Recruiting Toolbox

What is a Bar Raiser?

A Bar Raiser is an interviewer and hiring decision meeting facilitator who is brought into the hiring process to be an objective third party. They are not the hiring manager or recruiter. They are a well respected interviewer and talent champion from outside of the hiring manager’s team.

What makes a great Bar Raiser?

Bar Raisers hire for the company. Their focus is on making a great company-hire. They are not optimizing for the short-term needs of this opening, but, instead, are asking themselves if this candidate meets or raises the bar for this type of role and will be a great long-term hire. Bar Raisers raise the bar on how we hire.

What can I do to raise the bar on who we hire and how we hire?

Of course, finding and engaging top talent is key. But it’s not enough to be great at sourcing – you also need to do work pre-sourcing and mid-funnel to ensure you define the bar and interview and select talent that meets your high hiring bar.

How can we make our Hiring Managers better, and create a culture of recruiting?

A Bar Raiser-like program can be really helpful after you’ve defined your bar and trained up your interviewers.

Do any other companies, in addition to Amazon, use Bar Raisers?

A quick internet search for company name + bar raiser will get you results showing many companies have implemented some version of bar raisers. For many companies, the hiring manager’s manager serves as a sort of bar raiser – with veto power over who is ultimately hired.