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Too many applicants, and not enough time to give every one a careful look.
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← Back to Talent TriageWhat good looks like
Stop guessing what a ‘good candidate’ looks like.
A practical guide to defining what matters before applications arrive — so recruiters have clearer evidence to work with from the start.
- Move from vague ideals to clearer role evidence.
- Separate assumptions from things you can actually observe.
- Give recruiters a more consistent place to start.
Practical, human-first and built for real recruitment conversations.
Talent Triage
What Good Looks Like
A practical guide for Talent Acquisition teams
Who it’s for
Built for people dealing with real hiring volume.
Short, practical and designed to help you think before you add another tool or process.
- Written for in-house TA teams
- Practical, not a theory piece
- Plain language, not jargon
- Human judgement stays central
- Evidence you can actually use
The hiring problem
For TA leaders who want clarity before complexity.
Clarity
Different roles need different evidence
A vague picture of “good” does not help a recruiter decide who deserves attention first.
Evidence
Separate what you can observe
The useful step is telling assumption from something a recruiter can actually notice.
What’s inside
Five ideas you can actually use.
The guide follows a simple sequence from idea to usable evidence.
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Part 1
Stop looking for the perfect candidate
Challenge the idea that one ideal person exists.
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Part 2
Decide what actually matters
Focus on the behaviours, abilities and values that show up in the work.
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Part 3
Separate evidence from assumption
Distinguish what you have seen from what you hope will be true.
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Part 4
Turn characteristics into something measurable
Translate characteristics into signals recruiters can actually notice.
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Part 5
Use it — and keep learning
Apply, observe, review and improve rather than treating the profile as fixed.
From idea to live recruitment
This thinking has been used in real high-volume hiring.
One retail organisation used this for assessing existing employees, linking evidence to performance data and building one benchmark before moving into new recruitment.
24,000+
Applicants a year
A high-volume recruitment context where shortlisting time matters.
160+
Existing employees
Evidence gathered before the benchmark was used more widely.
25% reduction
Employee turnover
Seen in one deployment where assessment formed part of a wider hiring process.
Better shortlisting outcomes often start with clearer evidence.
Built from applied experience
Not a theory exercise.
Our work has involved hiring and assessment challenges across retail, care, public service, contact centres, professional services and recruitment. The aim is always the same: make the evidence useful to the people making decisions.
- Retail
- Care
- Public service
- Contact centres
- Professional services
- Recruitment
A few quick questions
Before you hand over your email.
Is the guide free?
Yes. Submit the form and we’ll give you access to the PDF.
Who is it written for?
Primarily in-house TA teams dealing with inconsistent shortlisting and high volume.
Will downloading it add me to marketing?
Only if you separately choose the optional marketing checkbox. We still need your email to deliver the requested guide.
Is this a Talent Triage sales brochure?
No. It is designed to help you think before you add another tool or process.
Get the guide
Make ‘What Good Looks Like’ more useful than a phrase.
Get the practical guide and use it to start a better conversation with your hiring team.
- Free practical PDF
- Built for in-house TA teams
- No obligation to speak to us