Latest / The Science of Leading / Recruit Talent: Strategic Guide to Hiring Top Talent

Transcript

Recruit Talent: Strategic Guide to Hiring Top Talent · The Science of Leading

• 0:00
  Welcome back to The Science of Leading.
• 0:01
  I'm Claire Monroe, and today we're unpacking something I think every
• 0:04
  HR leader has felt but maybe hasn't named: this tension between "hiring
• 0:09
  the best talker in the room" and actually building a system that gives
• 0:12
  you the right people, over and over.
• 0:12
  Mmm,
• 0:15
  yes.
• 0:16
  I've sat in so many debriefs where someone says,
• 0:19
  "I just have a good feeling about her," or,
• 0:21
  "He's so confident, he has to be top talent." And six months later,
• 0:25
  that "top talent" is struggling,
• 0:27
  or already gone.
• 0:27
  Yeah.
• 0:30
  I've made that call.
• 0:31
  You end up rewarding the best interviewer,
• 0:33
  not the best performer.
• 0:34
  So Edwin, let's ground this.
• 0:36
  When you talk about a recruiting "system," what are you contrasting that
• 0:39
  with?
• 0:39
  I'm contrasting it with what most organizations still do: ad‑hoc,
• 0:45
  personality‑driven hiring.
• 0:46
  Someone writes a generic job description,
• 0:49
  you post it, you interview whoever applies,
• 0:51
  and you lean heavily on gut feel and charisma in the room.
• 0:55
  That's not a system, that's a ritual.
• 0:55
  So what's the alternative?
• 0:55
  Think
• 1:01
  of recruiting as a decision system.
• 1:03
  Everything that happens before the hire is about reducing uncertainty:
• 1:07
  defining what "good" looks like,
• 1:09
  attracting the right people, and evaluating them in a way that's consistent
• 1:13
  and explainable.
• 1:14
  Hiring is the final decision and the transaction-making the offer,
• 1:18
  bringing them onboard.
• 1:18
  So most "hiring problems" are actually recruiting
• 1:22
  problems.
• 1:22
  Exactly.
• 1:24
  If your pipeline is weak or your evaluation is noisy,
• 1:28
  you compensate by lowering standards,
• 1:30
  stretching timelines, or overvaluing superficial signals.
• 1:34
  The fix is not "better vibes" in the interview.
• 1:37
  It's a better system.
• 1:37
  You talk a lot about outcome‑based roles.
• 1:42
  Can you connect that to quality‑of‑hire?
• 1:42
  Sure.
• 1:45
  Quality‑of‑hire really boils down to this: did the person actually deliver
• 1:50
  what the business needed, at the pace and in the environment you operate
• 1:54
  in?
• 1:54
  So instead of starting with a wishlist of skills,
• 1:57
  you start with outcomes and constraints.
• 2:00
  What three outcomes must they deliver in the first 90 days?
• 2:04
  In the first six months?
• 2:06
  And what are the non‑negotiable skills or behaviors to get there?
• 2:06
  You
• 2:11
  said "behaviors" very deliberately there.
• 2:11
  I did.
• 2:14
  Skills are visible on a résumé.
• 2:17
  Behaviors are how those skills show up under pressure-how someone makes
• 2:21
  decisions, handles ambiguity, collaborates,
• 2:24
  pushes or paces.
• 2:26
  That's where behavior‑fit comes in.
• 2:28
  Two candidates can have identical skills and wildly different odds of
• 2:33
  success in YOUR context because their behavioral wiring is different.
• 2:33
  Okay,
• 2:38
  so that's where OAD starts to matter.
• 2:40
  Because otherwise "behavior‑fit" is just another buzzword.
• 2:40
  Right.
• 2:44
  OAD gives you a behavioral assessment that translates that vague idea-"we
• 2:49
  need someone who's proactive but not reckless," for example-into a measurable
• 2:53
  profile.
• 2:54
  You define the role outcomes, you define the behavioral demands of that
• 2:58
  role, and OAD gives you decision‑ready data on how closely each candidate
• 3:03
  aligns.
• 3:03
  So instead of, "I think she's a good fit," you can say,
• 3:07
  "Her OAD profile matches the role's requirements for pace,
• 3:10
  independence, and stakeholder complexity," and then back it up with
• 3:10
  examples
• 3:14
  from the interview.
• 3:14
  Exactly.
• 3:16
  You're still using judgment, but you're not relying on unstructured judgment
• 3:20
  as your primary measurement tool.
• 3:22
  OAD becomes the engine that turns fuzzy expectations into a consistent
• 3:27
  behavioral scorecard.
• 3:28
  That's where mis‑hires drop, and quality‑of‑hire becomes predictable,
• 3:33
  not accidental.
• 3:33
  I like that-recruiting as a decision system,
• 3:37
  with OAD as the behavioral backbone.
• 3:39
  Let's get practical next and walk through what that looks like end‑to‑end.
• 3:39
  Alright,
• 3:44
  let's break this system down.
