100 applicants, but still no one to hire? What Moneyball can teach business owners

You’ve had 100 applications for the role. Some candidates have the correct job title, several have the right qualifications, and a few interview well. Yet, you’re still unsure whether any of them will solve the problem you actually have.

AI makes it easier to produce a polished application, while a generic advert can attract people who don’t have the skills you need. The result? More CVs to sift through, without necessarily more suitable candidates.

It’s tempting to conclude that the right people simply aren’t out there. Sometimes that’s true but before you post the advert again, it’s worth asking: are you looking for evidence that someone can solve your problem, or evidence that they look like the person you expected to hire?

That’s the idea behind Moneyball.

There were 2.5 million unemployed people for every vacancy in the latest comparable UK figures. On paper, employers have more choice than they did a year ago but that doesn’t make it easier to find someone with the abilities your business needs.

And with the National Living Wage rising to £12.71 an hour in April and the standard employer National Insurance rate at 15%, it’s understandable that owners want to be confident before making an offer.

What a baseball team can teach us about hiring

If you’ve seen the film (or even better, read the book), you’ll know the story of the Oakland Athletics. They couldn’t spend what the richest baseball teams could, so Billy Beane and his team looked more closely at what helped players contribute to winning games. That led them to consider people other clubs had overlooked.

The question for a growing business is similar: what will this person need to do well here, and how will you recognise someone who can do it?

Experience, qualifications and a familiar job title can all matter. But they don’t always tell you whether someone can solve the problem behind your vacancy. A candidate might have spent five years as an operations manager without ever improving a process or making a difficult decision. Someone with a less impressive CV might have done both.

You need to know which abilities matter most before you decide who makes the shortlist.

The job title may be doing too much

Imagine you’re hiring an operations manager. What would you want them to have changed six months after joining?

Perhaps you need someone to organise the day, manage workloads and make sure customers get a consistent service. Or perhaps the bigger issue is that every difficult decision comes back to you, your processes haven’t kept pace with growth, and standards vary depending on who is working.

Those are different jobs, even if both could reasonably be advertised as “Operations Manager”. The distinction affects the experience you look for, the questions you ask at interview and, crucially, the authority you give the person once they join.

It’s easy for a vacancy to start with “we’re too busy; we need someone”. Sometimes that’s exactly right. But busyness can also be a symptom of work being handed over badly, decisions having no clear owner or skilled people spending hours correcting avoidable mistakes. A new colleague may give you more capacity. They may also end up caught in the same confusion as everyone else.

Before writing the advert, try finishing this sentence:

“Six months after this person joins, we should be able to see…”

“Fewer customer queries sitting in my inbox because someone else owns and resolves them” gives you a much clearer role than “help me with operations”.

Already have a pile of applications? Look at them again

You don’t necessarily need to start the search from scratch. Write down the two or three things this person must achieve, then review your shortlist against those outcomes.

If you need someone to take ownership of customer issues, for example, look beyond whether they’ve held a management title. Ask them to talk you through a time they resolved a recurring problem: what did they change, what decisions were theirs to make, and what happened afterwards?

If you need someone to improve processes, ask for an example of a process they made better. What wasn’t working? How did they bring other people with them? How did they know the change helped?

You may still find that none of the applicants has the experience you need. But you’ll know why, and you can make the next advert and interview process more precise.

Look beyond the obvious candidate

Qualifications can matter enormously. The question is whether this particular role needs them on day one. Could someone with the ability and willingness to learn grow into it? Must the job be full time and office based, or could a more experienced person work brilliantly for you on different hours?

At A4G, investing in trainees has long been part of how we build our team. It takes planning, people willing to teach and regular feedback; it isn’t a quick fix for an urgent vacancy. But it has helped us develop people who understand how we work and can grow with the business. Five of our seven Partners began with us as Level 1 trainees.

There’s another possibility: the person you need may already work for you.

If someone in your team is ready for more responsibility but their current workload leaves no room for it, could you move some of their more routine tasks to a new recruit? You may find it easier to hire for those tasks while giving an existing colleague the chance to step into the role you’ve been struggling to fill.

That won’t work every time. Sometimes you need someone with the experience to take charge straight away. But before paying a premium for that experience, it’s worth asking whether a different hire could make better use of the skills you already have.

When “they weren’t the right fit” keeps happening

Sometimes a hire simply doesn’t work out. But if two capable people have struggled in the same role, look closely at what happened before you advertise it again.

Did they know what success looked like? Were they shown how your business works? Could they make the decisions you expected them to make, or did they need your approval each time? Were they answering to one manager or getting different instructions from three people? And when things got busy, did you take work back because it was quicker to do it yourself?

At A4G, when a process goes wrong, we ask whether it was clear, whether the person understood it and whether it was followed. Recruitment deserves the same curiosity. You may conclude that you chose the wrong person, but you’ll have a better basis for deciding what to change next time.

What will the hire make possible?

The cost of hiring goes well beyond salary. There’s the time spent reviewing applications and interviewing, followed by onboarding, training and the time your existing team gives up to help. If the person leaves and you begin again, you feel much of that cost twice.

So “Can we afford another employee?” is only part of the decision. Ask what the role will enable the business to do. Will it improve customer service, reduce rework, free up your time for sales or give your team a manager who can make decisions? What would those changes be worth, and how long would they realistically take?

Those questions also give you a better conversation to have with candidates. A good applicant wants to understand the problem they’re being asked to solve, what support they’ll have and how much responsibility will genuinely be theirs.

Three questions before you post the advert

1. What specific problem is this person joining to solve? Describe what needs to change, rather than starting with a job title and a list of generic qualities.
2. What will they be trusted to decide? If you want someone to take ownership, be clear about which decisions they can make without you.
3. What will help them succeed and stay? Think about who will manage them, how they’ll learn the role, whether the workload is realistic and what progression could look like.

Before you post the advert again

A hundred CVs can make it seem as though you have plenty of choice. The number tells you very little until you know what you’re looking for.

Before you advertise again, speak to your A4G adviser. We can help you step back from the vacancy and look at the bigger picture: what needs to be done, what could be delegated, what your existing team could take on and whether recruiting is actually the best answer.

Need help with the people side?

Our HR advice service is available to A4G clients and provides practical support with job descriptions, recruitment, onboarding, performance and the day-to-day people issues that come with growing a team.

The aim isn’t more HR paperwork. It’s helping you make better people decisions and build a team that works for your business.

If you’re about to recruit, or you’re not sure what kind of role you actually need, talk to your A4G adviser before you post the advert.

Find out more about our HR advice service

And if you need more capacity, not necessarily another UK hire?

Offshoring can be another option for the right roles.

Through Durban Offshoring, businesses can access skilled offshore team members who work as part of their existing team, systems and processes.

Not sure whether it’s right for your business? Book a free Discovery Session to explore the options.