How to Identify Successful Hires Who Will Deliver Results
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Hiring the right employees is essential to improve the quality of the workforce, increase productivity, reduce turnover and the need to hire again, and ultimately impacts the trajectory of the business. On the other hand, research found that the wrong hire can cost equal to 30% of the employees first year earnings.
Identifying the right person for a role is more than simply advertising, interviewing and reference checks. Whilst these steps are an integral part of the recruiting process, they aren’t fail-safe. Unstructured job interviews are not reliable at predicting a candidate's performance once hired, only determining 14% of an employee’s performance, according to a meta-analysis of research.
Three steps to assess potential candidates for successful hires:
Assess core competencies - the set of specific, related characteristics (personality, abilities, motivations, values and skills) and behaviours that are relevant to successful job performance.
Measure potential - assess whether a candidate naturally aligns with the skills and competencies required for the role.
Be data driven - using evidence-based data and science driven approach to recruiting by using profiling assessment tools allows you to successfully target specific candidate skills and competencies required for the role. At Reimagine Talent we use Talogy profiling assessment as part of our recruiting process.
How to Identify Successful Hires Who Will Deliver Results
Why is it so important to hire the right people?
Employees who best fit their role and the company culture are more invested in the business and delivering results, more open to growing in their role as the business grows, and more likely to stay with the business long term. The right employees:
improve the quality of the workforce
increase productivity
reduce turnover and the need to hire again
ultimately impacts the trajectory of the business.
“Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was-and still is- the most important thing we do.” — Marc Bennioff, CEO Salesforce.
The cost of making the wrong hiring decisions are significant:
Nearly half of hiring managers and HR professionals estimate bad hiring decisions can cost a company “thousands of dollars”.
The Department of Labor estimates the cost of the wrong hire equal to “30 percent of the employee's potential first-year earnings”.
A survey by Robert Half International found that 39% of Chief Financial Officers said bad hires cost them productivity, and that they spend 17% of their time (around 1 day per week) managing underperforming employees.
But it’s not only the financial aspect of hiring someone who doesn’t have the right skillset to succeed in a position and deliver results, or doesn’t fit well with the team.
If a new hire doesn’t feel the role or company is the right fit for them they are likely to be disengaged at work. Disengagement in a team member, particularly in a leadership role can echo across the organisation, leading to reduced staff morale and productivity, or losing key employees altogether.
“The Future of Work” report by PwC, suggested that employers should deliberately over-invest in high performers to minimise the loss of top talent, as well as strengthen succession planning and provide career pathway opportunities to mitigate the impact of high turnover.
Whilst every new employee requires at least some training and onboarding in a new role, hiring employees who have the right skills and personal attributes to best fit the role are far more likely to hit the ground running and succeed much quicker, impacting the business bottom line.
How do you find the right person?
Have you hired someone only to later find they don’t jell well with your team? Perhaps you’ve thoroughly read through a candidate’s CV and asked a lot of questions during an interview. They appeared to have all the right soft skills the role requires.
The candidate discussed with you how they have developed successful influential relationships with suppliers. They’ve told you their strengths are time management and planning and how their previous roles were fast-paced. Yet months into their new role with your team, you’re finding they just aren’t jelling well with the team, they have failed to develop successful relationships and they appear to be struggling with their organisational skills to fulfil the demands of the role.
Identifying the right person for a role is more than simply advertising, interviewing and reference checks. Whilst these steps are an integral part of the recruiting process, they aren’t fail-safe.
Unstructured job interviews are not reliable at predicting a candidate's performance once hired, only determining 14% of an employee’s performance, according to a meta-analysis of research.
In comparison, structured interviews which include specific questions with clear criteria to assess the responses sat at 26%.
Research shows that combinations of assessment techniques are better than any single technique at predicting a candidate’s performance once hired.
Here are three steps to assess potential candidates that we use at Reimagine Talent as part of our process to successful hires:
1. Assess core competencies
First, you need to determine the competencies required for the role. A competency is a set of specific, related characteristics and behaviours that are relevant to successful job performance. Characteristics include their personality, abilities, motivations, values and skills.
Think about the top performers in your team, doing the same or similar roles to the role you’re hiring. What competencies do they possess? The right candidate for a role needs to closely match your requirements across these core competencies, skills, characteristics, and behaviours, not only their professional experience or qualifications.
2. Measure potential
A candidate may have extensive experience in a role but do they have a natural alignment in the critical competencies to succeed in the role? What skills and behaviours come naturally to the potential candidate? Do they have any limitations or areas they need to develop that would hold them back from being successful in the role?
For example, many supply chain roles require analytical thinking and decisive decision making. A candidate who naturally possesses these skills will very quickly succeed in their role.
But how do you assess whether a candidate naturally aligns with the skills and competencies required for the role, aside from their CV and what they tell you during an interview? How do you know if a candidate can actually do what they have said in an interview on a fundamental level? This is where use of data and science in profiling tools help to identify candidates who are likely to be successful in their roles.
3. Be data driven
In order to confidently identify a successful hire who will deliver results, we need to utilise data and science to match the ideal candidates. An evidence-based data and science driven approach to recruiting by using profiling assessment tools allows you to successfully target specific candidate skills and competencies required for the role.
Using data and science in recruiting also helps to minimise the effects of unconscious confirmation biases in recruitment. Psychologists describe confirmation bias as “the tendency to search for, interpret, or prioritize information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs or hypotheses.” And 96% of recruiters think that unconscious bias is a problem in the recruitment process, leading to employing the wrong person.
Talogy profiling assessment tool
At Reimagine Talent we use Talogy profiling assessment as part of our recruiting process, that has seen us have a 100% success rate. Why do we use Talogy profiling assessment to screen all our candidates?
provides rigorous, insightful and scientifically driven data to screen candidates and identify those who possess the competencies and skills to succeed in a specific role
it assesses cognitive ability, personality, values, situational judgement, and technical skills, helping to identify the best candidate
provides the business hiring recommended interview questions based on the candidates assessment, manager recommendations on areas for improvement, and provides the candidate with a professional development report
Helpful advice and resources to improve your hiring results
Invest time and effort in hiring in the beginning to find the right fit, rather than just filling a role
Decide on what core competencies are required to fulfil and succeed in the role
Utilise a combination of assessment techniques including structured interview questioning and profiling assessments
Ask deeper and thoughtful interview questions. This downloadable list of 'Interesting Interview Questions' is a great place to start
To learn more about our unique recruitment process and how Talogy profiling assessment can improve the quality of your next hire, contact Tabitha at tabitha@reimaginetalent.com.au