9 Best Practices to Improve Quality of Hire

Improving quality of hire starts with clarity about what you’re looking for in an ideal candidate. A well-crafted job description becomes your roadmap for the entire hiring process. It informs where you source candidates, what questions you ask in interviews, and how you ultimately evaluate candidates against consistent criteria. A vague or poorly defined job description may attract the wrong candidates and make it challenging to assess qualifications.

Begin with a thorough understanding of the role. Sit down with relevant stakeholders and define what success looks like in the position.

Focus on the must-have qualifications and attributes that will drive success, separating nice-to-have qualifications, to help ensure you’re not screening out qualified talent.

Building a skilled talent pool is crucial for improving quality of hire — but the best candidates aren’t all on the same channels. Smart sourcing means thinking creatively about where your ideal candidates might be found.

Start by examining where your current top performers came from. Was it through referrals? Specific industry groups? Certain educational institutions? This data can help you focus your efforts on the most productive channels.

Your employer brand is how potential candidates perceive your company as a place to work. A strong employer brand helps attract candidates who align with your values and vision. This alignment is critical for quality of hire; when candidates have accurate expectations about your company culture and the role, they’re more likely to thrive if hired.

Start by defining what makes your company unique as an employer. What values guide your decisions? What’s your approach to work? What growth opportunities do you offer? What’s the day-to-day experience like for team members? Capture these elements in a clear employer value proposition that you can communicate consistently.

Remember that your employer brand is built through every interaction candidates have with your company. The way you write job descriptions, how quickly you respond to applications, how you conduct interviews, and how you deliver feedback all contribute to candidates’ perception of your organization.

The interview is your opportunity to thoroughly assess candidates against consistent criteria. Unfortunately, many organizations rely on unstructured conversations that yield limited insights and introduce significant bias into the hiring process.

Structured interviews use a consistent set of questions for all candidates, allowing for fair comparisons. 

Create an interview plan based on the key requirements in your job description. For each critical skill or attribute, develop questions that reveal how candidates have demonstrated that capability in past situations. Behavioral questions focusing on past experiences are particularly effective.

For example, rather than asking “Are you good at resolving conflicts?” (which will almost always get a “yes”), ask “Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with a colleague. How did you handle it, and what was the outcome?” This requires candidates to provide specific examples that demonstrate their skills.

Train everyone involved in interviewing on proper techniques. Many hiring managers have never received formal instruction on effective interviewing. Make sure interviewers understand how to ask follow-up questions, recognize and mitigate their own biases, and evaluate candidates against consistent criteria.

Remember that interviews are bidirectional. Candidates are evaluating you as much as you’re evaluating them. Be prepared to articulate why someone would want to join your company and how this role contributes to both company success and personal growth.

Resumes and interviews can tell you what candidates claim they can do. Skill assessments show you what they can actually do. For roles with specific technical or practical components, these assessments provide invaluable insight into a candidate’s capabilities.

The most effective skill assessments simulate the actual work the candidate would do in the role. You might ask candidates to create a sample campaign strategy for a marketing position or role-play a challenging customer interaction for a customer service role. For roles requiring collaboration, consider group assessments where candidates work with team members on a project. This reveals how they interact with others, handle feedback, and contribute to collective problem-solving.

Keep assessments focused and reasonable in scope. Respect candidates’ time by designing tests that can be completed within a few hours. If you request more extensive work, consider offering compensation for their time. 

Provide clear instructions and evaluation criteria for the assessment. Candidates should understand exactly what you’re looking for and how they’ll be evaluated. This transparency helps candidates perform at their best and makes your evaluation more objective.

When possible, make assessments relevant to your actual business challenges. This gives candidates insight into the real work they would be doing and provides you with applicable examples of their problem-solving approach. Just be careful not to request free consulting work on current challenges without proper boundaries and compensation.

After candidates complete assessments, provide feedback regardless of your hiring decision. This professional courtesy enhances your employer brand and gives candidates valuable insight. For those you hire, the assessment can become a useful starting point for onboarding and development planning.

