Preston Clarity Advisory

Hiring already requires an investment.

The average cost of a nonexecutive hire is $5,475, according to SHRM’s 2025 benchmarking research.

And the investment isn’t only financial. Hiring requires leadership time, interviews, coordination, onboarding, training, and the time it takes a new employee to become productive.

When a hiring decision doesn’t work, much of that investment begins again.

The question isn’t simply whether you can find a qualified candidate. It’s whether everyone involved is clear about what you’re hiring that person to do.

Good people can struggle in unclear roles.

Not every unsuccessful hire is a “bad hire.”

Sometimes the person is capable, but the role was poorly defined. Priorities changed. Different leaders expected different things. Or the work the organization actually needed didn’t match the job that was described.

Research has repeatedly linked role ambiguity with lower job performance, and Gallup reported in 2026 that only 49% of U.S. employees strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work.

That raises an important question: If expectations aren’t clear once someone is in the job, were they clear when the hiring decision was made?

Misalignment can follow someone into the role.

The hiring decision is only the beginning.

A job posting, a job description, a hiring manager, an interview team, and a new employee can all be talking about the “same role” while carrying different assumptions about what success actually looks like.

That can show up later as:

competing priorities and unclear ownership
frustration between managers and employees
performance that doesn’t match expectations
responsibilities that continually shift
turnover and another search for “the right person”

Sometimes the problem is the person.

Sometimes the problem started before the person ever arrived.

More candidates don’t create more clarity.

A large applicant pool can create the impression that a company has more choices.

But more choices don’t solve an unclear decision.

If interviewers aren’t aligned on what matters most, what success looks like, and how candidates will be evaluated, each person can walk away from the same interview with a different definition of the strongest candidate.

Structure doesn’t eliminate judgment. It gives everyone something consistent to judge against.

Clarity is cheaper before the decision.

Additional Information

You can’t eliminate every hiring mistake, predict every organizational change, or guarantee that every employee will succeed.

But you can make consequential people decisions with greater clarity.

Define what the business actually needs.
Agree on what success looks like.
Evaluate people against the same expectations.
Make the decision deliberately.
Make sure those expectations follow the person into the role.

That is the work Preston Clarity Advisory is designed to support.

Ready for more clarity?

If you’re facing a hiring or people decision and aren’t sure what the business actually needs, that’s a good place to start.

Explore the Hiring Clarity Method

The Cost of Misalignment

People decisions rarely go wrong all at once.

Hiring already requires an investment.

The average cost of a nonexecutive hire is $5,475, according to SHRM’s 2025 benchmarking research.

Good people can struggle in unclear roles.

Not every unsuccessful hire is a “bad hire.”

Misalignment can follow someone into the role.

More candidates don’t create more clarity.

Clarity is cheaper before the decision.

Additional Information

Ready for more clarity?

The Cost of Misalignment

People decisions rarely go wrong all at once.

Hiring already requires an investment.

The average cost of a nonexecutive hire is $5,475, according to SHRM’s 2025 benchmarking research.

Good people can struggle in unclear roles.

Not every unsuccessful hire is a “bad hire.”

Misalignment can follow someone into the role.

More candidates don’t create more clarity.

Clarity is cheaper before the decision.

Additional Information

Ready for more clarity?

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