The start of a new year is a great moment to take a breath and look at your hiring with fresh eyes. Not because your process is broken. More because hiring tends to drift when teams are busy. You end up making fast decisions, and you only realize later that the role was not as clear as you thought.
A reset does not need to mean new software or a giant overhaul. It can be a few simple steps that bring clarity back into the process. The goal is to make hiring easier on your team, and better for candidates too.
Step 1. Get clear on what success looks like
Before you post the role, pause and get alignment. This is where hiring either becomes smooth, or becomes a debate later. When “success” is fuzzy, every interviewer fills in the blanks with their own version. A shared definition gives you a fair standard and makes the rest of the process easier.
Start with a few simple questions:
- What skills are needed to succeed in this role?
- Did someone else already thrive in this position that we can use as an example?
- What temperament is most aligned to the type of work being posted?
- What does success look like post-hire?
If you want a structured way to do this, the McQuaig Job Survey is designed to compile feedback and create a clear benchmark for the role before you hire, so you can align on what the job requires and build a clear target to hire against. When your benchmark is clear, your job ad gets easier to write, your interviews get sharper, and your decisions get more consistent.
Step 2. Refresh the job ad so it filters better
Many job ads try to attract as many applicants as possible. That can backfire fast. You get volume, not fit, and your team spends hours screening people who were never right for the job. A better job post sets expectations so the right people lean in and the wrong people opt out early.
Include the parts candidates need to self select:
- What the person will own
- What the work pace is like
- What success looks like in the first few months
- What kind of person tends to enjoy this work
Use your role benchmark to guide the wording. You are not trying to sound impressive. You are trying to be clear. The more specific you are upfront, the more respectful the process feels for candidates, and the less time you waste later.
Step 3. Add structure to interviews
If your interviews feel like friendly conversations, you are not alone. Unstructured interviews are common, and they often feel natural. The problem is they are hard to compare. Different candidates get different questions, and interviewers score based on different standards.
A simple interview structure usually includes:
- A pre-selected list of questions every candidate goes through
- Open ended questions that invite candidates to elaborate
- A scoring scale to keep things fair
Structured interviews are linked to better hiring decisions because they use consistent questions and consistent scoring across candidates. This does not remove human judgment. It makes that judgment more grounded. It also keeps debriefs focused on evidence, not vibes.
Step 4. Use a work sample to reduce guesswork
Interviews show how people talk about work. Work samples show how people do the work. If you are only interviewing, you are missing a key piece of the picture. A small work sample can give you clearer evidence and make decisions feel less risky.
Keep the work sample practical:
Work sample tests have strong evidence behind them as predictors of job performance. Keep it time boxed and score it with a rubric. Then talk through their choices in the interview. You will learn more in 20 minutes than you often learn in an hour of conversation.
Step 5. Decide what you will measure this year
A reset sticks when you track a few signals. You do not need a massive dashboard. You need numbers you can actually review, and use to improve the process. Pick three to five metrics that reflect what matters most to your team.
Strong options include:
- Role time to fill
- Offer acceptance rate
- 90 day retention rate
- Hiring manager satisfaction after 60 days
- New hire feedback on the process
If turnover is the biggest pain point, start with 90 day retention. It gives you a fast feedback loop and highlights issues in role clarity, fit, or onboarding. When the process is working, you should see early retention improve first.
Step 6. Use assessments to guide better conversations
Assessments can add clarity when there's a lot of noise to cut through. But they are most effective when you use their insights strategically. Use assessment to support better questions, guide conversations, and drive stronger onboarding, not as a pass or fail gate.
Use assessment insights to guide discussions such as:
- What energizes this person?
- What drains them?
- How do they like to be managed?
- Where might they need support in the first 90 days?
We've seen teams often use the McQuaig Word Survey to understand work style, motivators, and communication preferences when someone new starts. Managers can welcome new hires more personally when they have this insight as well. It's not just about using data to find the right person, but also to help them transition to the company as smoothly as possible
Step 7. Do a short retro after each hire
Hiring teams rarely pause long enough to learn from the process. Because of that the same problems repeat. A quick retro keeps improvements moving, and it turns small lessons into better hiring habits.
Ask a few focused questions:
- What helped us decide?
- What slowed us down?
- Where did we lose good candidates?
- What surprised us once the person started?
Pick one change and apply it right away. That is the key. Small improvements compound fast when you actually bake them into the next hire, instead of saving them for “later.”
Step 8. Tighten the handoff from hiring to onboarding
Hiring does not end when the offer is signed. A reset is also about what happens next. If you want stronger retention, you need a clean handoff from hiring insights to onboarding actions. This is where many teams lose momentum.
Carry hiring insights into onboarding to give insight into:
- Communication preferences
- Learning style
- Early confidence builders
- Likely stress points
This creates continuity and helps managers coach better from day one. If you use tools like the McQuaig Job Survey and Word Survey, this is where they can add long term value because the same insights that support selection can also guide development and support.
A reset should feel doable
A reset is not about doing everything at once. Pick a couple changes you can implement this month. Make one about clarity and one about consistency. Then build from there as the year unfolds.
Hiring will never be perfect because people are complex and roles evolve. But a steady process helps you make better decisions, and it reduces the stress that comes with constant rehiring.