• 3:45
  You use a four‑stage model: define outcomes,
• 3:48
  attract and source, evaluate with structure,
• 3:50
  decide and close fast.
• 3:52
  Can we walk through each one and show where OAD plugs in?
• 3:52
  Absolutely.
• 3:56
  Stage one: define outcomes.
• 3:59
  You start with those three‑and‑three outcomes-90 days and six months-and
• 4:05
  your non‑negotiables.
• 4:06
  Here, OAD helps you build the behavioral role profile.
• 4:11
  If this role needs fast decision‑making,
• 4:13
  high follow‑through, and comfort with ambiguity,
• 4:16
  that becomes a target pattern in OAD,
• 4:19
  not just a line in the job description.
• 4:19
  So HR and the hiring manager sit
• 4:23
  down, define outcomes, and use OAD to translate that into a behavioral
• 4:28
  "spec" for the role.
• 4:28
  Exactly.
• 4:30
  And that spec anchors everything else.
• 4:33
  Stage two is attract and source.
• 4:35
  Your messaging and targeting change when you know the behavioral demands.
• 4:39
  If the role requires high collaboration and stakeholder management,
• 4:44
  you might target candidates from matrixed environments and speak directly
• 4:48
  to cross‑functional influence in your outreach.
• 4:51
  OAD data from your current high performers can even tell you what patterns
• 4:56
  tend to succeed in that team, so your sourcing is more precise.
• 4:56
  So you're
• 5:01
  not just saying, "We need a sales manager." You're saying,
• 5:04
  "We need a sales manager with THIS behavioral profile,
• 5:07
  in THIS environment," and you source to that.
• 5:07
  Yes.
• 5:10
  Then stage three: evaluate with structure.
• 5:13
  This is where the 80/20 really kicks in.
• 5:15
  For most companies, the biggest gains come from structured interviews,
• 5:19
  clear scorecards, and early behavioral assessment.
• 5:22
  You give candidates the OAD survey early in the process,
• 5:26
  and you build interview questions around their specific profile and the
• 5:30
  role profile.
• 5:30
  Can you make that concrete?
• 5:33
  Like, what changes in the interview?
• 5:33
  Let's say OAD shows a candidate is
• 5:37
  highly independent and fast‑paced,
• 5:39
  but the role requires careful stakeholder alignment.
• 5:42
  Your scorecard includes "collaborates across functions" as a criterion,
• 5:48
  and your structured questions probe for times they slowed down,
• 5:52
  brought others along, handled conflict.
• 5:55
  So you're testing the potential risk the data surfaced,
• 5:58
  instead of discovering it six months after hire.
• 5:58
  And even if different
• 6:02
  interviewers meet the candidate,
• 6:04
  they're all rating the same criteria,
• 6:06
  not just sharing vibes in a debrief.
• 6:06
  Exactly.
• 6:09
  OAD becomes the shared language.
• 6:12
  Then stage four: decide and close fast.
• 6:16
  Here, metrics like time‑to‑hire and funnel conversion really matter.
• 6:21
  If you're waiting a week to make a decision because people "aren't sure,"
• 6:26
  often the problem is unclear criteria.
• 6:28
  With OAD plus structured scorecards,
• 6:32
  you can look at the behavioral fit,
• 6:34
  the evidence from interviews, and move confidently.
• 6:37
  That speed is a competitive advantage with strong candidates.
• 6:37
  So if I
• 6:42
  zoom out for HR leaders in 2026,
• 6:44
  the 80/20 levers are: outcome‑based roles,
• 6:48
  structured interviews, scorecards,
• 6:50
  early behavioral assessment with OAD,
• 6:52
  and then weekly metric reviews-time‑to‑hire,
• 6:55
  stage conversions, offer acceptance.
• 6:55
  That's right.
• 6:59
  You don't need a dashboard with 40 KPIs.
• 7:02
  You need a handful of metrics you review every week: how long each stage
• 7:06
  takes, where candidates drop off,
• 7:09
  and how your OAD‑informed hires are performing and staying.
• 7:12
  OAD provides the consistent behavioral signal across all those decisions.
• 7:18
  It's the thread that makes your process scalable,
• 7:21
  even as roles, locations, and hiring volumes change.
• 7:21
  And that's what turns
• 7:26
  recruiting from a series of one‑off bets into a repeatable business function.
• 7:30
  Let's talk about what that actually feels like when you move from gut
• 7:33
  feel to that kind of predictability.
• 7:33
  I wanna get into the real‑world impact
• 7:37
  here, because this isn't just theory.
• 7:39
  Edwin, you've seen situations where behavioral data from OAD literally
• 7:43
  changed the hire, or changed how someone was onboarded.
• 7:46
  Can you share an example?
• 7:46
  Sure.
• 7:48
  One that stands out: a company was hiring a "rockstar" operations leader.
• 7:53
  Charismatic, great résumé, interviewed very well.
• 7:56
  The team was leaning heavily toward yes.
