# Hire, Review and Pay by the Same Yardstick: A People System That Scales **Speaker:** Tom Ellsworth and Paul Williams (Valuetainment), with Matthew Stanfield (co-founder, Mattenga's Pizzeria), Chad Bennett and other Valuetainment staff; introduced by Patrick Bet-David **When:** 2026-09-02 · 6:32 PM–7:23 PM ET (3:32 PM Las Vegas) **Theme:** Build the team **Sources:** kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G, brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G, UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF, YuYCsF9RzleJyzFELITR **Notes page:** https://vault.chels.ai/sessions/d2-performance-ai-suite/ > **Charm is a weak signal in both interviews and reviews, so run hiring, quarterly assessment and compensation through one structured, evidence-backed process where every person is measured against the same criteria.** Tom Ellsworth (operator with 2.2 billion dollars of exits) and Paul Williams (Valuetainment's CTO) walked through how Valuetainment systematised its people operations: structured one-to-ones, a three-week quarterly assessment, a five-band rating tied to raises and a company-then-individual bonus waterfall, structured AI-screened interviews, and a nine-box view of the whole organisation. Matthew Stanfield of Mattenga's Pizzeria described replacing a full-time recruiter for an eight-location restaurant group receiving 150 applications a week, and Valuetainment staff told the story of a botched early calibration that leaked scores before they were reviewed. The two products demonstrated (Interview Now and Performance AI, sold under the Hire Metrics name) are treated here as context. The recording cuts off at 19:23:44 while post-production manager Chad Bennett is introducing himself, so the end of the staff panel and Bet-David's promised closing announcement were not captured. **Best for:** Owners with one HR person and too many applicants; Multi-location operators with high hourly turnover; Founders designing their first bonus plan; Managers who run weekly one-to-ones without a fixed structure; Leaders between 15 and 100 employees who no longer know everyone; Anyone evaluating AI hiring or review tools and wanting to know what the process underneath should look like ## Claude skills from this session - `ai-era-hiring-scorecard` — Build and run a structured, side-by-side hiring scorecard for one role, as taught by Tom Ellsworth, Paul Williams and Mattenga's Pizzeria co-founder Matthew Stanfield: a job spec in your own words, three to five weighted culture criteria (Mattenga's example: 25 percent problem solving, plus hospitality), non-negotiables asked aloud in every interview because ticked boxes lie, two evidence questions per criterion, three filter phases in order (skills and company scale, culture, non-negotiables), a 100 to 20 to 7 funnel target for one HR person, and an interviewer-bias audit so one person's temperament stops filtering the whole company. Use whenever an owner or manager mentions hiring, interviews, too many applicants, AI-written resumes that all look perfect, a recruiter, a bad hire, culture fit, turnover, ghosting candidates, or says they hire people they click with — even if they never ask for a scorecard or a hiring process. https://vault.chels.ai/skills/ai-era-hiring-scorecard/SKILL.md - `bonus-waterfall-designer` — Design a company-first bonus plan on one page using the 'me, we, us' waterfall Tom Ellsworth taught at Valuetainment: minimum company growth and EBITDA targets unlock the pool, a fair target bonus percentage per job level, then the individual's annual rating sets the payout (meets = 100 percent of target, exceeds = a step up like a salesperson one level over quota, outstanding = 150 percent of meets, nothing for the two bands below meets), with half the waterfall driven by company performance and half by personal. Includes a worked example, an affordability check and the one-page explainer every employee can compute from. Use whenever a founder, owner or finance lead mentions bonuses, incentive plans, profit sharing, variable pay, rewarding top performers, year-end payouts, or says bonuses feel arbitrary, unaffordable or cause arguments — even if they never say 'waterfall'. https://vault.chels.ai/skills/bonus-waterfall-designer/SKILL.md - `quarterly-calibration-calendar` — Set up and run Valuetainment's three-week quarterly performance review as taught by Tom Ellsworth and Paul Williams: week one self-assessment, week two manager assessment, week three committee calibration and delivery, scored 1 to 10 on five categories (effort, attitude, leadership, innovation, results) with a specific example behind every score, five rating bands where 'meets expectations' is the normal and good score, quarterly feedback rolling into one annual raise decision, and a release safeguard so no score reaches an employee before calibration. Use whenever a manager or owner mentions performance reviews, annual reviews, calibration, rating scales, recency bias, one-to-ones that drift, deciding raises, a nine-box, or says reviews feel like a popularity contest — even if they never ask for a 'review process'. https://vault.chels.ai/skills/quarterly-calibration-calendar/SKILL.md ## Skills to build - **Structured weekly one-to-ones** — A fixed agenda you follow with every direct report every week, so the meeting tests expectations, progress and obstacles instead of drifting into small talk. _How to practise:_ Write a five-item agenda (goals for the year, this week's priorities, blockers, feedback both ways, one coaching point) and use it unchanged for a month. Only about a third of the room said they had one. It is working when reports