Insights & ideas on hiring
Practical thinking on recruitment, retention and building teams that last, drawn from 22 years of partner-led searches.
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Workplace culture
The New Hire's First Week Says More About Your Culture Than Any Onboarding Deck
Onboarding decks describe the culture you want. The first week reveals the culture you actually have, shaped entirely by how your existing team treats a newcomer.
Hiring insights
Partnership, Not Placement: What to Ask a Recruitment Agency Before You Sign
Before you sign with a recruitment agency, ask the questions that reveal whether they are invested in the outcome or simply transacting on a CV.
Hiring insights
Can AI Replace Your Recruiter? Here's What South African Hiring Leaders Should Do With That Question
AI can draft job ads and sort CVs in seconds. It cannot read a hesitation in an interview or hold firm with a candidate weighing three offers. Here is where the line actually sits.
Industry news
Before You Let AI Screen Your CVs, Ask These Bias and POPIA Questions First
AI screening tools promise speed, but HR leaders need to ask hard questions about bias and POPIA compliance before rolling them out. Here is where to start.
Workplace culture
The First 90 Days: How Weak Onboarding Turns a Good Hire Bad
A strong hire can still fail if the first three months are mismanaged. Here is why onboarding is part of the placement, not an afterthought.
Hiring insights
Banning AI-Generated CVs Is the Wrong Fight
Trying to stop candidates using AI to write their CVs is a losing battle. Here's why employers should redesign their hiring process instead of chasing the impossible.
Leadership
When Promotions Fail: Using the Traits Compass to Diagnose Why Your Best Performer Struggled as a Manager
A top performer promoted into management can still struggle badly. Here's a simple four-point framework to work out why, and how earlier honesty might have caught it.
Hiring insights
Why 'Nerve' Beats Confidence in Your Next C-Suite Hire
Confidence is easy to fake in an interview. Nerve, the ability to make hard calls and deliver hard truths with empathy, is not. Here is how to test for it.
Hiring insights
Staying Current or Just Busy? How to Spot Genuine Curiosity in Senior Candidates
A packed CV of courses and conferences can hide a lack of real curiosity. Here is how boards can tell genuine intellectual engagement from performative development.
Hiring insights
Hiring the Reinventors: Why Elastic Candidates Outperform in Uncertain Markets
In volatile South African sectors, the candidates who thrive are the ones who enjoy reinvention, not just endure it. Here's how to find and attract them.
Hiring insights
The Self-Awareness Test: Questions That Separate Soundness From Spin
Most senior candidates can talk convincingly about their weaknesses. Few can actually name one. Here is how to tell the difference before you make an offer.
Hiring insights
Curiosity on the CV: How to Spot Wonderment Before It Shows Up in the Job
Curiosity predicts long-term performance in specialist roles, but it rarely shows up on a CV or in a standard interview. Here is how to look for it properly.
Hiring insights
Resilience Isn't Grit: What Soundness Really Looks Like Under Pressure
Many hiring leaders mistake long hours for resilience. Here's why true soundness under pressure looks different, and how it connects to what surfaces later in exit interviews.
Hiring insights
The Four-Point Compass: A Practical Framework for Scoring Candidates Beyond Skills
Skills get candidates onto a shortlist. This simple four-trait scorecard, nerve, soundness, elasticity and wonderment, helps hiring leaders compare people, not CVs.
Hiring insights
Tough Truths, Told Kindly: Coaching Your Panel to Test for Candour
Most interview panels never test whether a candidate can deliver hard truths with empathy. Here is a simple way to coach your panel to look for candour, not just confidence.
Hiring insights
Irregular Relationships: The Hiring Signal Most South African Panels Miss
A US CEO looks for candidates with friendships and mentors unlike themselves. Here's what that signal looks like in practice, and why South African panels should be probing for it.
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