I spent 15 years at Amazon and watched the Bar Raiser program go from a quirky internal concept to one of the most powerful tools in the company. It is so effective because it injects skilled experts into a process typically dominated by people who are not good at interviewing and hiring.
Most managers are bad at interviewing and making hiring decisions because they don’t do it very often. While there are no hard and fast numbers on this, the data suggests that the average corporate manager makes one hire per year. But for the sake of discussion, let’s be generous and say they make five hires per year.
Think about that. Can you name any trade, skill, sport, or subject where one gains even basic proficiency if they do it just five times per year? If you were sick and needed surgery, would you want a surgeon who performs five surgeries per year, or five per day?
The point is, it is not possible to be great at something that you rarely practice.
When I was a Bar Raiser at Amazon, I interviewed up to three to five times per week. With practice, I got better and better. I took my craft seriously. The more repetitions I got, the better I got at both conducting interviews and evaluating talent.
A Bar Raiser brings skill, judgment, and neutrality because they come from outside the hiring team. Their job isn’t to help a manager fill a seat; it’s to help the broader company add talented leaders who will thrive in the culture and stay for many years.
Over time, the Bar Raiser program creates a virtuous cycle. Great hires raise the bar, raising the overall level of the company. Then, some great hires become Bar Raisers and repeat the cycle.
To learn more about this process, check out our course on Bar Raiser Hiring Mastery: https://lnkd.in/gxmsCiZq