arrive prepared and you can trace a coaching thread across several weeks. - **Coaching with a system, not just personality** — Adapting your style to each person (an introverted engineer is not managed like a salesperson) while running everyone through the same review structure and yardstick. _How to practise:_ For each report, write one line on how they like to receive feedback and one line on the standard they are held to. Keep the standard identical across people; vary only the delivery. Revisit both lines each quarter. Success is a team where the quiet deliverer and the loud charmer get the grade their work earned. - **Running a three-week quarterly assessment** — A bounded review cycle: self-assessment in week one, manager assessment in week two, committee calibration and delivery by the end of week three. _How to practise:_ Put the three deadlines on the company calendar the day each quarter closes. Score 1-10 on five categories, require an example for every score, and deliver results like a report card. If the process runs past three weeks, cut steps rather than extend the deadline. - **Separating feedback cadence from pay cadence** — Giving scored feedback every quarter but deciding raises once a year from the full-year record, so recency bias and Christmas-season good behaviour stop driving compensation. _How to practise:_ Publish the rule: four quarterly scores roll up to one annual score; raises are discussed only at the annual point. Hold the line when someone asks for a mid-year raise. It is working when nobody's behaviour visibly changes in the run-up to comp season. - **Designing a company-first bonus waterfall** — A bonus plan where the pool only exists if the company hits minimum growth and profit targets, and the individual's share then depends on their rating. _How to practise:_ Set a fair target bonus percentage per job level. Define the company unlock (growth and EBITDA minimums). Map ratings to payout: meets = 100 percent of target, exceeds = a step up, outstanding = 50 percent above meets. Explain it to the whole company once a year and again at every quarterly review. - **Structured, criteria-based interviewing** — Asking every candidate calibrating questions tied to the job, the culture and the non-negotiables, and scoring them side by side, rather than judging on rapport. _How to practise:_ For each open role, write the job spec, three to five culture attributes with a weight (for example 25 percent problem solving), and the non-negotiables you must ask aloud every time. Score every candidate against that sheet before discussing your impression. It works when the quiet candidate with the best evidence beats the fluent talker. - **Funnel-based recruiting with one HR person** — Turning a pile of applications into a ranked shortlist through explicit filters (skills and company scale, culture questions, non-negotiables) so a small team spends live-interview time only on the top slice. _How to practise:_ Define a minimum resume score and a first-round threshold (Mattenga's uses 80 percent). Each week, count applicants in, how many passed each filter, and how many reached a live interview. Aim for the 100 to 20 to 7 shape Ellsworth described. Track hires per HR hour to know it is improving. - **Reading your organisation as a nine-box** — Plotting every employee on a three-by-three grid of impact (results) versus performance or potential (the other categories), then stack-ranking across departments to find the true top 5 to 10 percent. _How to practise:_ After each calibration, place every person on the grid. Study the two off-diagonal corners: high potential with low impact (unblock or reassign) and high results with poor culture fit (cannot be top box). Publish the grid shape, without individual scores, so people know where they are and their trajectory. - **Recognising top performers as a group** — Using calibration results to gather everyone rated exceeds or outstanding for time with the founder, so recognition reaches people the CEO would otherwise never meet. _How to practise:_ Each quarter, pull the list of exceeds-and-above and host one lunch or breakfast. Notice how many names you did not know. Use the time for encouragement and mentorship, not status updates. ## What matters - **Likeability quietly inflates ratings:** The upbeat, friendly report gets perceived as the stronger performer while the quieter peer who actually delivers on time and on budget is under-rated. Ellsworth's example: the deliverer should be the A-minus and the charmer the B-plus, but managers get it backwards. A structured process exists to catch exactly this reversal. _(Evidence: 18:36:36-18:37:21 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **People are the business, so the people process deserves a plan:** Most of the room ran weekly one-to-ones but only about a third followed a structure. Ellsworth's challenge: if people are your commodity, why would the meeting about them be the one thing you improvise? _(Evidence: 18:37:34-18:38:02 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **A review process gives managers a duty, not just a form:** The system exists so leadership can ask every manager: have you sat down with everybody, set expectations, given high performers their props, given low performers 'severe encouragement', and aligned everyone with the plan for the year? Without the process those questions never get asked. _(Evidence: 18:38:32-18:39:08 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Treating everyone identically is as ineffective as pure personality management:** Williams, an engineer, pointed out that engineers avoid conflict and daylight and