What happens in a Critical Hire Audit
Forty-five minutes. One role. Three things written down.
Bring the hire you are about to make. We will apply the Define, Design and Decide methodology to it before anything starts.
Thirty minutes. One role. Three things written down.
When this becomes urgent
Most companies only fix hiring after it has cost them something.
- The business has changed hands, and a senior person is leaving or retiring.
- Funding has arrived and there are ten roles to fill by the end of the year.
- A hire went wrong recently. You can still say the name.
- Somebody has said out loud that hiring stops when you are not available.
- You hired a Head of People, and they are drowning.
If one of these is true, the next critical hire is where it starts.
For the Head of People, the Head of Engineering, or whoever ended up owning this
If you are the one who has to make it work
You are responsible for the quality of hiring, but the managers make the decisions. Six of them interview, none of them agree, and when a hire fails, it is your problem to explain.
The audit gives you one page on a live role. It shows what the role was supposed to deliver and why nobody could measure it, and it puts a number in months on what the gaps will cost. It does not say your managers interview badly. It says the business never told them what to look for. That is a page you can send to your CEO.
If your CEO wants to see the method before they see a proposal, send them the case study. Over 100 managers, one standard, and a CEO who did not sit in a single interview.
Thirty minutes. One role. Three things written down.
What happens in a Critical Hire Audit
- 1
What this person must deliver.
We agree what the role has to produce in the first ninety days, and whether the role should exist at all. You leave with this written down.
- 2
Where to find them.
Once you know what the person must have done, you know where they are. We name the three places the right person is most likely to be, starting with your own network, so you can hire directly. No recruiters. No flood of CVs.
- 3
Whether your business is ready to hire them.
Who will interview, whether they agree on what good looks like, who makes the final decision, and what happens when a likeable candidate turns up. You get a straight answer, the gaps, and what they will cost in months if the hire goes ahead as planned.
Everything is sent to you afterwards on one page. Free. Nothing to prepare.
Thirty minutes. One role. Three things written down.
Questions people ask before they commit
How much of my time does this take?
Less than hiring takes you now. Forty-five minutes for the audit and ninety minutes to agree what the role must deliver. After that, your managers run the process and you make the final decision with the evidence already in front of you. Nobody asks you to attend training.
Is this recruitment?
No. Nobody finds candidates for you and nothing is charged when someone is hired. We do cover where to find these people directly and how to attract them to your business, so you are not dependent on agencies or job boards.
Will it slow hiring down?
No. Most delays come from nobody being sure, so another interview gets added. When everyone is scoring the same things, the decision is made once. Most clients find hiring gets faster.
How soon does it show?
In the next interview. You see it in how the interviews are run and how the decision is made. You see it when the new hire starts, because what they were hired to deliver is already written down. You see it in the results they deliver, and at six months you see it in probation.
What happens if Konstanty is not involved any more?
Nothing changes. The standard is written down and built into how the business hires. It does not depend on one person being there.
Who is it for?
The person who signs for the hire and carries it when it goes wrong, in a business or a unit of 20 to 250 people. Founders, CEOs, managing directors, owners, and the person running a division inside a larger group. Heads of People who are responsible for hiring quality and need something the managers will use.
What happens after the audit?
You get one page with the three things written down. Whether you go further is your decision. Some people take the page and fix it themselves.
Start with the role you are about to fill.
Forty-five minutes on the role you are about to fill. You leave with the first ninety days written down, the places the right person is most likely to be, and a straight answer on whether your business is set up to hire them. If it is not, the ninety minutes of Define are the fix, and they are the only time you personally give.
Thirty minutes. One role. Three things written down.