Free template
Hiring decision scorecard
The decision is the moment a structured process either pays off or evaporates. This template records what each interviewer saw, where the evidence was thin, what risk you are knowingly accepting, and who decided — in a form you can revisit in six months.
Who fills it in
Hiring manager, completed with the full panel present.
How long it takes
Ten minutes per interviewer, twenty minutes in the debrief.
Reviewed
15 August 2026 by Joseph Edney, Managing Director, Humand Talent Solutions.
When to use it
Use it when
- You have a candidate at final stage and need a decision the panel can stand behind.
- The panel disagrees and the discussion is circling.
- You want a record of why a hire was made, to learn from later.
What good looks like
- Each interviewer writes their recommendation before the debrief discussion starts, so nobody anchors on the loudest voice.
- Every capability is marked as evidenced, partly evidenced or not tested — “not tested” is a legitimate and useful answer.
- Accepted risks are named explicitly, with what you will do about each in the first months.
- The record says who decided, not just what was decided.
Common mistakes
- Scoring on a numeric scale and then averaging. Averages hide the one interviewer who saw a genuine problem.
- Treating “no evidence” as “no concern”. Untested is not the same as satisfied.
- Deciding in a corridor and writing the form afterwards to match.
- Letting fatigue with the search decide. A process running long is a reason to fix the process, not to lower the bar.
The template
Anything you type stays in this browser tab. It is not saved, sent to us or added to the link, so it is safe to put real salary numbers and colleagues’ names in. Closing the tab clears it — copy or print before you go.
Candidate and process
Evidence against the scorecard
One row per must-have. Mark the evidence honestly: evidenced, partly evidenced, or not tested.
| Row | Evidenced / partly / not tested | The evidence itself | Who saw it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Must-have 1 | |||
| Must-have 2 | |||
| Must-have 3 | |||
| Must-have 4 | |||
| Must-have 5 |
Independent recommendations
Each interviewer completes their own row before the discussion.
| Row | Recommendation | The single strongest reason | The main reservation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interviewer 1 | |||
| Interviewer 2 | |||
| Interviewer 3 | |||
| Interviewer 4 (optional) |
Decision
This feeds directly into the onboarding handoff.
The thinking behind it
- Interview scorecards small teams can actually runA lightweight structured interview framework for startups: four criteria, defined evidence, independent scoring and a decision rule agreed up front.
- When not to hireThe cases where a permanent hire is the wrong answer, the alternatives worth testing first, and the signals that a role is genuinely ready.