The five critical steps are: A job description that defines the expected standards of top performance for the position. Not the standard job description that defines a person’s background and lists the basic duties, tasks and responsibilities. The candidate should already know all of these. Maybe companies should ask the candidate to prepare a job description just to see if the candidate knows the job. A sophisticated sourcing plan that will attract top performers that are not actively looking for a position, but are open to a compelling opportunity. Probing interviews with competent people doing the interviewing that tests the candidate’s ability to the job BEFORE you hire them. This means that the candidate must be able to explain exactly how they will deliver the performances standards defined in the job. They must detail how they will do these in your company, with your resources, within your culture and your budget, with your management style, with your customers, and with all of the the things that make your company different. There must be proper feedback or discussion of the candidate’s ability to do the job immediately after the candidate interviews. Not two days later standing in a Starbucks line while you wait for your coffee. Not just asking the question, “What did you think of the candidate?” There must other tests, presentations, and assessments to validate that what the candidates said they did, they actually did do and did it at the level and with the results they claimed.