Get the Right People on the Bus – Will We Know Them When We Find Them?

Since the publication of Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great in 2001, there’s been a proliferation of books and articles all confirming the importance of “Job Fit”. Because of this, there are lots of managers who fervently endorse the concept of “get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus”. These managers invariably believe they’re hiring according to these principles; but, good intentions aside, a real question arises.

How do all of these well-meaning managers know what to look for in people who will fit their jobs? What are the critical dimensions of job fit and how do managers and owners recognize them when making selection and placement decisions?

Unfortunately, evidence is clear that most of those responsible for hiring have very little knowledge about the characteristics necessary for “fit” in the jobs they fill. Worse, on the rare occasions when a manager actually knows the dimensions critical for fit, the same manager is likely to have poor judgment about an applicant’s match on those factors. Far too often they still resort to their “gut” feel when it comes to job candidates. The simple fact of the matter is that without valid, reliable assessment tools for measuring the critical job fit dimensions of a job, we are unlikely to recognize or select for those critical factors and, as a consequence, we’re likely to be wrong in our selection decisions. If we do not know the relevant factors and cannot judge the individual’s characteristics, we will make many costly mistakes.

Recently I had the opportunity to conduct a study with one of my clients. In the study, a differential analysis of the characteristics necessary for success in the sample company’s sales environment produced very clear identification of two absolutely critical characteristics along with four other very important success characteristics.

I had the opportunity to present the study results to a group of 15 executives of the company. The participants included C-level executives, sales managers, the Director of HR, and her sales training staff. Presumably, if anyone would know what was required to produce sales success, it would be these individuals.

Prior to sharing the results of the differential analysis, we trained all 15 participants on the theory of “Job Fit”, the proper use of our assessment (the PXT Select™), and the specific definitions for each of the 20 attributes measured by the assessment. We then asked the group, based on their experience and knowledge, to individually identify the top two attributes (in order of importance) in terms of prediction of success for their sales representatives.

Of the 15 participants, only one person identified the top success attribute correctly. No one correctly identified both of the top two success attributes. This company employs over 150 professional salespeople and every one of their current employees was hired by some subset of the group involved in our training. The company has been successful over many years and their top performers, on average, produce over two and a half times as much gross profit as those who just hold on to their jobs!

What’s the point: Despite hiring some top performers (25%) over the years, 75 percent of this client’s sales people were either average (65%) or bottom performers (10%). When you think of the lost revenue attributed to the average or bottom performers for a company of this size, it is well into the millions of dollars. Bottom line: Without a valid, reliable assessment to measure what’s important (in both the job and in the candidate), our good intentions are lost in emotions, first impressions, gut feel, or any of the other enemies of good selection.

By the way, while the above study was focused on sales people, similar results will be found with any job classification. A quick search on the Internet will produce numerous articles which claim superior talent is to six or eight times more productive than average talent.

Jim Collins and countless other researchers have proven over and over as to why “Job Fit” is critical. So, are you hiring for job fit? If so, what are your tools? Do they meet standards of: job-relatedness, validity, and reliability? Are they free of bias against protected classes of employees? If not, it’s time for an overhaul and I would be glad to help!