Research and evidence
How to structure a technical hiring process
A workable technical process has four things: a written definition of the outcome before any interviewing, the same assessment applied to every candidate, evidence recorded per stage rather than impressions collected afterwards, and the statutory employer duties handled at the right point. The legal duties are published; the design of the stages is a judgement call, and this page is explicit about which is which.
In short
A workable technical process has four things: a written definition of the outcome before any interviewing, the same assessment applied to every candidate, evidence recorded per stage rather than impressions collected afterwards, and the statutory employer duties handled at the right point. The legal duties are published; the design of the stages is a judgement call, and this page is explicit about which is which.
Published 2026-08-15 · Last reviewed 2026-08-15 · Reviewed by Joseph Edney, Managing Director, Humand Talent Solutions
A default four-stage shape
This is our working default for an early-stage technical hire, not a validated model. Treat it as a starting structure you adapt, and keep the same stages for every candidate in the same role.
| Stage | Question it answers | Evidence recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Define | What must be true in twelve months for this hire to have worked? | Written brief: outcomes, must-haves, learnable skills, constraints |
| Screen | Is there credible evidence of the must-haves? | Same short set of questions for every candidate, notes against each must-have |
| Assess | Can they do the actual work in your context? | A scored exercise or deep technical discussion tied to the outcomes, not a trivia round |
| Decide | What is the evidence for and against, and who decides? | Scorecard per interviewer, completed before any group discussion |
Statutory duties are not optional stages
Whatever process you design, some obligations are fixed in law. They are cited below rather than paraphrased loosely: check the right to work before employment begins, put the employment particulars in place, and run the selection in line with the Equality Act 2010.
What we will not tell you
There is a large body of published research on selection methods, and there is also a large body of marketing that quotes it badly. We do not reproduce effect sizes, validity coefficients or 'structured interviews are X% better' claims here, because we have not verified them against the primary papers.
Evidence
Each statement below is linked to the source it came from, with the publisher and the date we last checked the link.
1.An employer must check that a job applicant is allowed to work in the UK before employing them.
- Checking a job applicant's right to work — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
2.GOV.UK sets out employers' obligations on employment contracts and the terms and conditions that must be provided to an employee.
- Employment contracts — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
3.Recruitment and selection in Great Britain are subject to the Equality Act 2010, for which GOV.UK publishes guidance.
- Equality Act 2010: guidance — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
4.Our own definition stage is published in full as the technical hiring playbook and brief builder, so the framework above can be inspected rather than taken on trust.
- How the SUS monthly recruitment fee works — Startup Staffing. Checked 2026-08-15.
What this page does not say
These are the numbers a page like this is often expected to carry. We hold no evidence we would stand behind for any of them, so they are left blank rather than estimated.
- Comparative effectiveness of interview formats — no figures published here. The underlying academic literature exists, but we have not verified the commonly quoted numbers against the primary papers, so we cite none.
- Typical number of interview stages or time-to-hire for technology roles — we hold no dataset and will not estimate one.
- Assessment pass rates or candidate response rates — deliberately blank.
Questions this raises
- Is there published evidence for an ideal number of interview stages?
- There is no number we can evidence. What we can say is that every additional stage should answer a question the previous stages did not, and that the same stages should apply to every candidate for that role.
- What must be in place legally before someone starts?
- A right to work check before employment begins, and employment particulars in line with GOV.UK's guidance on employment contracts. Selection throughout must comply with the Equality Act 2010. All three are linked in the evidence section.
Every source on this page is listed together on the research index.