructured interviews are notoriously poor predictors of job performance and rife with bias. But by adding structure to our hiring processes, we can significantly improve both fairness and —importantly—effectiveness. Here's a simple three-step approach you can implement: 📋 Define clear evaluation criteria before reviewing any applications. 🔢 Use a standardized scoring rubric for all candidates. ↔️ Compare candidates’s answers horizontally (all answers to question 1, then all answers to question 2, etc.) rather than vertically (one full candidate at a time). This method helps mitigate the impact of unconscious bias by focusing our attention on relevant qualifications rather than subjective "fit" or first impressions. In my research, I've seen organizations implement similar approaches with promising results. While specific outcomes vary, the trend is clear: structured hiring processes tend to lead to more diverse candidate pools and better alignment between job requirements and new hire performance. Have you tried structured hiring in your organization? What was your experience? #HiringPractices #WorkplaceFairness #DataDrivenHR #MakeWorkFairBook

You get what you hire so be careful about what you prioritize in hiring decisions... Soft skills trump hard ones, and behavior trumps knowledge. But (too often) we fail because we still make hiring decision by prioritizing experience, education and school brands. We—employers, hiring managers and supervisors—get too excited about what people promise and too disappointed when they don’t deliver. We make better hiring decisions when we 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Soft skills and behavior provide a better metric than education and experience ever will for assessing performance and predicting success. Some highly educated and very experienced employees fail to perform every day because they fail to demonstrate critical soft skills or fail to demonstrate behaviors that leaders look for in high-performing employees. I’ve worked with thousands of supervisors and executives, and they are not talking about how they need to hire people with higher levels of education and more experience. No, this is not their challenge. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗲... ➔ They tell me that they desperately need to get people who will demonstrate better behavior. ➔ They want people who can communicate better. They want people who can resolve conflicts better. ➔ They want people who think critically and who ask thoughtful questions. ➔ They want people who are ethical and demonstrate integrity. ➔ They want emotionally intelligent people who are self-aware, reflective, disciplined and motivated. ➔ They want people who will give feedback and are also happy to receive it. To further explore this area, I asked the group of about 200 supervisors and executives to share the “real” reasons that they either fired, refused to promote or downgraded an employee's performance review within the prior two years. 💡 Check out the list of 19 reasons that this group shared for why they've fired or demoted employees (link to Forbes article in comments). 💡 You'll see that the lack of a college degree and a lack of prior work experience weren’t listed as reasons for poor performance. 💡 Most of the identified reasons are directly connected to deficiencies in soft skills and behavior rather than any education or experience deficiency. 💡 Until we align the primary hiring factors to the primary firing factors, nothing will change. 💡 And, until you align the primary hiring factors with the primary firing factors, you will question your ability to make good hiring decisions. #leadership #csuite #hiring #supervisors

As a Family Office executive search professional, I've learned that the quality of our questions determines the quality of our candidate assessment. Why Open-Ended Questions Matter: Reveal thought processes and decision-making approaches Allow candidates to showcase their unique perspectives Create natural dialogue rather than rehearsed responses Enable deeper assessment of cultural fit Provide insights into communication style Key Strategy: Determine specific insights needed Craft questions that can't be answered with yes/no Listen actively for follow-up opportunities Probe deeper when responses warrant exploration Example Transitions: "Tell me more about..." "What led you to..." "How did you approach..." What factors influenced..." Remember: The goal isn't just to gather information—it's to understand how candidates think, lead, and solve problems.

Years of experience and titles don't predict success. They never did. In fact, those measures supported the status quo and inhibited innovation. And too many hiring managers are stuck in the past. The current environment demands better, and today's candidates deserve better. Last week my client told me she was asked in a 3rd round interview about going for chief of staff role when she'd "never had that title before." She'd been executing COS functions for years with VP and director titles. Not to mention that proven COS skills were all over her resume. It was a lazy question. As recruiting becomes far more complex, recruiters and hiring managers need to respond and change what they are measuring. The best organizations will value: ✅ Skills over titles ✅ Emotional intelligence over years of experience ✅ Ability to learn and adapt over traditional backgrounds ✅ Collaboration over competition ✅ Productivity over hours worked The truth is that there are titles today that didn't exist 2 years ago. There will be titles next year we've never heard before. We need to give more attention to: ➙ Skills, talents and capacities ➙ New approaches developed in other industries ➙ Adaptability built through diverse roles Does this take effort? Absolutely. Smart companies are already doing this and landing the best candidates. Companies that can't adapt will be left behind. How have you adapted your recruiting practices to the current reality? Share any tips below.👇 ♻️Please repost to help others tackle their fears 🔔Follow Sarah Baker Andrus for career & job search advice

Here's how you can evaluate a candidate's emotional intelligence during the interview process: 1. Observation of interactions:   - Pay attention to how the candidate interacts with different interviewers   - Look for signs of empathy, self-awareness, and social skills   - Note their ability to read and respond to nonverbal cues 2. Active listening:   - Observe how the candidate listens to questions and responds   - Look for signs that they are truly listening, rather than just waiting for their turn to speak   - Assess their ability to ask clarifying questions and summarize key points 3. Self-awareness:   - Ask the candidate to describe their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement   - Evaluate how self-aware they are and their willingness to acknowledge and work on their limitations 4. Relationship management:   - Inquire about how the candidate has handled conflicts or difficult team dynamics in the past   - Assess their approach to resolving interpersonal issues and fostering collaboration 5. Adaptability and stress management:   - Present hypothetical scenarios that require the candidate to adapt to change or handle pressure   - Observe how they respond and their ability to remain calm and composed 6. Empathy and compassion:   - Ask the candidate to describe a time they had to support a team member who was going through a personal challenge   - Evaluate their ability to put themselves in others' shoes and provide emotional support 7. Motivation and inspiration:   - Inquire about how the candidate has motivated or inspired their team in the past   - Assess their ability to create a positive, energizing work environment 8. Ethical decision-making:   - Present scenarios that require the candidate to make tough ethical choices   - Evaluate their decision-making process and the rationale behind their choices