Two store managers are hiring sales assistants. Both ask applicants to describe a time they helped a customer. One manager puts a café worker through to interview because she explained how she handled a complaint during a busy shift. The other would turn her down because she has never worked in a shop. The question on the application form is identical. The managers disagree about what counts as experience.
For a recruiter covering several locations, that disagreement is worth settling before the next round of applications. If previous retail experience is essential, candidates should see that requirement in the vacancy. If the job calls for someone who can handle customer complaints, a café worker may have exactly the experience the team wants.
Give managers an answer to discuss
Take one question from the current screening process and write two or three sample answers. Ask managers to review them separately, decide whom they would invite and underline the part of each answer that influenced them. An example from outside the industry is especially useful. It gives people a chance to say whether they would accept the same evidence from a shop floor, a reception desk or a café.
Suppose the café worker says she checked what the customer had ordered, offered a replacement within her authority and asked a supervisor to authorise a refund. A manager can point to specific actions that show how she used her judgement. Agreeing on examples like this gives the next person reviewing applications something more useful than “good with people”. The US Office of Personnel Management takes a similar approach in its guidance on structured interviews, pairing common questions with shared standards for evaluating answers.
Give local requirements their own place
A store that opens at six may genuinely need someone who can start at 5.30. Record that against the vacancy and ask about the actual shift. If the café worker can only start at seven, the recruiter can see why this opening is unsuitable and still consider her for a neighbouring store. A general verdict such as “weak candidate” would make that much harder.
Once hiring is underway, bring a few borderline decisions back to the managers. Look for cases where they read the same evidence differently and ask whether the written criteria would help a new colleague reach a decision. Sometimes the right edit is small. Adding “examples from other customer service roles are welcome” to a question can settle a disagreement that would otherwise recur every time someone applies.