Faraz Ather, 8 September 2026, 3 min read
Most searches start with sourcing. Ours start with a document. Within 48 hours of the calibration call, Day 2 in our process, you get a written rubric and a comp note. Nobody is contacted until you have signed it off.
Why the document comes first
"I will know it when I see it" is the most expensive sentence in hiring. Without agreed criteria, every CV is judged against a different picture in each interviewer's head. The panel disagrees, the search restarts, and the clock keeps running.
Keyword matching is not screening. A job description says "denials experience". A rubric says what evidence of that looks like: how many months, which payers, what happened to the appeal rate. The first can be written onto a CV. The second can be checked in a call.
A rubric is also how we keep shortlisting fair. Structured, criteria-based selection is the standard we hold ourselves to under US Title VII and the UK Equality Act, and it is written into our equal opportunity statement. Same questions, same bar, every candidate.
Finally, it makes feedback useful. When you turn down a candidate, we ask which line of the rubric failed. That answer tunes the next batch. "Not the right fit" tunes nothing.
What the rubric contains
- Must-haves. Three to five, each phrased as evidence rather than adjectives. "Has worked US payer denials for 12 months or more", not "strong billing background".
- Nice-to-haves. Weighted, used to rank, never used to reject.
- Disqualifiers. The things that end the conversation early: hours you need covered, work authorisation, a licence, a location.
- The skills screen. The task we run live before anyone reaches the shortlist, how long it takes, and what a pass looks like. For a biller, a claim scrub on a redacted sample. For an engineer, a code-reading exercise on real code.
- The comp range. What the market pays for this profile in this location, and whether your budget clears it. If it does not, you hear it on Day 2, not on Day 30.
The whole thing fits on one page. If it does not, the role is two roles, and we say so.
How it cuts your interview time
The rubric does the first two rounds for you. We score every candidate against the must-haves and run the skills screen before the shortlist exists. What reaches you is three to five people who have already passed, so you interview finalists only.
The interviews themselves get shorter. The must-haves are verified, so your hour goes to judgement, communication and fit, not to confirming that the CV is true.
Debriefs change too. Each finalist arrives with a scorecard, so the panel compares scores on the same criteria instead of trading impressions. Disagreements become specific, and specific disagreements resolve quickly.
We ask for your feedback within five business days of each interview. With a rubric, that feedback is a line reference, which is fast to give and fast to act on.
The rubric is yours to keep. Whether you hire through us or not, you leave Day 2 with a better job description than you started with. If you want to see a sample before booking a call, ask at faraz@athertalent.com.