National Staff Step 5: Establish Criteria

Principle:

The people making the decision should agree on and document the most important qualities we need in the new staff person – before the interviews.  This will help them with discussion and decision-making later because they will be able to refer to this list to focus their discussion.  It will also help them to avoid the very common mistake of simply hiring the person who interviews best.  

How to Do This:

The selection committee should:

      1. Brainstorm the qualities that the person should have for this position. (Here are some ideas to get you started:  Position Criteria Examples)
      2. Pick the top five.
      3. Rank the top five in order of importance.
      4. Write them on a Candidate Evaluation Sheet and use this form later in your evaluation of the candidates.

File all these completed sheets in the recruiting file for this vacancy.

Next Step:

Step 6:  Design the announcement you’ll use to advertise the position.