What is a Job Scorecard, and How Do You Create One?
Key Takeaways
- The first step of the hiring process should be developing a job scorecard. Hiring job candidates without the use of a job scorecard often leads to hiring the wrong candidates.
- A job scorecard is an enhanced version of a job description. It outperforms job descriptions in that it directs the interview to concentrate on job requirements and helps you identify the competencies that go into each position or role. It contains a list of the important qualities, skills, and tasks that employees are expected to perform.
- A scorecard can be used as a tool throughout an employee’s work cycle in an organization. When an employee is struggling in their position, you can refer back to the scorecard to see which competencies they are struggling with.
The job scorecard is a concept popularized by Dr. Geoff Smart in his book “WHO: The A Method for Hiring”. In a podcast called “Growth Whisperers,” Kevin Lawrence, a strategic advisor and coach to business leaders and Brad Giles, leadership team coach at Evolution Partners, discussed the concept by highlighting what many entrepreneurs do that results in the failure of their businesses. They revealed that when seeking candidates to hire for a role, many employees just copy job advertisements and edit them to fit their company’s needs. And that would be all the preparation they put in for the role or position requirements. It may be effective up until the candidate is hired, but it would lead to disaster afterward.\
One of the examples they gave is that if you copy an online job description ad for a salesperson, you may find a great salesperson, but you may not be aware that a salesperson exists in between 25 to 30 different versions. To avoid the mistake of hiring the wrong person, you need to take the first step of creating the job scorecard.
What is a Job Scorecard?
A job scorecard is an enhanced version of a job description. It outperforms job descriptions in that it directs the interview to concentrate on job requirements and helps you grade job candidates objectively. If you want to hire “A” players, you have to identify the competencies that are needed before you go out looking for them. This is what a job scorecard helps you do. It helps you identify the competencies that go into each position or role. A job scorecard is also a tool and document that managers and supervisors use in reviewing employee performance. It contains a list of the important qualities, skills, and tasks that employees are expected to perform.
How to Make a Job Scorecard
You make a job scorecard by first stating the purpose of the job. The purpose should be specific. The next item is to specify the key results that are expected for the role. It’s important that the key results are stated in numerical terms, says Dr. Geoff Smart, “Write numerical outcomes from X to Y by a certain date. If they’re not numerical, they don’t count.”And then you identify competencies that will determine success in the role.
Key Components of the Job Scorecard
- The Mission: A one-to-two-paragraph description of what you want a candidate to achieve in a role.
- Key Result Areas/Outcomes: What is included here is the KPI’s stated in numerical terms. At the end of each month/quarter/year, you are able to identify if they were achieved.
- Key Responsibilities: Specific actions, tasks, or areas of responsibility within the role will be overseen.
- Skills, traits, and competencies: Specific skills, traits, and competencies that are necessary to be successful in the role.
- Core Values: Hire people who hold the same values as your company. This enables you to hire candidates who will be motivated and effective in their work because they will feel a sense of connection to their role.
When using a scorecard for internal teams, it is always advisable to complete job score cards working together with the team to agree on elements that should go into the job scorecards, and all elements should be aligned to the overall organization goals and culture. According to Brad and Kevin, if someone is having difficulty in their role, you can look back at the scorecard to see which competencies they are having trouble with as well as the problems they are encountering. Instead of just saying, “I don’t like them,” it enables you to see where they fall short. A great best practice is to review your job’s scorecard on a regular basis to ensure that everyone is effectively aligned and prioritizing their work.
Why is a Job Score Card Necessary?
- The job scorecard brings the employer and employee to a level of high clarity. The candidate gets to know if they are a good fit for the organization and gets extremely clear about what their role entails.
- Knowing what is expected is crucial to achieving performance goals. Therefore, it motivates employees to improve their output or deliverables.
- Job scorecards aren’t only necessary for candidates and employees. They are also important for managers, team leads, and department heads. If you are a manager or someone who holds a managerial or supervisory role, your job will be more efficient if you use job scorecards to review your team’s performances.
- With the help of a job scorecard, managers can better understand what is required to perform a job candidate for a role before considering them.
- When used by a panel, a job scorecard helps ensure a fair evaluation because each member of the panel can evaluate candidates based on the criteria on the job scorecard and reach an objective conclusion. Therefore, it aids in removing interviewers’ personal biases.
- Scorecards can be standardized and used repeatedly throughout your organization to train new and existing staff.
Bottom Line
A job scorecard aids in making the best hiring decisions. It gives both you and the candidates the knowledge necessary to determine whether they are a good fit for the position. Hiring mistakes are costly for every organization. Therefore, the consequences of hiring the wrong candidate for a job cannot be overemphasized.
