Best Practices in Evaluation and Hiring: What the Research Shows and What Actually Works

Hiring is one of the most important responsibilities of any leader or HR professional. Done well, it builds strong teams, improves performance, and sets people up for success. Done poorly, it leads to turnover, disengagement, and organizational risk. Yet despite how high the stakes are, hiring practices often vary widely, even within the same company.

Some hiring decisions are based on structured interviews and validated assessments. Others rely on gut instinct, informal conversations, or unproven tools. In many cases, managers simply default to what “feels” right, whether or not it predicts success. The result is inconsistent outcomes and missed opportunities.

This webinar brings clarity to that uncertainty by exploring what the research actually says about how to evaluate and select candidates effectively.

Led by Dr. Mark Smith, organizational psychologist and author of A Better Choice: The Manager’s Guide to Skills-First Hiring, this session will highlight the most important findings from decades of research on hiring and assessment. It will also examine the real-world challenges that arise when applying these best practices, especially when time, budget, and internal processes are limited.

Drawing from both academic evidence and practical consulting experience, Dr. Smith will address the core elements of a strong evaluation process. This includes how to define job success, how to choose and use assessments, and how to structure interviews in ways that are predictive, fair, and easy to implement. He will also offer his perspective on where companies tend to go wrong, such as over-relying on credentials, misunderstanding “culture fit,” or failing to use consistent criteria across candidates.

Importantly, this session will not promote any specific tool or vendor. Instead, it will give participants a grounded, science-informed view of what actually works in hiring and how to apply those principles within their own organizations.

Key topics include:

This session will also highlight a shift happening across many industries: the move toward more skills-focused, evidence-based hiring. As organizations look to broaden their talent pools and reduce bias, many are rethinking how they define “qualified” and how they assess candidates who may not follow traditional career paths. Dr. Smith will share insights from the skills-first hiring movement and explain how some simple changes can help companies make smarter, more inclusive hiring decisions.

Whether you’re an HR professional, a hiring manager, or a business leader, this webinar will help you evaluate your current practices, challenge outdated assumptions, and take steps toward a more effective and equitable hiring process.

You’ll leave with practical ideas, grounded in both research and real-world application, that you can put to use immediately (no major overhaul required).

Areas Covered

Who Should Attend    

HR professionals, including: HR directors, Training managers, Company leaders, including: Operations managers, Sales directors

Why Should You Attend

Hiring is one of the highest-impact decisions a company can make, but it’s also one of the most error-prone. Despite all the time and effort that goes into candidate selection, organizations continue to struggle with mismatches, poor performance, and costly turnover. Interviews are often poorly planned and inconsistent. Assessments are sometimes chosen based on trends rather than evidence. And the definition of “qualified” still varies wildly from one decision-maker to another.

At the same time, leaders and HR teams face pressure to move faster, make fairer decisions, and improve outcomes, all while navigating legal risk and tight talent markets.

So, what really works in hiring? What does research say about evaluating candidates effectively? And how can organizations improve their processes without creating unnecessary complexity?

In this session, Dr. Mark Smith (organizational psychologist, author, and consultant) will lead a grounded, practical exploration of best practices in candidate evaluation and selection. Drawing from decades of research in the behavioral sciences and real-world applications across industries, he’ll break down what we know leads to better hiring decisions and where common practices go wrong.

This is not a theoretical or commercial session. It’s a candid look at hiring through the lens of evidence, practical experience, and thoughtful design.

What You’ll Learn:

Topic Background

Hiring decisions shape the strength, culture, and performance of every organization. But too often, those decisions are made using inconsistent or outdated methods. While research in organizational psychology has given us clear insights into what works best, many teams still rely on gut feeling, vague criteria, or informal interviews.

This session will explore what we know from decades of research about effective evaluation and selection, and how to apply those insights in real-world hiring situations. Whether you’re refining your existing process or starting fresh, understanding these best practices can help you make smarter, fairer, and more confident hiring decisions.