Monday morning, a Johannesburg operations director says, “We need another Naledi.” Naledi calms clients, knows every internal shortcut and catches costly errors. The recruiter leaves with a recycled job description. A week later, the manager complains that none of the candidates “feel right.”

The problem began before sourcing: nobody translated “another Naledi” into work, evidence and decisions. The useful idea behind Dr Vivek Bindra’s seven-step hiring video is that recruitment needs preparation, planning and a repeatable process. A better intake meeting is where those principles become practical.

Start with why the role exists

Before discussing search terms, ask why the business is hiring now. Is this a replacement, growth hire, new capability or response to a service failure? What breaks if the vacancy remains open? What should improve once the person is effective?

Imagine a Durban distributor recruiting an inventory controller after repeated stock discrepancies. “We need someone detail-oriented” is vague. “We need someone who can reconcile variances, investigate causes and give branch managers a reliable weekly view” is a hiring problem the team can evaluate.

For a replacement, do not copy the former employee’s CV into the description. Separate what the role needs from the qualities of the individual who once performed it.

Convert the job into outcomes, not adjectives

List the role’s critical tasks, outputs, stakeholders and working conditions. OPM’s assessment guidance starts from this foundation: identify the work and competencies, then connect selection tools to them.

For a Cape Town software company, a “dynamic customer-success lead” says little. Clearer outcomes might include establishing a repeatable onboarding journey, identifying accounts at risk and helping the support team use customer data consistently.

Replace “rock star”, “energetic” and “good culture fit” with observable behaviour. Does the person need to explain complex information, plan field work, coach junior staff or decide with incomplete data? Agree on credible early progress while recognising that roles have different learning curves.

Separate essentials from trainable skills

Create three lists: capabilities required on day one, those that can be learned within a reasonable period, and preferences that are merely helpful. Challenge every item.

Consider a Johannesburg solar installer seeking a project coordinator. Safety-critical knowledge may be essential. The company’s scheduling software may be trainable. A degree or fixed number of years should not remain simply because an old advert included them; the team should explain how each requirement connects to the work.

This can open the market without lowering standards. People from construction, telecoms or facilities management may have the planning and stakeholder skills required. Look for transferable evidence, not just familiar titles.

Map every criterion to evidence

For each important capability, decide where to assess it: application questions, an initial screen, structured interview, short job-related exercise or reference check.

A contact-centre supervisor’s coaching ability might be explored through a past example and brief scenario. Workforce planning may be better demonstrated through a small scheduling problem than confident conversation. The aim is relevant evidence, not testing everything repeatedly.

Agree on core questions, strong-answer indicators and recording. Consistency reduces the chance that one candidate is judged on results while another is judged on rapport. It also stops panels inventing standards after meeting someone they like.

Put real deal-breakers on the table

An intake is incomplete without salary range, location, hours, travel, reporting line, contract type, start-date flexibility and the real remote-work arrangement.

A Bellville role described as “hybrid” will disappoint if the manager quietly expects four office days. A Pretoria sales role should disclose frequent provincial travel before a finalist reorganises their life. Also agree how candidates can request reasonable adjustments during selection.

Describe the proposition without fog: the problem to solve, support available, realistic growth and difficult parts of the job. Honest constraints attract better-informed applicants.

Decide how the decision will be made

Before advertising, name the decision-maker, interviewers, scorecard owner and candidate-communication owner. Set turnaround times, backup interviewers and a way to resolve disagreement. Ask whether anyone holds an unexplained veto.

South Africa’s Public Service Regulations require public-service selection decisions to be recorded against relevant criteria. Private employers operate under a different framework, but the discipline remains useful: document why someone meets the agreed requirements instead of writing “not the right fit”.

Finish with a one-page hiring brief covering purpose, outcomes, essential and trainable capabilities, assessment plan, practical terms, owners and timeline. The recruiter and hiring manager should approve it before the vacancy goes live.

A strong intake does not slow hiring. It removes the late arguments that do: shifting requirements, improvised interviews and candidates rejected for criteria nobody mentioned. When the team shares definitions of the job, evidence and decision, sourcing finally has a fair chance.

Sources and limits

The OPM sources are US federal guidance, not binding rules for South African employers. The Public Service Regulations support the public-sector example, but their specific requirements should not be presented as private-sector rules. This article provides general operational guidance, not personal legal advice.