“We need to have rigor adjusted for reality.” — Allie Wehling
Episode Overview
I am lucky to be joined by my friend Allie Wehling. I consider Allie a superstar. She has achieved what I call the gold standard for internal I/Os.
Allie is a rare example of having an I/O helping guide the business of hiring. At Cisco, she owns both the IO content and the end-to-end hiring process. She sees the whole system and how every piece affects the others.
Most hiring functions treat science as a bolt-on: a test added to a process nobody designed with measurement in mind. That approach has value, but it leaves results to chance. Consistent, defensible hiring requires a holistic approach, where science, process, and business needs are designed together.
Join us as we dig into what an embedded science lens brings to hiring, and why TA can’t afford to go without it.
Topics Discussed & Key Insights
1. TA Leaders: Embed Science, Don’t Bolt It On
Assessment usually gets added to hiring without anyone thinking about the whole process — piecemeal jamming assessments into legacy tools and processes. Allie’s role is built differently. Her teams cover both what gets measured and how it’s implemented, from requisition through pre-boarding. Having one leader across both is rare, and it gets results.
“We have the WHAT, the content, the assessments from our COE, and then the HOW. How are we actually implementing it?”
2. Science Sees the Whole Funnel, Not Just the Test
The assessment is one input. Every handoff, from assessment to interview to decisioning, introduces the potential for bias AND the potential for ROI. The trick is pulling both levers in the right direction. And we can’t forget that candidate experience is critical. When top candidates drop out because of slow scheduling or untrained interviewers, the process fails, not the test.
“because you can have the most beautifully designed and validated assessment and still walk away with a bad hire because the assessment is just one input to the much longer process.”
3. Science Has to Be in Lockstep With the Business
What’s scientifically best and what’s operationally viable are different questions, and both have to be solved. Process and technology have to be designed together. Allie’s team works “two in a box” with recruiting tech, and Cisco has hired an AI orchestration lead so the tools feel like one system.
“they’re two different optimization problems. And if we pretend like they’re one, our systems are going to die quiet deaths.”
4. Science Prepares the Org. for Transformation
Allie listens for the problems leaders haven’t voiced yet. When executives kept asking how Cisco assesses for AI, her team built a library of work samples to measure it. Bespoke assessments built from validated items give hiring managers a hand in the content. An internal AI tool sets cut scores against predicted pass rates instead of gut thresholds.
“I try to listen to what problem are they not even voicing yet.”
5. Science Keeps You Defensible
Job analysis documents job relatedness. Vendor claims get tested, not trusted. If a vendor can’t explain what its score predicts, or who’s on its science team, it’s not the right partner.
“They’re predicting something, but is it the thing that we want to predict?”
Final Takeaway
Speed, volume, and AI are making hiring harder to get right. Science is what turns a pile of tools into a system that works effectively, consistently and holds up to scrutiny. It’s not a test you add. It’s a lens you build in.
