Hiring is guesswork. Implement a proven recruitment process to attract and build your dream team
Trevor Clark – Business coach, professional speaker and global trainer
Picture this. You have an empty chair. A team member has resigned, been let go, or you have created a new position to help the business grow. The pressure to fill that chair is immediate. The phone is ringing, clients need attention, and the team is trying to cover the gap. So what do you do?
If you are honest with yourself, you probably do what most business owners do. You reach for the fastest available option. The family member between jobs. The not-so-great ex-employee who you convince yourself will be different this time. Or you post a quick advert, interview the first candidate who sounds reasonable, and cross your fingers.
That is hiring. And hiring is guesswork.
In my August 2026 article in KZN Business Sense – “Stars, Terrorists, and Other People You May Have Been Avoiding”, I introduced Jack Welch’s Employee Performance: Values Matrix. This thinking raises a tough question when you identify an employee in the “Terrorist” quadrant – who hired them, and what process was used to put them there? More often than not, the honest answer is that there was no real process at all.
“You get the team you deserve” is a phrase that comes up in coaching sessions. It is not meant to be harsh. It is meant to be honest. The quality of your team is a direct reflection of the rigour you apply when building it.
Hiring Versus Recruiting
Hiring is reactive. There is a gap, you find a warm body, you fill it. Recruiting is a deliberate, systematic process designed to attract the right people while allowing the wrong ones to screen themselves out. Done well, you should be turning away good candidates to find the great, and not settling for whoever arrived first. At ActionCOACH, we coach a proven seven-step recruitment framework that does exactly this.
Define Your Ideal Candidate
Before you advertise, know precisely who you are looking for. A detailed job spec, clear KPIs, and a picture of the behavioural traits that will thrive in the role. Tools like DISC and Enneagram profiling remove much of the guesswork around fit. Most CVs list attributes like “Resultsoriented, Team player, High attention to detail, etc” whether the candidate actually has those qualities or not.
Create Compelling Advertising
Your job advert should read as though it was written to attract your best possible candidate, not simply to describe the vacancy. Ask yourself: would a great candidate’s colleague or friend forward this to them? If not, rewrite it.
Choose Where To Fish
The best candidates are usually on the lookout, but not actively looking. They will move for the right opportunity, at the right company, with the right culture. Use multiple channels – job boards, digital platforms, your own network, and reputable recruitment agencies with prescreened talent pools. If you haven’t done so, offer an incentive or reward to encourage your existing team to share the advert in their circles/networks/socials.
Multiple Layers Of Screening
Your time is precious. Use motivation letters, telephone pre-screening, and video submissions to filter candidates before committing to face-toface interview time. Behavioural profiling at this stage saves hours and reduces placement risk significantly.
Rigorous Interviewing And Skills Testing
Group interviews – three or four candidates simultaneously – save time and reveal how people handle mild pressure. Test for actual skill before you make any commitment. A social interview, whether a team lunch or an informal dinner, tells you things a boardroom never will.
Close The Deal
This step is consistently overlooked. Your ideal candidate has options. Why should they choose you? Sell your culture, your vision, and the growth opportunity clearly and compellingly. Great people want to work for great businesses – make sure yours looks like one.
A Solid Induction
Hire brilliantly and then neglect the onboarding, and you have wasted everything that came before it. A proper induction plan – checklisted, scheduled, and taken seriously – sets every new recruit up to succeed rather than struggle through the first few months alone.
Hire for attitude, train for skill. The framework above gives you the best possible chance of doing both. Next month, we look at what it takes to keep the good ones once you have found them – because retention is every bit as strategic as recruitment.
Want the free 7-Step Recruitment Checklist to use in your own business? Reach out or scan the QR code below and we will send it straight to you.
To your success, Trevor Clark.
T: +27 31 266 2258
