Evidence-BasedRecruitment.

Illustrative campaign for a Head of Client Operations role, shown in four stages. Stage one: 3 stakeholders independently score the role across the eight Retaind dimensions of work, each 0 to 64. The dimensions group into four drivers: Ideas, innovation and energy, covering Innovation & Problem Solving and Initiating & Starting; People, relationships and empathy, covering Supporting & Teamwork and Coordinating & Leading; Drive, power and competition, covering Focussing & Competing and Delivering & Determination; Logic, logic and precision, covering Finishing & Quality and Evaluating & Attention. The system detects where the stakeholders disagree — Innovation & Problem Solving, a spread of 24 points, high conflict; Evaluating & Attention, a spread of 14 points, moderate conflict — and sign-off is blocked until every conflict is resolved by averaging, deferring to the hiring manager, a custom score, or discussion. The consensus benchmark is signed off and locked on 14 July. Stage two: a candidate completes the behavioural questionnaire and is measured against that benchmark. Innovation & Problem Solving, benchmark 34, candidate 41; Initiating & Starting, benchmark 38, candidate 44; Supporting & Teamwork, benchmark 52, candidate 28; Coordinating & Leading, benchmark 60, candidate 32; Focussing & Competing, benchmark 46, candidate 18; Delivering & Determination, benchmark 56, candidate 58; Finishing & Quality, benchmark 58, candidate 52; Evaluating & Attention, benchmark 54, candidate 51. That returns a Fit Index of 79.2 out of 100 — high alignment — with the widest divergences in Coordinating & Leading, 28 points below benchmark, priority conflict; Focussing & Competing, 28 points below benchmark, priority conflict; Supporting & Teamwork, 24 points below benchmark, potential conflict. A Fit Index at or above 65 sends the interview invitation automatically. Stage three: the signed-off benchmark becomes the line every candidate is measured against. Each of the 4 candidates answers the same pack — 5 conflict-exploration questions probing potential gaps and 4 positive-validation questions confirming strengths, each scored on 4 STAR probes (situation, task, action, result), with every recorded answer capped at 90 seconds. The scoring is automated; nothing about it decides anything. Stage four: for each candidate the assessment score, the interview score and the role-match score compose into a single fit percentage — Candidate A, assessment 82, interview 75, match 79, composite 79 percent, high alignment; Candidate B, assessment 76, interview 70, match 71, composite 72 percent, moderate alignment; Candidate C, assessment 66, interview 70, match 69, composite 68 percent, moderate alignment; Candidate D, assessment 60, interview 55, match 62, composite 59 percent, low alignment. The field ranks on that number. Candidate A, Candidate B, Candidate C clear the 65 benchmark and form the shortlist; Candidate D falls below it and stays in the candidate pool rather than being discarded. Stakeholders then add their own alignment votes — Candidate A, strong yes; Candidate B, maybe; Candidate C, yes — and the recruiter reorders the shortlist by hand on that evidence, which the ranking accepts. Candidate A is selected, presented with the benchmark, the STAR evidence, the recorded answers and the composite score attached. Retaind never outputs a hire or no-hire verdict. The evidence is presented; the decision stays with a person.

High · 24Moderate · 14

-28-28-24

InnovatingInitiatingSupportingCo-ordinatingFocusingDeliveringFinishingEvaluating

Benchmark locked · 14 July

79%High alignment

Benchmark · 65

Question 1 of 9·Co-ordinating

Rec

Think of a time you had to bring together people who reported to different leaders, on a deadline you didn't control.

answering…

9 answers ▸

A✓B✓C✓D✓

0%

11Candidate AStrong yes79%High alignment

32Candidate CYes68%Moderate alignment

23Candidate BMaybe72%Moderate alignment

44Candidate D59%Kept in pool

BenchmarkSTAR9 answers79%

Evidence, not a verdict