What Changed When Managers Learned How to Interview

A few months ago, I worked with the executive team of an engineering business that was growing fast and hiring constantly.

On paper, things looked fine.

Roles were getting filled.
The pipeline was busy.
Managers were interviewing regularly.

But underneath, the leadership team felt the strain.

Too many hires were not working out.
Probation periods were uncertain.
Managers were frustrated by mixed results.
Referrals were low, despite having strong people in the business.

They did not have a sourcing problem.

They had a decision problem.

So instead of adding tools or recruiters, we did something different.

We trained the leaders.

What We Did Differently

We started with the executive team.

They went through the Hiring Mastery Program to align on one thing first:
What does great actually look like in this business?

Not generic competencies.
Not CV signals.
Clear missions, outcomes, and standards.

Then we worked with their middle managers.

These were the people doing most of the interviews and making most of the day to day hiring decisions.

They went through an Interview Mastery workshop focused on:

• Asking for real evidence, not opinions

• Probing for thinking, judgment, and growth

• Using structure instead of improvisation

• Making consistent hire or no hire decisions

No scripts.
No tricks.
Just disciplined interviewing.

What Changed First

The first shift was subtle.

Managers stopped guessing.

They were clearer on what success looked like.
They asked fewer questions but went deeper.
They challenged vague answers instead of accepting them.

Interviews became harder in the right way.

Candidates felt it too.

Good candidates leaned in.
Weak ones self selected out.
Hiring conversations became more honest and more specific.

That is when the system started to compound.

The Results

Within six months, something unexpected happened.

52% of hires were coming from direct referrals.

More than double what the company had seen before.

No new referral bonus.
No campaign.
No incentives.

People referred candidates because they trusted the hiring process and were proud of it.

Then, within nine months, the most important metric moved.

Probation pass rates increased by 82%.

That is not onboarding.
That is hiring quality.

They were making better decisions earlier.

Why This Worked

Nothing magical happened.

What changed was decision quality.

Leaders stopped assuming growth and started testing for it.
Managers stopped rewarding confidence and started looking for evidence.
The organisation developed a shared hiring language and a shared bar.

When that happens:

• Referrals increase because people trust the process

• Probation improves because expectations are clearer

• Mis hires drop because fewer guesses are made

This is the compound effect of interview skill.

The Real Lesson

Most companies try to fix hiring from the outside in.

More sourcing.
More tools.
More process.

This company fixed it from the inside out.

They trained leaders to interview properly.

When leaders know how to evaluate people, everything downstream improves.

Hiring becomes clearer.
Teams become stronger.
Growth becomes easier to sustain.

Final Thought

Hiring does not improve because you want it to.

It improves when leaders learn how to decide.

If you want your leadership team and managers trained to interview with clarity, discipline, and confidence, that is exactly the work I do.

👉 Book a call and let us talk about interview training and building a hiring system that actually works.