will run at one pace if mismanaged. The answer is not to abandon the system but to coach each person differently inside the same system. _(Evidence: 18:39:08-18:39:44 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Goals must be set top-down before anyone can be reviewed against them:** The assessment only works if company goals exist, cascade to teams and are delivered to individuals at the start of the year. Reviewing people against goals they never received is unfair and produces arguments, not improvement. _(Evidence: 18:39:54 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **The review must fit the calendar or it becomes the distraction:** Valuetainment caps the whole cycle at three weeks after quarter close: one week for self-evaluations, one for managers, then calibration. Ellsworth compared it to a teacher sending report cards home. If your review drags for a month, people resent it and stop being honest. _(Evidence: 18:41:02-18:41:34 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **High expectations are only fair when paired with outsized rewards:** The deal Valuetainment makes with high performers is explicit: we will expect a lot, and you will be paid at the highest level. The reward confirms their value and keeps them, which is the point of measuring in the first place. _(Evidence: 18:42:01-18:42:31 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Meets expectations is a great score, and most people should land there:** Meets means doing the job you were hired to do excellently, on time, within budget and to your KPIs. Only a small percentage are truly outstanding. When people ask why they are not outstanding, the answer is 'you are a high meets, which is incredibly valuable, but outstanding is for over and above'. _(Evidence: 18:43:25-18:44:23 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Everyone accepts quota tiers for salespeople; apply the same logic to everyone else:** A rep 20 percent over quota gets a level-one bonus and 25 percent over gets level two, and nobody argues. Applied to non-sales roles, suddenly everybody believes they are at 125 percent of quota. Calibration exists to bring them back to reality using the same philosophy sales already accepts. _(Evidence: 18:43:56-18:44:23 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Five bands, deliberately, not ten:** Williams explained that a ten-point rating or extra middle categories get confusing and bunch everyone in the centre. Five named bands are enough to differentiate and simple enough that every employee can remember where they stand. _(Evidence: 18:44:39-18:44:52 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Quarterly scoring defeats recency bias:** When reviews happen once a year, everyone realises at Christmas that pay is about to be decided and changes how they show up. Four quarterly scores make the annual number reflect the whole year, and the last few weeks stop mattering disproportionately. _(Evidence: 18:45:03-18:45:41 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **Pay the company first so it can pay you:** The 'me, we, us' bonus structure says nobody earns a bonus until the company hits minimum objectives and has the money to fund the plan. That single rule aligns every employee with company results before their own. _(Evidence: 18:46:06-18:47:14 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **A 50 percent gap between meets and outstanding is what makes the top band real:** In Valuetainment's plan meets pays 100 percent of target, exceeds steps up, and outstanding pays 50 percent more than meets. Half the waterfall comes from company performance, half from personal. Because the whole company can see the maths, the outcome reads as fair even to those who did not get it. _(Evidence: 18:48:05-18:49:59 / kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G)_ - **In 2026 every resume looks perfect, so the resume has stopped being a filter:** Candidates run their resume through AI and tailor it to your posting along with 150 others. Five years ago the top five stood out; now 200 look like perfect fits on paper. The shortlist has to come from questions and evidence, not from reading resumes harder. _(Evidence: 18:51:09-18:52:17 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Ghosting applicants damages your brand:** Williams estimated 99.9 percent of applicants are never told why they were passed over. Giving every applicant above a minimum score a chance to represent themselves is both fairer and better for how your company is perceived by the many you do not hire. _(Evidence: 18:50:19-18:50:44, 18:57:22-18:57:33 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Interview skill is not job skill:** A great conversation tells you someone is good at conversation. Interviewer bias compounds it: engaging candidates score higher than steady, straightforward ones, and interviewers hire people who remind them of themselves. Only calibrating questions asked of everyone break the pattern. _(Evidence: 18:52:17-18:53:20 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Three filter phases, in order:** First filter on technical skills and comparable company size or scale. Then test for culture with specific questions. Then confirm non-negotiables such as on-site versus remote. Doing them in this order means expensive human time is spent only on candidates who have already cleared the cheap filters. _(Evidence: 18:53:20-18:54:00 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Your one HR person cannot also be your recruiter:** Most of the room had a single HR person handling payroll, benefits and onboarding. Ellsworth's point: that person will