Moneyball for Recruiters - A New Ball Game

Handling the common situation described here about how hiring managers screen candidates is part of our ongoing "Moneyball for HR!" webcasts.

Whenever a hiring manager leans too heavily on skills- and experience-laden job descriptions, they may be missing out on the best talent. This is where the Moneyball approach can offer a powerful alternative. Just as the Oakland A's baseball team transformed its recruiting strategy by focusing on metrics and performance rather than traditional scouting, Performance-based Hiring brings this same data-driven mindset to the hiring process. Instead of relying on rigid qualifications, Performance-based Hiring identifies candidates based on their ability to deliver real results, ensuring they can meet the demands of the job.

Introducing Performance-based Hiring with Two Key Questions

As a recruiter, when you're working with a hiring manager who's too traditional, begin by asking two critical questions to help create a performance-based job description (PBJD):

1. What does the person need to do to be successful? This question shifts the focus away from arbitrary skills and experience to define the actual objectives the new hire needs to accomplish. It's about specifying the key results that will make the hire a top performer, such as leading a team to meet a critical deadline or solving a specific problem in the first six months.
2. Why would a top person want this job? This question is essential for creating a compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP). High performers want more than just a paycheck—they seek growth, impact, and meaningful challenges. The answer to this question will help position the role as a career opportunity rather than just a job, attracting candidates motivated by purpose and success.

Converting Skills and Experience into Key Performance Objectives (KPOs)

Traditional job descriptions often list technical skills and years of experience as must-haves, but these are not always the best predictors of success. Instead, these can be converted into measurable Key Performance Objectives (KPOs)that focus on results. For example:

• Traditional Job Description: "Must have 5 years of experience in Java development."
• Performance-based Job Description: "Within the first 90 days, develop and deploy a new feature using Java that improves system performance by 20%."

This KPO focuses on what the person needs to do rather than how long they’ve been doing it. It shifts the focus to results, making it easier to assess candidates who may not have the traditional experience but are capable of delivering the needed outcomes.

The Benefits of a Performance-based Job Description

Switching to a performance-based hiring approach offers several advantages:

1. Fewer Hiring Mistakes: By focusing on measurable performance objectives, you reduce the chances of hiring someone who looks good on paper but doesn’t deliver in the role. A performance-based interview ensures an accurate assessment.
2. Improved Quality of Hire: PBJDs ensure that you're hiring people based on their ability to meet the key objectives of the job.
3. Opening the Talent Pool: A focus on performance rather than rigid qualifications opens up the candidate pool to high-potential talent who may not have the exact background but have proven they can get the job done. This often leads to more diverse and non-traditional candidates, which improves overall team dynamics.

Insider's Secret: Our new Performance-based Hiring GPT generates these performance-based job descriptions instantly with just a job posting, a URL or a short description.

Proposing an A/B Test and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To demonstrate the effectiveness of Performance-based Hiring, suggest running an A/B test that compares traditional, skills-laden job descriptions with performance-based ones. Here are the five KPIs to track during the test:

1. Time to Fill: How long does it take to hire using each method? PBJDs are often more compelling to top candidates, leading to faster hiring times.
2. Quality of Hire: Use the Performance-based Hiring Quality of Hire Scorecard to measure candidates’ performance after being hired. Are those hired through performance-based job descriptions meeting or exceeding their KPOs?
3. Interview-to-Hire Ratio: Compare how many interviews are needed to find the right candidate using each method. PBJDs tend to attract better-aligned candidates, reducing the number of candidates needed to make one great hire.
4. Gallup Q12 Engagement Score: This widely-used employee engagement survey measures how motivated and satisfied new hires are in their roles. Higher scores from those hired via PBJDs indicate stronger job alignment and satisfaction, contributing to a Win-Win Hiring outcome where both the employee and employer benefit long-term.
5. Post-Hire Performance and Retention: Track how well new hires are performing and how long they stay in the role. Candidates hired through PBDs are more likely to stay longer and perform better since they’ve been matched to the specific objectives of the role.

Conclusion: Breaking Free of Traditional Job Descriptions

Traditional job descriptions often put a lid on candidate quality, limiting the talent pool to those who meet arbitrary requirements like years of experience. This approach tends to attract candidates who are primarily motivated by compensation, rather than seeing the role as a career-defining opportunity. By adopting a Moneyball strategy combined with Performance-based Hiring, you shift the focus to real results, unlocking a wider pool of high-potential candidates and improving long-term outcomes.

Performance-based job descriptions allow hiring managers to see the difference firsthand—just as Moneyball proved that performance data could revolutionize baseball, this approach will demonstrate that hiring based on measurable objectives leads to superior candidates and better hiring outcomes.

Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems – a consulting and training firm helping recruiters and hiring managers around the world hire more outstanding and diverse leaders. His new PbHGPT is "Moneyball for Hiring!"

Lou is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 4th Edition, 2021), The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench Media, 2013) and LinkedIn Learning’s Performance-based Hiring video training programs. Make sure you check out his "Moneyball for HR!" webcasts and training program on how to use AI to make better hiring decisions.