There are a lot of amateur hiring managers out there.
No no no – they’re not unskilled in their core roles; Claire the CFO is a killer CFO! But they’re unskilled at hiring because hiring isn’t their core role. They’re mostly making it up as they go along – blindly stumbling through interviews and hoping for a spark that something feels “right.” They’re often just winging it – with varying degrees of success.
It’s like sending someone to build a house with a hammer and a prayer instead of blueprints and proper tools. And this haphazard approach isn’t just inefficient; it’s actively undermining your organization’s talent strategy.
Hiring isn’t guesswork – and if we want to improve the caliber of new hires (and retain them!) we have to start with one essential truth: hiring managers need training. And not just any training – they need training that equips them to hire in a fair, logical, and truly informed way.
Training managers to hire well isn’t a luxury or a “nice to have.” It’s the most direct way to strengthen your talent pipeline, reduce turnover, and ensure every candidate – successful or not – has a respectful and equitable experience.
Start with Structure
Structured hiring isn’t about rigidity (although I’m all about a consistent process!) – it’s about clarity. When hiring managers are trained to use defined competencies, meaningful rating scales, and aligned definitions of what “qualified,” “great,” or “not a fit” means in your organization, everything gets sharper.
This means:
- Defined Competencies: What skills, behaviors, and attributes truly matter for each role? What does success look like in practice – not just on paper, but in the actual day-to-day of the work? Defining competencies means moving beyond vague traits like “team player” or “strong communicator” and articulating what those look like in action (the behaviors!), for your organization, in that specific job. It’s not just a hiring guide – it’s a blueprint for alignment, development, and performance over time. Get specific.
- Clarified Definitions: What counts as “demonstrated evidence” for each competency? What behaviors or examples move a candidate from “meets expectations” to “exceeds”? Without shared understanding and language, rating scales become subjective guesswork, and interviews drift into personal preference. Clarifying definitions ensures that everyone – whether part of a panel or conducting solo interviews – is speaking the same evaluative language. It anchors decision-making, reduces bias, and transforms feedback conversations from vague impressions to meaningful, aligned assessments. Without this clarity, your hiring process isn’t consistent – it’s improv theatre.
- Consistent Implementation: Structure only works if it’s applied consistently – across every department, every level, every hire. That means training every hiring manager, whether it’s their first time conducting interviews or they’re a VP with decades of “gut instinct” behind them. Consistency isn’t about bureaucracy – it’s about fairness, reliability, and better outcomes. Without it, you’re not assessing candidates against shared standards; you’re comparing apples to whatever arbitrary impression someone had this morning before their second cup of coffee.
Instead of gut instincts or vague impressions (“I just liked her vibe”), hiring becomes a shared, measurable process. This leads to better decisions, fewer biases, and much less time wasted in post-interview debates that go nowhere.
Selection Is a Skill
One of the most overlooked steps in the hiring process is how to make the actual hiring decision. And then, to make it worse, we very rarely teach managers how to make those decisions. We give them tools for interviewing, but when it comes time to choose, it often boils down to ephemeral and nebulous criteria.
Hiring decisions should be rooted in evidence, aligned with the job requirements, and based on a repeatable, fair process. This is where the rubber meets the road, and it should never (ever) be as basic as “I like Susie – let’s hire her.” This is when you refer back to the hiring requirements, the objective data collected during the interview process, and the rating scale and evaluation criteria. Did Susie clearly demonstrate proficiency and tangible evidence of the core competencies required for success in the role? Where did she rate on the scale? What evidence supports that subjective take?
We need to walk managers through what a sound selection process looks like – from consolidating feedback to weighing tradeoffs to avoiding knee-jerk or “yes/no” reactions.
Practice Before You Play
You wouldn’t send someone into a high-stakes client meeting without rehearsal. So why are we sending unprepared hiring managers into interviews?
Having a structured process isn’t enough; your hiring managers also need to practice before they’re unleashed upon unsuspecting applicants. This isn’t a “read the manual once and you’re good” situation but rather a process that should involve role-playing, mock interviews, and scenario-based training. Help them build comfort with the cadence and pacing of an interview: managing time, guiding the conversation, and knowing when to dig deeper or move on. Have your managers conduct practice interviews and simulations that mimic real candidate conversations to build fluency and confidence before the stakes get real.
Give them the opportunity to stumble and recalibrate in a safe environment – not in front of a live candidate whose future (and your employer brand) is on the line. Because when hiring managers aren’t prepared, the impact isn’t just awkward – it’s reputational.
How it Pays Off
Training your hiring managers isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about setting a higher standard. The result? Better hires, stronger teams, and a smoother process for everyone involved.
Ultimately, investing in robust training for your hiring managers isn’t an HR nicety; it’s a strategic imperative. It’s how you build better teams, foster a fairer culture, and ensure that every new hire adds value.
Stop enabling amateur hour and start empowering your managers to hire like the pros you need them to be.
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