never have time to properly rank 100 resumes down to 20 and bring you 7, so the filtering step has to be systematised or outsourced to a tool. _(Evidence: 18:54:00-18:55:05 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **A hiring tool should adapt the questions but standardise the scoring:** The approach demonstrated trains the interview on the job, the culture and the non-negotiables, then tailors a 5 to 30 minute conversation to each resume. No two interviews are the same, but every candidate lands on the same side-by-side scorecard with a transcript. That combination is worth copying even without software. _(Evidence: 18:56:00-18:57:39 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **A single interviewer's personality becomes the company's hiring filter:** Mattenga's soft-spoken recruiter was intimidated by dominant personalities and never hired them, so the whole company was filtered through one temperament. A restaurant needs extroverts. Moving to structured scoring produced a wider variety of people and a noticeably better culture in the stores. _(Evidence: 19:01:10-19:01:56, 19:06:45-19:07:05 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Redirect recruiting savings into job promotion and higher pay:** Stanfield said the software cost roughly what the recruiter had cost, but doubled hiring capacity with the same HR headcount. His plan for the saving: advertise the jobs properly for the first time and pay people more to attract better candidates. _(Evidence: 19:02:51-19:03:20 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Weight your values and ask the non-negotiables every single time:** Mattenga's assigned percentages to values (for example 25 percent problem solving, hospitality) and hard-coded non-negotiables: sober, no DUIs, able to pass a drug test. People tick the box on the form and lie, so the question must be asked out loud in every interview. _(Evidence: 19:04:42-19:05:30 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Screen for 'do you care about people' to cut paycheque-only hires:** Filtering for a service mindset up front reduced the 'I need money this week and will quit next week' hire that drives restaurant turnover. Culture questions in the first filter are a retention tool, not a nicety. _(Evidence: 19:07:05-19:07:27 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **No hiring process is a miracle:** Stanfield was careful to say people will still come and go in any business. The goal of a filtering system is to be most effective on average, not to eliminate every miss. Set expectations accordingly with your team. _(Evidence: 19:08:04-19:08:42 / brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G)_ - **Without a system, reviews are a popularity contest:** Williams relayed the brief Bet-David gave him: measure everybody by the same yardstick. Small companies typically build a review in PowerPoint or Excel and get recency and affinity bias baked in. The fix is a defined scale, evidence for every score and a calibration step, whatever tool you use. _(Evidence: 19:09:29-19:10:45 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **Make the review conversational and mobile or people will not do it honestly:** Most Valuetainment staff completed their last calibration on a phone; Williams did 42 of his by voice while driving. The lesson for any process: the less bureaucratic it feels, the more candid and complete the input. _(Evidence: 19:11:45-19:12:20 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **No score without a specific example:** The demonstrated process asks one or more evidence questions per category and prompts 'you gave me a score but no example'. Requiring evidence at input time is what makes the later committee discussion about facts instead of impressions. _(Evidence: 19:12:20-19:14:07 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **Decide deliberately whether managers see the self-score first:** Showing the self-assessment anchors the manager; hiding it gives an independent read. In the demo the employee scored 45, the manager 37 without seeing it, and the committee moved the final number up. Choose one rule and apply it to everyone. _(Evidence: 19:12:35-19:13:41 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **Stack-rank across departments to find your real top 5 percent:** Calibrated scores let you see who moved up or down, who is top quartile, and who your top ten performers are regardless of department. That cross-company view is impossible when each manager grades in isolation. _(Evidence: 19:15:22-19:16:03 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **High results with poor culture fit cannot be a top-box employee:** The nine-box separates impact from the other categories. Someone crushing goals but failing the culture cannot sit top-right by definition, and someone with clear potential but a 5 in results needs unblocking, not praise. The grid forces both conversations. _(Evidence: 19:16:03-19:16:44 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **Headcount thresholds change what you need:** Williams' rule of thumb: around 15 employees you start running into people you do not know well; around 50 you ask 'who's that?'; at 100 the question becomes 'who got raises and who didn't?'