People-Centric Hiring: The Key to Building Performing Teams
Hiring the right people isn’t just about filling roles. It’s about building a team that works for your business. Companies that focus on values, potential, and leadership style outperform those that rely on outdated hiring practices.
A checklist of qualifications doesn’t guarantee the right hire. Experience is important, but it’s how someone thinks, learns, and contributes that really matters. Research from Harvard Business Review found that high-growth businesses prioritise problem-solving skills, adaptability, and alignment with company values over traditional experience alone (HBR, 2023).
Hiring for Value Alignment and Culture Add
The best interview questions go beyond a CV. They show how someone solves problems, approaches challenges, and works under pressure.
One of the most useful questions I’ve come across is "Tell me about a time you had to learn something completely new. What was the challenge, and how did you approach it?"
This gives insight into how someone adapts, solves problems, and takes ownership of their learning. These skills matter far more than whether they’ve done an identical job before.
Before I set up Talent Tactics, I went through a few interviews myself. Interviews can be nerve-wracking, unpredictable, and sometimes frustrating for both candidates and hiring managers. When a process is well-structured and respectful, both sides walk away with clarity and confidence. When it isn’t, candidates are left questioning whether the business is the right place for them.
“Not Every Hire Needs to Be High-Performing”
Startups and small businesses often hear they need to hire only A-players. The reality is that this thinking misses a whole pool of talent. Not everyone needs to be at the top of their field to contribute value.
Some roles require high levels of performance, ownership, and strategic thinking. Others need consistency, reliability, and the ability to get things done without drama. A well-balanced team has a mix of skills, experience, and ambition.
For bootstrapped businesses, hiring purely for “high performance” is not always realistic or necessary. If you can’t pay premium salaries, you need to look for people who perform well, want to grow with the business, and add to your culture in a meaningful way.
Hiring for potential, adaptability, and culture add opens up a much wider talent pool. You get people who might not tick every box on paper but can grow into the role and contribute in ways that an overqualified candidate wouldn’t.
When Hiring Becomes a Box-Ticking Exercise
One interview I remember well took place in a stark, formal boardroom with a founder and his advisor. The founder seemed genuinely interested in the conversation, but the advisor had other ideas. Instead of focusing on the discussion, he was keen to list his accolades and accomplishments in a way that, frankly, got in the way of a good conversation.
At the end, I left not really knowing what they were looking for, or if the advisor’s voice mattered more than the actual hiring manager’s. The experience reinforced something I already knew: hiring should be about building a relationship with the company and team early, not about filtering people out through unnecessary hoops.
Technology Helps, but It Can’t Replace Human Expertise
The worst part of hiring isn’t choosing between good candidates; it’s the dismissive practices that stop people from getting a fair chance in the first place.
I’ve always believed that the best hiring processes are simplified, efficient, and human. Qualified candidates should get to speak to actual decision-makers as quickly as possible, rather than being lost in layers of automated screening or processes designed for rejection, not selection.
Yes, we’ve made remarkable improvements with HR tech, especially in volume hiring, but technology is not a replacement for expertise. Talent acquisition specialists play a vital role as the guardians of candidate experience, ensuring that hiring remains a conversation, not just a transaction. The best results happen when tech and human expertise work together, not when one replaces the other.
Talent Tactics’ Approach to Hiring
I help businesses move beyond outdated hiring practices and build a process that actually works. This means focusing on performance, potential, and value alignment, rather than chasing the perfect CV or sticking to rigid hiring criteria that fail to engage candidates. Here’s what makes a difference:
For Interviewers
✔️ Plan ahead. Structured interviews are fairer and give you real insights
✔️ Listen more, talk less. Let candidates do 80 percent of the talking
✔️ Engage properly. Put away your phone and focus
✔️ Reduce stress. The best candidates aren’t always the best interviewees
✔️ Hire for potential. Look for adaptability and problem-solving skills, not just past job titles
✔️ Check your bias. Scoring matrix helps keep decisions objective
✔️ Look for value alignment and culture add. A diverse mix of perspectives leads to better teams
For Candidates
✔️ Use the STAR method. Answer with Situation, Task, Action, Result
✔️ Prepare for video interviews. Make sure your tech setup works and stay engaged
✔️ Show your impact. Use real examples and measurable results
✔️ Assess the employer too. Their values should align with your goals
The Companies That Get Hiring Right Will Win
Businesses that hire for performance, potential, and value alignment will build stronger, more resilient teams. Those that prioritise engagement and respect in the hiring process will attract and retain the best talent.
The companies struggling to hire are often the ones with unclear processes, inconsistent interviews, and unrealistic expectations about what makes a great hire.
Need to Fix Your Hiring Process? Let’s Chat
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