For a long time, recruitment followed a fairly familiar pattern at Headstar.
Like many businesses, we would review CVs, interview recruitment consultants and make decisions based on a combination of technical capability, instinct and interview performance.
Sometimes that worked brilliantly.
Sometimes it didn’t.
Over time, one of the things we became increasingly aware of was how difficult it could be to consistently predict which people would genuinely thrive inside the business long term.
We realised CVs and interviews weren’t telling the full story
Several years ago, Headstar began working closely with Simon Hartley, Founder of Be World Class, learning more about how to implement his Hire Great People methodology.
Simon has spent almost three decades working with Olympic gold medallists, world-class athletes, championship-winning teams and world-class organisations to understand what genuinely drives high performance.
One of the recurring themes within Simon’s work was that elite teams tend to recruit very differently.
Whilst technical capability still matters, the best teams place enormous emphasis on character, behaviours, resilience, adaptability and long-term fit.
That thinking resonated strongly with us.
Because when we looked honestly at some of the hires that had worked best at Headstar, many shared similar characteristics – resilience, personal accountability, coachability, teamwork and a willingness to learn.
At the same time, we could also think of candidates who had interviewed exceptionally well or looked brilliant on paper but ultimately weren’t the right long-term fit for the business.
Recruiting on character changed how we assessed people
One of the biggest changes we made internally was becoming much more intentional about defining what “great” actually looked like inside the business.
Rather than relying too heavily on gut instinct or a polished CV, we started building our recruitment process around the specific characteristics and behaviours that genuinely drove success within our teams.
That changed how we:
- wrote job adverts
- assessed candidates
- structured interviews
- evaluated long-term fit
- onboarded and developed people
We also became much more open-minded about background and experience.
One recent example was Rachel Porteous, Manager at Headstar.
Rachel joined Headstar from a customer service background with only a few years working in recruitment – and with no finance market knowledge. On paper, there were arguably candidates with more directly relevant experience.
But what stood out instead were the characteristics she demonstrated – attitude, resilience, emotional intelligence, communication skills and a genuine willingness to learn.
She went on to become one of the strongest performers in the business, quickly progressing to Manager and even winning the Yorkshire Young Recruitment Professional of the Year award.
Experiences like that reinforced something important for us – often the best long-term hires are not necessarily the people with the strongest CV. They are the people whose character and behaviours align most closely with the environment they’re joining.
The impact went far beyond recruitment
The impact of these changes was significant.
At Headstar, our internal recruitment success rate improved from around 45% when hiring “normally” to approximately 89% when hiring more intentionally around character and long-term fit.
But perhaps more importantly, we also saw wider benefits across the business.
The culture became stronger and more consistent. Collaboration improved. Teams became more aligned around standards, behaviours and accountability.
It changed the way we thought about our internal hiring process altogether.
Rather than simply filling vacancies, recruitment became much more about shaping the long-term culture and capability of the organisation.
Why we helped build Hire Great People
Over time, Headstar and Simon Hartley continued developing these ideas together through leadership events, recruiting on character workshops and practical implementation inside organisations.
What became increasingly clear was that many organisations were facing very similar frustrations around recruitment.
That eventually led to the development of Hire Great People – a CPD-accredited online programme designed to help organisations build a more intentional, practical and consistent approach to recruitment.
What’s included in the Hire Great People programme:
• Three live group coaching sessions with Simon Hartley
• 45+ bite-size video lessons with a comprehensive interactive workbook
• 14.25 hours of recognised CPD learning
• Signed copy of Simon Hartley’s best-selling book, Hire Great People
More importantly, the programme is designed to help organisations:
• Improve hiring success rates by recruiting more intentionally around character
• Reduce the cost, disruption and frustration of poor hiring decisions
• Build stronger cultures and higher-performing teams
• Create a more consistent and repeatable recruitment process
50% introductory discount currently available using code: HireGreatPeople50
Learn more here: www.headstar.co.uk/great