. Each threshold is a cue to formalise another layer of the people system. _(Evidence: 19:16:44-19:17:04 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **Publish the shape of the grid, not the scores:** Valuetainment posts a version of its three-by-three on campus for the whole organisation. Individual scores stay private, but everyone can see where they sit and which way they are trending. Transparency about the system builds trust without exposing anyone. _(Evidence: 19:18:24-19:18:32 / UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF)_ - **Releasing scores before calibration destroys trust:** Valuetainment's director of studio operations, weeks into the job, entered his team's scores in an early tool and hit 'done', which sent uncalibrated scores straight to his reports. The next day he had disturbed direct reports, then months of communication and trust problems. Whatever tool you use, separate draft, review, approve and release. _(Evidence: 19:19:38-19:22:06 / YuYCsF9RzleJyzFELITR)_ ## Frameworks, lists & numbers - **Three-week quarterly assessment timeline** — After quarter close: week one, employees self-assess 1-10 on five categories with examples. Week two, managers assess independently. By end of week three, the leadership committee has calibrated and results are delivered. Feedback is quarterly; raises are annual, built from the four quarterly scores. - **Five rating bands and pay consequences** — Does not meet expectations and needs improvement: no raise discussion at all. Meets expectations and exceeds: average merit increase. Outstanding: above-market increase. Five bands chosen deliberately over a 10-point scale so people do not bunch in the middle. - **Me, We, Us bonus waterfall** — No bonus pool until the company hits minimum objectives (growth and EBITDA unlock). Target bonus percentage set fairly across job levels. Individual payout: meets = 100 percent of target; exceeds = like a salesperson level one over quota; outstanding = like level two over quota, 50 percent bigger than meets. Half the waterfall from company performance, half from personal performance. - **Five manager duty questions** — Have you sat down with everybody? Have you set expectations with everybody? Have you given your high performers their props? Have you given your low performers severe encouragement to get going? Have you given everybody alignment with the plan for the year? - **Three hiring filter phases** — 1. Technical skills and comparable company size or scale. 2. Specific questions that test culture fit. 3. Non-negotiables such as on-site versus remote, location, and for restaurants sobriety and passing a drug test. - **The 100 / 20 / 7 shortlist** — Ellsworth's target for a single HR person: 100 resumes in, 20 ranked against the first filter, 7 brought to the hiring manager. - **Mattenga's Pizzeria hiring numbers** — Eight locations after twelve years in business. About three open positions per location, so 24 open roles to manage weekly. Roughly 150 applicants a week, many aged 16 to 18, with very high turnover. Live interviews only for the top 40 candidates scoring 80 percent or more. Hiring 10 to 15 people a week. After adopting structured AI screening in November, the full-time recruiter role was eliminated and hires doubled at about the same cost. - **The 2026 resume problem** — Five years ago, of 1,000 applicants the top five stood out, the next 200 were reasonable, the rest poor fits. In 2026 every resume has been rewritten by AI to match the posting, so 200 look perfect on paper and the candidate has applied to 150 other jobs. Roughly 99.9 percent of applicants are ghosted. - **Cost of bad hires** — The product video claimed bad hires represent 400 billion dollars a year in economic waste. Treat as a marketing figure, but the underlying causes it listed are sound: people interviewed well, HR liked them, or they reminded the interviewer of themselves. - **EALIR score in practice** — Five categories (effort, attitude, leadership, innovation, results), each out of 10, total out of 50. Demo example: employee self-scored 45, manager scored 37 without seeing the self-score, committee moved the final number up. One or more evidence questions per category. - **Nine-box (three-by-three) grid** — Impact (results) on one axis, performance or potential on the other. Best employees are top-right. High potential with low impact needs unblocking. High impact with poor culture fit cannot be top box by definition. Valuetainment publishes the grid shape, without scores, for the whole organisation. - **Headcount thresholds** — Around 15 employees you start running into people you do not know well. Around 50 you ask 'who's that?'. At 100 the question is 'who got raises and who didn't?'. Each is a cue to add structure. - **Structured interview design** — Train the process on the job spec, the company culture and the non-negotiables. Tailor a 5 to 30 minute conversation to each resume so no two interviews are identical. Score every candidate side by side on the same standard, with a transcript, and let everyone above a minimum resume score represent themselves. ## Exercises & frameworks to run - **One-to-one agenda card** _(30 minutes per report per week)_ _[editorial (speaker idea, steps written by us)]_ 1. Write five fixed items on a card: progress against this year's goals, this week's top three priorities, blockers you need me to remove, feedback in both directions, one coaching point. 2. Use the card in every weekly one-to-one for a month without changing it. 3. Keep a one-line note per meeting so coaching threads carry across weeks. 4. At month end, ask each report whether the meeting is more useful than before and adjust one item at most. - **Finish with:** A repeatable one-to-one structure and a running log per direct report. - **Manager duty checklist** _(15 minutes per manager per quarter)_ _[speaker]_ 1. For each manager who reports to you, ask the five questions Ellsworth listed: Have you sat down with everybody? Have you set expectations with everybody? Have you given your high performers their props? Have you given your low performers severe encouragement? Have you aligned everyone with the plan for the year? 2. Record a yes or no per question per manager. 