Glossary
Evidence-Based Hiring
Evidence-based hiring requires every evaluation score or hiring decision to cite specific, verifiable evidence from a candidate's application materials.
Evidence-based hiring means no score without proof. When a screener rates a candidate "strong" on leadership, they must cite the specific resume bullet or portfolio example that demonstrates it.
This approach borrows from evidence-based medicine: decisions should be grounded in observable data, not intuition. In hiring, the "evidence" is the candidate's resume content, work samples, assessment results, and interview responses.
The practical implementation involves structured scorecards where each criterion has a rating scale and a mandatory "evidence" field. AI tools like Arbiter automate this by extracting cited passages from resumes for every score they generate.
Benefits include better hiring decisions (scores correlate with actual qualifications), reduced bias (subjective impressions must be backed by facts), and legal defensibility (documented evidence trail for every decision).
Frequently Asked Questions
How is evidence-based hiring different from structured hiring?
Structured hiring defines consistent criteria and processes. Evidence-based hiring goes further by requiring cited proof for every evaluation score. You can have structured hiring without evidence requirements, but evidence-based hiring is always structured.
What counts as "evidence" in hiring?
Specific resume bullets, portfolio examples, assessment scores, certifiable credentials, and documented interview responses. General impressions ("seemed confident") do not count.