Remember that assessments should be just one component of your evaluation process. They provide valuable data points but should be considered alongside interviews, references, and other information about the candidate.

Background checks serve as an additional verification step before making an offer. They help confirm the information candidates have provided and identify potential issues that might affect their ability to perform the role. Perhaps that’s why 91% of organizations are confident that running background checks improves quality of hire.

Basic background checks typically include verification of employment history, education credentials, and criminal records. Depending on the role, you might also include credit checks (particularly for positions with financial responsibilities), driving records (for positions requiring operation of vehicles), or professional license verification.

Be transparent about your background check process. Include information about the types of checks you’ll conduct in your job descriptions and obtain proper consent from candidates before proceeding. This transparency builds trust and prevents surprises later in the hiring process.

Work with reputable background check providers who understand compliance requirements. Laws regarding background checks vary by location, and it’s important to ensure your process meets all legal standards. 

Consider the relevance of information to the specific role. A minor traffic violation might be insignificant for an office position but more concerning for a delivery driver role. Similarly, a credit issue might be relevant for a financial controller but less so for a graphic designer.

If background checks reveal discrepancies, approach the conversation with candidates carefully. There may be reasonable explanations for differences between what they reported and what the background check found. Give candidates an opportunity to explain before making final decisions.

Conduct background checks consistently for all candidates in similar roles to avoid discrimination claims. Treating different candidates differently based on protected characteristics can lead to legal issues.

Remember that background checks have limitations. They verify specific facts but don’t necessarily predict how well someone will perform in a role or fit with your team culture. They’re best used as a final confirmation step rather than a primary selection tool.

Reference checks provide valuable perspective from people who have actually worked with your candidates. When done properly, they can reveal patterns of behavior, working styles, and potential growth areas that might not emerge during interviews.

Approach reference checks as professional conversations rather than checkbox exercises. Prepare specific questions based on the role requirements and any areas you want to explore further based on interviews. Ask for examples that illustrate the candidate’s capabilities and work style.

Focus reference conversations on behaviors and results rather than general impressions. Instead of asking “Was Jane a good team member?” try “Can you tell me about a project where Jane collaborated effectively with others? What specifically did she contribute?” These behavioral questions yield more useful information.

Pay attention to what isn’t said during reference conversations. Hesitations, vague answers, or reluctance to discuss certain topics might signal areas of concern that warrant further exploration.

Consider the context of the reference relationship. A former supervisor will have different insights than a colleague or direct report. When possible, speak with references who interacted with the candidate in various capacities to get a more complete picture.

Document reference conversations thoroughly, noting specific examples and quotes that help illustrate the candidate’s strengths and potential growth areas. This documentation helps you compare candidates objectively and can provide useful onboarding information for the selected candidate.

Remember that references are typically selected by candidates and may provide overly positive feedback. Balance this with targeted questions about growth areas and specific examples of how the candidate overcame challenges or responded to feedback.

The candidate experience directly affects quality of hire by influencing which candidates stay engaged in your process and accept your offers. A positive experience also strengthens your employer brand, attracting more qualified candidates in the future.

Remember that candidates talk about their experiences with your company, both online and with their professional networks. Each candidate interaction either strengthens or weakens your reputation as an employer.

Moving beyond gut feelings and subjective impressions is essential for improving quality of hire. Data-driven hiring means using measurable information to inform your recruitment strategy, evaluate candidates objectively, and continuously improve your process.

Use standardized interview scorecards during your interview process. Have interviewers rate candidates on specific competencies using consistent scales. This creates comparable data points across candidates and reduces the impact of personal bias. Combine interview data with data from other evaluation sources like assessments, reference checks, and background checks to assess each candidate. It can be helpful to schedule an interview debrief to discuss interviewer feedback and make decisions around next steps.

Remember that data should inform, not replace, human judgment. The goal is to enhance decision-making with objective information, not to reduce hiring to a purely algorithmic process. The best hiring decisions typically come from combining relevant data with thoughtful human evaluation.