3. Any 'no' becomes that manager's action item for the next two weeks. 4. Repeat at the start of each quarter. - **Finish with:** A simple grid showing which managers are actually managing and where to intervene. - **Three-week quarterly assessment calendar** _(Three weeks elapsed, a few hours per manager)_ _[speaker]_ 1. On the day the quarter closes, set three dates: self-assessments due in one week, manager assessments due one week later, calibration and delivery complete one week after that. 2. Employees rate themselves 1-10 on five categories with one specific example per score. 3. Managers rate each report on the same scale, independently. 4. Leadership committee reconciles the two and records a final score and band. 5. Managers deliver the result and the reasoning to each employee, like a report card, before the third week ends. - **Finish with:** A calibrated score and band for every employee, delivered within three weeks of quarter close. - **Bonus waterfall on one page** _(Half a day, once a year)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Set the company unlock: the minimum revenue growth and EBITDA that must be hit before any bonus pool exists. 2. Set a target bonus percentage for each job level so targets are fair across the organisation. 3. Map ratings to payout: does not meet and needs improvement = 0; meets = 100 percent of target; exceeds = a defined step up (like level-one over quota); outstanding = 150 percent of meets. 4. Split the calculation half on company performance and half on personal performance. 5. Write it on one page and walk the whole company through it. - **Finish with:** A bonus plan every employee can compute for themselves, aligned to company results first. - **Structured interview scorecard** _(One hour per role to build, 10 minutes per candidate to score)_ _[editorial (speaker idea, steps written by us)]_ 1. For one open role, write the job spec in your own words rather than copying a posting from the internet. 2. List three to five culture attributes and give each a weight that adds to 100 percent (Mattenga's example: 25 percent problem solving, plus hospitality). 3. List the non-negotiables that must be asked aloud every time (location or on-site requirement, sobriety and drug test for restaurants, and so on). 4. Write two calibrating questions per attribute that ask for a specific past example. 5. Score every candidate on the same sheet immediately after the interview and before discussing impressions with anyone. - **Finish with:** A side-by-side scorecard that lets you compare candidates on evidence rather than rapport. - **Recruiting funnel count** _(10 minutes per week for a month)_ _[editorial (speaker idea, steps written by us)]_ 1. For four weeks, log applicants received per role per week. 2. Log how many pass the resume or skills filter, how many pass culture and non-negotiable screening, and how many reach a live interview. 3. Compare to Ellsworth's shape (100 in, 20 ranked, 7 to the boss) and Mattenga's threshold (live interviews only for the top 40 scoring 80 percent or more). 4. Identify the stage that eats the most human hours and systematise it first. - **Finish with:** A funnel you can quote in numbers and a clear target for where a tool or template saves the most time. - **Interviewer bias audit** _(45 minutes, once)_ _[editorial (speaker idea, steps written by us)]_ 1. List your last 20 hires and who interviewed each. 2. Note each hire's broad personality type and the interviewer's. 3. Look for a pattern like Mattenga's, where a soft-spoken interviewer never hired dominant personalities. 4. If a pattern exists, add a second scorer or a structured scorecard before the next hire. - **Finish with:** Evidence of whether one person's temperament is acting as your company's hiring filter. - **Evidence-backed self-assessment** _(20 minutes per employee per quarter)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Give each employee the five categories (effort, attitude, leadership, innovation, results) and a 1-10 scale. 2. Require one concrete example from the quarter beside every number; a score without an example is sent back. 3. Allow voice or mobile entry so it feels like a conversation, not a form. 4. Decide in advance whether managers see the self-score before scoring, and apply that rule to everyone. - **Finish with:** Self-assessments that give the calibration committee facts to weigh rather than bare numbers. - **Nine-box placement** _(Two hours per quarter)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Draw a three-by-three grid: impact (results) on one axis, performance or potential (the other four categories) on the other. 2. Place every calibrated employee in a box. 3. For the high-potential, low-impact corner, write what is blocking each person. 4. For the high-impact, low-culture corner, decide whether the culture gap is coachable. 5. Stack-rank the top-right box across departments to name your top 5 to 10 percent. 6. Publish the grid shape to the company without names or scores. - **Finish with:** A one-page picture of the organisation and a named list of who to invest in, unblock or move out. - **Exceeds-and-above breakfast** _(Two hours per quarter)_ _[speaker]_ 1. After calibration, list everyone rated exceeds or outstanding. 2. Invite them to one meal with the founder or CEO. 3. Before the meal, count how many you do not know personally. 