A few years ago I met an HR manager at a networking event and we had a brief discussion about assessments and how the use of valid, reliable assessments could help their organization reduce negative turnover while at the same time improve the likelihood of hiring top performers. The HR manager agreed to invite me to a meeting with the CEO of their organization to discuss the use of assessments.
When I followed up with the manager the next day, they told me their CEO didn’t want to meet and took the position that hiring top performers was the job of HR! This CEO’s position couldn’t be more wrong.
While it’s true HR has a critical role in the hiring process, the hiring of top performers is a joint effort and responsibility between them and the hiring manager. To support that effort, there are three critical things organizations need to understand and support.
1. Hiring Top Performers is the Hiring Manager’s Job. Hiring Managers must understand their role in the recruiting process because they are the ones who ultimately own the success or failure of the new hire. It’s the role of Human Resources to recruit, screen, and qualify applicants before sending them to the hiring manager for interviewing. While HR may assist in the interviewing process, it’s ultimately the responsibility of the hiring manager to make the decision on who will be hired. They have the final say as to who gets hired and who gets rejected and they own the outcome of the recruiting process. When there’s a bad hire, the hiring manager is the one who should investigate what went wrong. Further, hiring managers who know they’re responsible for hiring the right people are actively involved in every step of the process and they raise their hand to say, “I need help to interview candidates better” or “I’m not happy with these candidates; let’s sit together and review our hiring criteria.”
2. Management Must Provide the Necessary Assessment tools. Some things never cease to amaze me. Top management knows that to be competitive they must make investments in plant and equipment, improvements in supply chain logistics, accounting software, etc. But, when it comes to providing their HR staff with psychological assessments designed to help their organization select and develop top performers, management often believes these assessments are “too expensive”. This belief flies in the face of the high cost of negative turnover, low productivity, poor quality, and low engagement when individuals are hired who don’t fit the demands of the job or the culture of either the department or the organization.
3. Management Training on the Use of Assessments Is Not a One-Time Event. Studies show that within a few short weeks of being taught a new concept, most people have forgotten nearly 98 percent of the original idea. While most training sessions send attendees home with materials intended to reinforce and re-learn the initial idea, typically there is nothing in place to give these new skills real-life practice. Like any skill we do not use (think algebra, the second language we learned in school, etc.), once we stop using a skill, our enthusiasm fades, it loses its real-life relevance, and we forget it. Since the founding of our company, when we first engage with a new client, we’ve offered no cost, periodic training for our clients’ HR staff and hiring managers on the proper use of the assessments.
To hire top performers, in addition to the above, organizations need to use a data driven approach that complements the resume and interview to ensure congruence between your candidates thinking style, behavioral traits, and interest so they’re placed into positions where they’ll most likely do well. Success boils down to getting the right person in the right role, a concept we call Job Fit.
Our new eBook, Hiring Successfully For Dummies, is your guide to mastering the art of Job Fit by using a data-driven approach to take the guesswork out of hiring. This eBook covers:
• Why hiring with only your gut instinct is not enough
• How to avoid bad hiring decisions and reduce hiring costs
• How to reduce hiring bias to help build an equitable workplace
• How to implement a scalable and proven selection solution that enhances organizational success
To get a copy of our eBook, Contact Us. We have the tools, means, and experience and we’d like nothing more than to help you and your organization.