Whether you need to decide between candidates or evaluate a candidate’s interview, a hiring scorecard is a perfect tool to keep track of and measure different key performance indicators (KPIs) of your hiring process.
We have the perfect hiring scorecard template to facilitate your interviews and choose the right candidate efficiently. But first, we will guide you through the wonders of scorecards and show you step-by-step how a hiring scorecard can make your life easier!
- Hiring, interviewing, and scorecards
- Benefits of a scorecard
- What should be on a scorecard
- How to implement a scorecard
Hiring, interviewing, and scorecards
Let’s start from the beginning. So what is a scorecard? A scorecard is a tool that measures and tracks the performance of your business, team, or candidate against a set of predefined goals or targets.
A scorecard has many types and uses depending on the industry you are working in. In the case of HR, the two most used scorecards are the hiring/interview scorecard and the HR scorecard.
In the case of HR scorecards, it is used to help manage and improve the strategic role of the HR team. Furthermore, it does not only keep track of HR metrics but helps predict the future growth of your business and plan for better HR results (check out our scorecard glossary to learn more about HR scorecards!).
On the other hand, an interview/hiring scorecard is a tool that helps evaluate a candidate’s qualifications for a position. It ensures that your business considers candidates fairly and consistently and that candidates get rated using an objective measurement tool.
It is an excellent method to get the best hire out of the talent pool and improve your interview process.
Benefits of scorecards
Using an interview scorecard, HR or Hiring Managers can assess the candidate’s performance within a concise and structured framework throughout the business and company culture. Below are some benefits hiring scorecards can bring to you and your team:
Improved focus and alignment
Hiring scorecards help organisations focus on key performance areas and align their efforts towards specific goals. Furthermore, it saves time and conflicts when choosing the best candidate.
Due to this improved focus and alignment, your HR team can more easily focus on important tasks like creating the perfect job ad (check out our guide on how to write a good job ad for tips!) or creating pre-screening questions.
Enhanced visibility and fairness
Hiring scorecards provide a clear and consistent summary of key performance indicators and questions, making it easier for managers and teams to understand how you decide on candidates and evaluate them. This can increase transparency, accountability, and employee engagement.
Better decision-making
Hiring scorecards provide a clear and objective view of what type of employee the company is looking for. Hiring scorecards help you define the requirements for the open job position and assess candidates’ responses more concisely.
It helps you think through your requirements and choose the right few important ones.
Improved communication
The hiring scorecard takes the guesswork out of figuring out who’s responsible for what candidate or interview and gets the whole team working together. Additionally, this can be used to communicate interview information to a wide range of teams and managers.
Stops bias and judgement
Hiring scorecards hold individuals and teams accountable for their decisions. Interviewers cannot make a decision based on the impression of a candidate (which could be biased and difficult to justify). It encourages the interviewer to assess candidates on effective criteria, and separate each candidate with their different answers.
Well, now that we’ve talked about the wonders hiring scorecards can bring to your business, you’re probably asking yourself:
What should be on an interview scorecard?
As mentioned before, a scorecard is a perfect tool to track and measure the effectiveness of your interview process and facilitate choosing the perfect candidate. To improve the hiring process, you can use an interview scorecard and choose your top candidates efficiently.
An interview scorecard (or interview or hiring scoresheet), help evaluate candidates’ qualification for the open position. Using the interview scorecard, candidates can get rated fairly and the interviewer can get the best hire out of the talent pool and improve the interview process.
HR managers can be sure that they have a clear picture of who is the right fit for the job by comparing all candidates’ qualifications and suitability for the job under the same criteria.
Usually, an interview scoring sheet includes the following:
- A rating system
- Interview questions that evaluate a candidate’s skills, traits, qualifications, and experience
- Defined criteria specific to the open position
- Standards for the cultural fit of the candidate
- A comments section
- A “total score” section
The interview scorecard should make your hiring process more consistent and objective. For this reason, your interview scorecard template should be structured with a uniform rating and scoring system.
So now, we need to figure out how to create and implement a hiring scorecard.
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How to implement a hiring scorecard
When you know your goals, implementing and creating a hiring scorecard is relatively easy. Below, we outline 4 simple steps on how to make your perfect hiring scorecard:
1. Prepare a structured interview with good questions
The questions and scoring system are the most critical aspects of the hiring scorecard. The easiest way to start creating your scorecards and have the best interview questions is by having an effective structured interview plan.
Think of questions related to soft and hard skills essential in your industry and challenges your company or industry may face. Consider these questions and choose the most relevant ones.
2. Add extra scoring categories
An interview isn’t complete without a firm handshake (unless it’s an online interview), eye contact, good preparation, and a professional presentation. But a hiring manager’s intuition usually dictates how significant an impact these details have.
To make things fair and appreciate the candidate’s efforts, you should consider creating other scoring categories besides questions. This time, you’d score potential hires based on their answers and how they carried themselves during the interview.
3. Have a defined scoring system
Deciding on a numerical score is quite tricky! Since it may differ from person to person. Some people may think ⅗ to be a decent score or average, while others may think it’s mediocre and almost a failure. For this reason, It’s essential to define each possible score so interviews are consistent.
A scoring system with a big scale (e.g. 1 to 10) might make giving distinct meaning to each possible score challenging. So, a score with a range of 1-5 or 1-4 is better.
We suggest you describe the values in a 1-5 scoring system like the one below:
- a wrong answer that missed the crucial points of the question altogether.
- An incomplete answer with some good elements, but most of the answer was flawed.
- An average answer with some level of understanding of the question. But falls short because of problems with the content of the answer or/and skills.
- A great answer with a deep understanding of the question, but still missing some competencies or skills.
- A perfect answer with a great understanding of the question and a high competence level.
4. Choose an accessible format for your hiring scorecard
The last and most fun step: Designing your scorecard! As long as the scorecard allows the interviewer to score each question clearly and add the scores, you can add whatever you want! Although, it is recommended to use a simple and easy-to-use design. You can check our template and download it for free here!
With our easy-to-use template, you can download and add all your questions and scores and have additional comments if you want! Check it out for FREE!
Also, check out our other free templates and find the best job descriptions and interview questions for you!