4. Spend the time on encouragement, mentorship and what they need, not on company updates. - **Finish with:** Direct founder contact with the top performers each quarter, including the ones you had never met. - **Score-release safeguard** _(One hour, once)_ _[editorial (speaker idea, steps written by us)]_ 1. Map your review workflow into four states: draft, manager review, committee approval, released to employee. 2. Confirm that nothing reaches an employee until the committee approval state, whether your tool is software or a spreadsheet. 3. Test the flow with one dummy record before the first real cycle. 4. Brief every new manager on the flow within their first two weeks. - **Finish with:** A review process that cannot leak uncalibrated scores to your team. ## What to do — and how often - [ ] **Hold a structured one-to-one with every direct report using a fixed agenda.** — Every week ('How many people do a one to one with their direct reports every week?') _[weekly; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Run the self-assessment, manager assessment and committee calibration, finished within three weeks of quarter close.** — Every quarter ('Every quarter, the teammates complete a self assessment') _[quarterly; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Decide raises from the full-year record of four quarterly scores, never mid-year.** — Once a year ('We don't do raises quarterly. We do feedback quarterly en route to a full annual score') _[annually; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Write the one-page bonus waterfall with the company unlock, per-level targets and the meets/exceeds/outstanding payout ladder.** — Once, before the next fiscal year begins _[once; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Set company goals and cascade them top-down to every individual before the year's first review.** — Once a year, at the start of the year _[annually; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Build a structured interview scorecard with weighted values and spoken non-negotiables for each open role.** — Once per role, this month for your current openings _[once; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Ask every non-negotiable question aloud in every interview, even when the application form says the box was ticked.** — Every interview ('you have to ask them in the interview every single time') _[daily; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Count your recruiting funnel (applicants, filtered, interviewed, hired) and find the stage eating the most human hours.** — Every week for a month, then monthly _[weekly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Check whether one interviewer's temperament is filtering your hires and add a second scorer if so.** — Once, this quarter _[once; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Require a specific example beside every self-assessment score and send back any score without one.** — Every quarterly assessment _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Place every employee on the impact-versus-potential nine-box and stack-rank the top box across departments.** — Every quarter, after calibration _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Host a founder meal for everyone rated exceeds or outstanding.** — Every quarter, after scores are final _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Publish the shape of your nine-box or rating distribution to the whole company, with no individual scores.** — Every quarter _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Verify that your review tool or spreadsheet cannot send scores to employees before committee approval.** — Once, before your next review cycle _[once; editorial recommendation]_ ## Questions to ask yourself - Who on my team do I rate highly because I enjoy them, and who delivers quietly and gets a lower grade for it? - If people are my business, why is the weekly meeting about them the one thing I run without a plan? - Could every employee compute their own bonus from a one-page rule, or does it feel arbitrary to them? - Does anyone's behaviour change in the weeks before pay decisions, and what does that tell me about my review cadence? - Am I hiring the person who interviews best or the person who is best for the job? - Whose temperament is my company's real hiring filter right now? - Which non-negotiables do I assume from a ticked box instead of asking out loud? - Who are my top ten performers across all departments, and how many of them have I never spoken to? - If a score reached an employee before it was calibrated, what would break, and have I made that impossible? ## Quotes > “It says for the managers, it provides a duty, a duty to objectively sit back and manage your team.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:38:32 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > What a structured review process does for managers, as opposed to employees. > “Have you given your low performers their, you know, severe encouragement to get going?” — Tom Ellsworth (18:38:53 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > One of the five questions leadership asks every manager. > “But if you don't manage them correctly, don't know how to get the best out of them, they will only run at one pace.” — Paul Williams (18:39:44 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > On engineers, and why a system still needs to be delivered differently to different people. > “It's got to be an enabling process that's efficient, that fits in the calendar, but quickly gives you exactly what you need.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:41:17 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > Why the quarterly review is capped at three weeks. > “It's like a teacher getting the report cards and sending them home.