The standard
Five checks,and a scorecard you actually read.
Below is the whole standard: what every candidate goes through, how they are scored, what ends a candidacy, and what you receive on each finalist. Published so you can hold us to it. The tests themselves stay private, so nobody can rehearse them.
Nobody outside your business genuinely knows your industry the way you do, so Solida does not claim to teach it. Nobody is sent to you who has not already done the work somewhere else, and the proof arrives in writing before you spend twenty minutes interviewing anyone.
That puts the whole burden on selection. It is a high bar to clear, and it means a weak screen cannot be papered over later with training. Which is why the screen is published rather than described.
The five checks
What every candidate goes through before you see them
- 01 Proof of skillA graded work sample of the actual task: ninety minutes of the real job, alone, against a deadline. Not a personality test and not a generic aptitude quiz. Plus a reference who personally watched them do this work, spoken to live, not emailed, and asked the one question that matters: did you see them do this yourself?
- 02 Communication, in three partsWriting, speaking and listening, scored separately, under time pressure. Listening is tested on its own, with a recorded message played once, because it is the one that gets missed. A confident speaker who did not catch what was said is a worse hire than a careful one who did.
- 03 JudgmentA live, unscripted role-play containing a deliberate trap: a situation that must be escalated rather than handled. Handling it confidently is the wrong answer, and it is scored as the wrong answer. The work sample carries a second one.
- 04 ReliabilityWorkspace and connection speed tested live on camera, including a switch to a mobile hotspot mid-call. A backup for power and internet is tested live again before their first day, and if they don't have one, we supply it. The work sample is done alone, unsupervised, and on time.
- 05 Identity and recordIdentity verified on video against government photo ID. Employment dates checked against what the reference says. Every name screened against the US Treasury sanctions list before any payment, with a dated record kept.
The scorecard
Fifty points, six lines, and a minimum on every one.
Each line is scored at one of five levels, from Strong down to Not seen, and every level rests on a moment we can quote. Every line has to reach Solid, the minimum, however well the others went: a high total cannot rescue a weak line. Solid on all six adds up to 36. To be shown to you, a candidate needs 43 or more, which takes Strong results on about half the lines.
| Line | Points | Minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of skill in the role | 12 | 9 |
| Spoken English under pressure | 10 | 7 |
| Judgment and escalation | 8 | 6 |
| Written documentation | 8 | 6 |
| Listening accuracy | 6 | 4 |
| Reliability and self-management | 6 | 4 |
| Total | 50 | 36 |
Professional Spanish is not scored. Every candidate is a native speaker, so the only thing worth testing is business register, and that is a yes or a no rather than five points. Those points went to proof of skill instead, which is the thing that actually predicts whether this works.
Automatic no
Five conditions that end it, whatever the total says
These are written down in advance for one reason: so that they still apply when someone charming is in front of us.
- 01Any fabricationOn the CV, in a reference, about a date, about a tool. Anything. There is no version of this job that survives someone who will say a thing that is not true when it is convenient.
- 02Can't show they have done this workA failed work sample, or no reference who watched them do the job. If a candidate cannot show the work, we cannot put them forward for it.
- 03Misses the critical detail when listeningEven at a high total, and even when they speak well. This is the single failure most likely to be waved through, so it is the one written down hardest.
- 04Handles what should have been escalatedNot a deduction. A no. Someone who does not know where their authority ends is a liability in your systems, not an asset.
- 05A setup that can't support the jobA workspace or connection that fails the live test and can't be fixed before a start date. A coordinator who disappears on the day you need them most is not full-time coverage. A missing backup is not on this list: we supply it and test it before day one.
A number never rejects anyone by itself. The score routes a candidate to a decision; the minimums are a commitment made before anyone met them. And an employment gap costs nobody a point — this rubric scores what someone did in the process, not what their history looks like. If a gap raises a real question, it gets asked and the answer gets scored, which is evidence. Plenty of capable people have broken CVs for reasons that say nothing about them.
What you receive
Two finalists, one page on each, and your interview
You are not assigned a person. You receive two people who cleared every minimum, and you interview them yourself and choose. For each one, one page, designed to be read side by side:
- The six scored lines, each with its level and one quoted moment
- Their actual work sample, exactly as they submitted it
- What they did with the situation that had to be escalated
- Relevant experience, as confirmed by a reference who watched them work
- One named reservation. Every candidate has one, and naming it is what makes the rest worth trusting
- A dated record of the identity check, the reference, the employment dates and the sanctions screen
If neither is right, that is a legitimate answer and the search continues at no extra cost. There is no fee for a search that did not produce someone you wanted.
Nothing in a page you receive will mention age, photograph, marital status, family situation, health or religion, because none of those are relevant to whether someone can do the work and none of them belong in a document you are using to make a hiring decision.
Published so you can hold us to it.
Twenty minutes on what the role actually has to cover. Mostly you talking.
Book a 20-minute callOr email us directly — admin1@solidastaffing.com
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