• 7:59
  OAD showed a profile that was extremely big‑picture,
• 8:03
  highly change‑oriented, but low on follow‑through and detail.
• 8:03
  Which in
• 8:08
  operations is... risky.
• 8:09
  Very risky.
• 8:10
  The role outcomes included stabilizing processes and reducing execution
• 8:15
  errors in the first six months.
• 8:17
  Once they saw the OAD data, they dug deeper in the structured interview,
• 8:22
  asked for examples of building and maintaining processes.
• 8:25
  The stories were thin.
• 8:27
  They passed.
• 8:28
  They later hired someone whose OAD profile matched the need for stability
• 8:32
  and detail, and that person hit their 90‑day and six‑month outcomes cleanly.
• 8:37
  That's a mis‑hire avoided.
• 8:37
  So behavioral data changed the decision,
• 8:42
  not just confirmed a bias.
• 8:42
  Exactly.
• 8:44
  Another case: a founder hired a product leader who was a strong behavioral
• 8:49
  fit according to OAD-innovative,
• 8:52
  comfortable with ambiguity-but the profile also flagged that this person
• 8:56
  needed clear decision rights and fast feedback.
• 8:59
  They used that in onboarding: explicit 30‑60‑90 expectations,
• 9:04
  regular check‑ins, and clarity on where they had authority.
• 9:08
  Ramp time shortened, and retention improved because the environment matched
• 9:13
  the person.
• 9:13
  So OAD isn't just "who do we hire," it's "how do we set them
• 9:18
  up to stay and succeed."That's the key.
• 9:20
  When you embed OAD, you standardize it across roles.
• 9:24
  Every new requisition: define outcomes,
• 9:28
  create or refine the OAD role profile,
• 9:31
  attach the survey in your ATS workflow,
• 9:34
  and feed the results into your interview plan and onboarding plan.
• 9:38
  Over time, you build a library of what works-behavioral patterns of your
• 9:43
  top performers by role and team.
• 9:43
  And practically,
• 9:46
  for HR leaders, that means OAD just becomes part of the normal flow:
• 9:51
  it lives in the ATS, hiring managers see the reports alongside résumés
• 9:55
  and scorecards, and you revisit that data at 90 days and again at six
• 9:59
  months for coaching and development.
• 9:59
  Yes.
• 10:02
  You use the same profile to guide one‑on‑ones: how this person likes
• 10:07
  to be managed, how they make decisions,
• 10:09
  what motivates them, where they may need support.
• 10:11
  It closes the loop between recruiting,
• 10:14
  onboarding, and retention.
• 10:16
  You're not starting from zero every time someone joins or struggles-you
• 10:20
  already have a map.
• 10:20
  I can imagine a founder listening,
• 10:24
  thinking, "I trust my gut, it's worked so far." What would you say to
• 10:28
  them?
• 10:28
  I'd say your gut is a valuable input-but it's not a system.
• 10:32
  As you scale beyond 50 employees,
• 10:34
  your gut doesn't sit in every interview.
• 10:37
  Different managers have different instincts,
• 10:39
  different biases.
• 10:41
  OAD gives you a shared, objective lens on behavior,
• 10:45
  so your organization can make consistently good decisions,
• 10:48
  not just the founder on a good day.
• 10:48
  So this is the invitation,
• 10:53
  really.
• 10:53
  If you're tired of mis‑hires, slow decisions,
• 10:56
  and "we'll see" quality‑of‑hire,
• 10:58
  stop relying on unstructured judgment alone.
• 11:01
  Use OAD as your behavioral data backbone-for defining roles,
• 11:06
  sourcing, structuring interviews,
• 11:08
  making final calls, and then actually keeping and growing the people
• 11:11
  you worked so hard to recruit.
• 11:11
  Exactly.
• 11:14
  You move from hope to design.
• 11:17
  From "I think this will work out" to "We've engineered the conditions
• 11:21
  for this person to succeed." OAD makes that engineering faster,
• 11:26
  clearer, and repeatable.
• 11:26
  If you're leading HR or you're a founder still
• 11:31
  in the hiring trenches, test OAD at OAD.
• 11:31
  ai for free on your next few roles.
• 11:37
  Compare how it feels to make decisions with that behavioral clarity versus
• 11:41
  without it-look at mis‑hire rates,
• 11:43
  time‑to‑hire, ramp time, and retention.
• 11:46
  Let the data speak.
• 11:46
  And remember,
• 11:48
  the most effective leaders aren't the loudest-they're the clearest.
• 11:52
  Behavioral data helps you bring that clarity to every hiring decision.
• 11:52
  Edwin,
• 11:57
  thanks for walking us through this.
• 11:58
  I learned a lot today.
• 11:58
  Always a pleasure,
• 12:01
  Claire.
• 12:01
  And thanks to all of you for listening to The Science of Leading.
• 12:05
  We'll be back with more on building teams and systems that actually work.
• 12:09
  Until next time, take care.