Art & Science of Attracting Talent: Who Scorecard

Who is your number one problem. Not what. Talent is the key success factor for any startup. No other factor is close. The Who Scorecard aligns views on job qualifications before starting a search and yields more efficient and effective results once the search process begins.

Who is your number one problem. Not what.

Founder’s dilemmas start, and too often end, with the founding team. Founder Market Fit precedes Product Market Fit for early-stage investors.

Building a successful startup is a balancing act in managing competing demands. In the roulette of the urgent versus the important, what commands urgent attention while who lurks in background stealth mode surfacing, often existentially, at the most inopportune times.

In Kahneman’s terms, what is typically a thinking fast question while who requires thinking slow. In the din of daily events, founders are tempted to answer both questions at the same pace. The invoice for who mistakes comes later but the price paid is often much higher.

Executive hiring decisions start with a job requisition specifying key responsibilities and qualifications desired in a successful candidate. Management assessment firms such as ghSmart propose one critical additional step: a scorecard.

Prior to starting an executive search, a firm should agree on traits sought in the ideal candidate and priorities among criteria when compromises are considered. The scorecard complements the job requisition and helps coalesce perspectives in advance on qualifications sought in a candidate. Having used scorecards for dozens of executive hires as an investor, board director and company leader, I have found that time invested in advance to coordinate views makes the search more efficient and effective once the process begins.

Following is a sample scorecard for a CEO of an early-stage technology firm. Note the four key components of the scorecard: job qualifications, weights, rating scale and comments.

Job qualifications may be divided into two categories: skills and experience expected for this role and character traits that reflect firm culture and may be common across all positions. Weights reflecting the relative importance of each qualification may vary indicating criteria that are mission critical versus those which are nice to have.

The rating scale indicates the desired range for qualified candidates. Any score outside the gray area signals a basis to disqualify a candidate. Higher scores are better for most, but not all, traits. Persistence and a sense of urgency, for example, are desirable but excess levels could impair good judgment and yield poorer outcomes. Promotional skills are essential in sales but undesirable in finance. Domain expertise shows a split in desirable candidates indicating that experience is essential for incremental innovation, but an outsider’s perspective is preferred for disruptive opportunities.

Comments serve two purposes. Authors of the scorecard template use the comments section to provide added guidance for evaluators on the skills sought and guidelines on how to score candidates. Evaluators use the comments section to explain the basis for their rating of each candidate. In both cases, detailed commentary is encouraged to help coalesce views on selection criteria at the outset and elicit different perspectives from interviewers during the search process.

A search committee should be defined prior to starting an executive search. Interviewing and evaluating candidates is a time intensive process, so involvement should include those who materially enhance the search process and no more. Two factors should thus be considered when defining who is involved: those who offer different insights to improve the search decision and whose support is necessary once the candidate is hired. Executive searches typically include most, if not all, company executives and may involve external perspectives such as Board Directors and subject matter experts.

An executive search often takes 3–6 months, so allocate sufficient time at the outset to permit a full process both with the search committee and candidates interviewed. It is tempting to recruit the first candidate who meets the search criteria, but optimization algorithms suggest a 37% rule withholding judgment until at least 37% of the candidate pool has been interviewed. Standard procedure is to select three finalists for selection committee review to offer a range of qualified candidates and ensure optionality if a candidate drops out of the process in the final stages.

Onboarding and selection are equally important in the ultimate success of the recruitment process. The First 90 Days is a useful guide for new leaders at all levels as well as the firms who recruit them. It is the firm’s responsibility to ensure new executives are adequately informed about company culture, strategy and processes during onboarding to accelerate the learning curve and smooth the transition. Maintaining a handbook with key organizational tenets is a good onboarding guide for new recruits and a useful resource for current employees to monitor how the company is evolving. The firm also has a vested interest in ensuring the executive secures early wins to ensure a fast start and build goodwill for the tougher challenges that surely lie ahead.

Related Concepts:

Founder Fit is the most important factor for startup success. The Who Scorecard helps ensure that new talent has the requisite skills and fits with company culture to help scale the business.

For Further Reading:

· Geoff and Randy Smart, Who: Solve your #1 Problem. A go to resource on sourcing talent, this book provides an in depth view on how to integrate scorecards and conduct interviews to improve yields on executive searches.

· Noam Wasserman, The Founder’s Dilemmas. Reinforces that talent, compatibility and company culture are key success factors for any startup.

· Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days. One of the first tasks for any incoming executive is assessing, attracting and aligning talent.