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:41:31 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > The mental model for delivering quarterly scores. > “Those of you that are high performers, we're gonna have high expectations, but you're gonna receive outsized rewards.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:42:11 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > The deal made explicitly with top performers. > “We do feedback quarterly en route to a full annual score, where we then would talk about raises.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:42:52 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > Separating the feedback cadence from the pay cadence. > “You have to be firm enough in the concept of meritocracy to say no.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:43:05 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > On giving no raise at all to does-not-meet and needs-improvement ratings. > “Well when you apply it to people, suddenly everybody thinks they're 125% of quota, and you need to bring them back down.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:44:16 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > Why sales quota logic is accepted for reps but resisted everywhere else. > “Meets is a great score for people doing a great job within the bounds of their job.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:44:23 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > Resetting expectations about the middle band. > “Well, the reason we do it quarterly, is otherwise when it comes to compensation, recency kicks in.” — Paul Williams (18:45:23 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > Why the assessment is quarterly rather than annual. > “In other words, pay the company so it can pay us.” — Tom Ellsworth (18:46:46 · kED5xYsrsbuk6tGT3w4G) > > The principle behind the company-first bonus unlock. > “But if you're not asking the right calibrating questions in the interview, then you're really just having a conversation.” — Paul Williams (18:52:38 · brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G) > > Why rapport in an interview is not evidence of fit. > “So stop hiring the person who interviews best, and start hiring the person that is best for the job.” — Interview Now product video (played on stage) (18:55:05 · brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G) > > The central hiring claim of the session, from the product video. > “She filtered everybody in the company along that lens, and so we needed to clean that up and make it more objective.” — Matthew Stanfield (19:01:25 · brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G) > > On a soft-spoken recruiter who never hired dominant personalities at Mattenga's Pizzeria. > “Like even interview is not a miracle that everything is going to be perfect. There's no such thing.” — Matthew Stanfield (19:08:23 · brphxPfiqfO9Ygo36L7G) > > Setting realistic expectations for any hiring system; 'interview' refers to the Interview Now tool. > “I really do believe that if we don't have a system, it is literally just a popularity contest and I'm not interested in popularities. Give me something that measures everybody by the same yard stick.” — Paul Williams, relaying Patrick Bet-David's brief (19:10:19 · UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF) > > The design brief for the performance review system. > “Obviously, it doesn't show your scores, but it allows you to know where you are and where your trajectory is.” — Paul Williams (19:18:32 · UIjO9PIFdYtQLAvcm9YF) > > On the nine-box grid published for the whole company at Valuetainment's campus. > “What I didn't realize about the done button was that it meant done done, and then it got sent out to all the employees from the studio.” — Valuetainment director of studio operations (19:20:47 · YuYCsF9RzleJyzFELITR) > > How uncalibrated scores leaked to a whole team in an early review tool. ## Watch-outs - Rating the friendly, upbeat report above the quiet one who actually delivers on time and on budget. - Running weekly one-to-ones with no fixed structure, so they never test expectations or carry a coaching thread. - Treating everyone identically in the name of fairness; people react differently and a mismanaged engineer runs at one pace. - Letting the review cycle sprawl for a month so it becomes a distraction and people stop answering honestly. - Doing raises off a single annual review, which invites recency bias and Christmas-season good behaviour. - Handing out 'outstanding' too freely; meets is the correct score for most people doing their job well. - Copying job specs from the internet instead of writing what you actually need. - Believing the resume in 2026; every one has been tailored by AI to your posting. - Letting one interviewer's personality filter the whole company, so you never hire the extroverts a service business needs. - Trusting a ticked box on non-negotiables such as sobriety instead of asking in every interview. - Expecting any hiring system to be a miracle; people will still come and go. - Releasing scores to employees before the calibration committee has reviewed them, which caused months of trust damage at Valuetainment. --- Cole's Notes Vault 2026 — https://vault.chels.ai — built by chels.ai (https://chels.ai). Only stage content is published; quotes are verbatim from automatic transcripts with light punctuation. Speaker-stated cadence and editorial recommendations are labelled separately. Times are Eastern; Las Vegas was three hours earlier.