Scorecard or gut?

• Title slide: making a defensible hiring call
• A 75-minute working session — you will score two real candidates and defend a call
• *Presenter note:* Set the tone — this is not a lecture; they will score, argue, and defend.

Meet the two finalists

• You are hiring one Customer Support Specialist at Meridian Home Services (made-up; figures illustrative)
• Dana — warm, funny, a lovely writer; the whole room liked her
• Owen — quiet, a little stiff, easy to forget
• *Presenter note:* Read it, then ask for a show of hands — Dana or Owen? Note the split.

The scorecard (before any feelings)

• Four job skills, fixed 1–4 scale; two core (the job turns on them), two secondary
• Bar: 3+ on both core skills, and 3+ average
• Dana averages 2.75 (core: 2, 2). Owen averages 3.25 (core: 3, 4)
• *Presenter note:* The gut points at Dana; the scores point at Owen. That gap is the whole session.

What makes it a scorecard (not a gut feeling)

• Fixed, job-relevant skills — decided before anyone interviews
• Same questions, same scale for everyone — so a 3 means the same thing for both → *comparable*
• Independent scores, written before the group talks
• *Presenter note:* A single "would I want them here?" number is the gut feeling in a uniform.

Why the scores beat the feeling

• A structured score measures the job; a gut feeling measures the conversation
• Structured interviews forecast performance more reliably — *predictive validity*
• Warmth predicts a pleasant interview, not a calm phone call with an angry customer
• *Presenter note:* "Predicts better" = more reliable on average, not never wrong.

Three biases the gut hides

• Halo — Dana's writing 4 tempts you to assume she's strong everywhere
• Affinity — "I clicked with them" rates people who remind us of us higher
• Anchoring — the first loud opinion drags the rest → score *before* you talk
• *Presenter note:* Ask which bias they can spot in the case.

Your task

• In your group: score it → read the disagreement → call it → flip it
• Hire Dana, Owen, or neither — one sentence, plus the one fact that would flip it
• 20 minutes. Defend it, don't guess it.
• *Presenter note:* Hand out the worksheet; form groups of 3–4.

The call, and the takeaway

• Owen clears the bar on both core skills; Dana fails both — hire Owen
• A contrary gut is a flag to investigate, not a verdict — flip only on scored evidence
• Score the skills the job needs before you weigh how much you liked anyone
• This is practice at a hard call — not a certification, not a promise
• *Presenter note:* Point fast finishers at the stretch task.