The traditional way of hiring people ─ placing ads in newspapers and magazines, interviewing a few candidates, selecting someone and hoping that he or she does at least an adequate job ─ just doesn’t work. Recent studies from Michigan State University and Harvard University found that these types of techniques result in successful hires only 14 percent of the time, while hiring mistakes cause 80 percent of employee turnover. And, no company in business today needs the additional expenses it incurs when making the same hiring, selection and training mistakes over and over and over again.
Finding and Hiring Qualified Candidates
According to Markku Kauppinen, President of Extended DISC North America Inc., potential employees are attracted to jobs similar to their personality styles. “Oftentimes, companies have an excellent idea of what the skill requirements of a job are but have no idea about what type of person is best suited for that particular role,” says Kauppinen. Therefore, before searching for the right candidate, find out which type of employee fits best with the requirements of the job. In other words, examine the job as it was performed by past employees.
One way to accomplish this is to determine the qualities exhibited by high performing employees. Then design the job description and interview process around these specific behaviors. “If the hiring organization doesn’t know for certain what type of person is best suited behaviorally for any given position, then they lack the right information to make an intelligent hiring decision. They also lack the tools to ask the right questions,” says Kauppinen. Deborah Dorsett, a Vice President with Personalysis Corporation, agrees. “Look at the roles and activities of the job, and find the personality that enjoys doing these things. In this way, employees will more likely operate at peak performance,” says Dorsett.
Consider innovative approaches when seeking new employees. Post positions on Internet job sites. Inform colleagues outside of the company about job openings and ask the company’s top employees also to spread the word. Then during pre-employment interviews, ask candidates to demonstrate their abilities by performing one or more specific job tasks. Most importantly, use personality assessment tools to determine if there is a match between the applicant and the job. “Assessing different behavioral types is not difficult, nor is it a new science. Companies have been using personality assessment tools for years when making hiring decisions. These tools are generally quite accurate,” says Kauppinen. In fact, the Michigan State University found that personality assessments increase the likelihood of successful job hires by 75 percent.
Retaining Valued Employees
Once hired, how do high-performing companies keep good employees? They recognize that most employees do not leave due to salary issues or job dissatisfaction. The real reasons are often not that simple. Here are some of the most common reasons employees seek new positions:
- Their previous jobs were not rewarding intrinsically;
- Their personalities and needs did not match those of the employer;
- Recruiting promises were not honored;
- They had issues with their coworkers; or
- There were little or no opportunities for growth and promotion
When employees realize the work is not at all what they were hired to performed, apathy sets in, or worse, they fail. According to Kauppinen, “Often, when employees fail, it’s because companies and their managers do not know how to provide the right circumstances or environment for them to succeed, or because certain employees were simply in the wrong jobs altogether.”
Retaining top employees requires employers to create a work environment that supports employees’ individual styles. Start by matching the right employee with the right job as well as encouraging managers to modify their own behaviors to meet employees’ needs. “Look at employees’ expectations of how they want to be treated. If they are treated that way at the beginning, managers will gain their cooperation. “Managers accomplish this by knowing their own learning style as well as the styles of their employees,” says Dorsett. She continues, “Allow them to grow where they can operate at their peak performance and where there are roles and activities they enjoy and find stimulating.”
Talent management mistakes can cost companies thousands of dollars. One of the major mistakes occurs during the interview process. Dorsett compares this process to relationship courting where everything is new and exciting. The job offer is like a marriage proposal and the actual working relationship is similar to a marriage. “However,” says Dorsett, “both the employer and applicant were on the best behavior, and both may be shocked when the working relationship begins. Either the job isn’t what it seemed, or the applicant doesn’t act like the same person interviewed.”
Another mistake happens when companies fail to provide mentoring and coaching to new employees. Unless there is someone to show new hires, especially executives, the ins and outs of the company, the learning curve can be long, cumbersome and tenuous. It’s often assumed that new hires are smart and talented and can therefore find their own way. Yet, companies have many unwritten rules and policies that are not always obvious to new employees. Not surprisingly, it is quite common for executives hired from the outside to fail or leave the organization within the first 18 months. “When companies mismanage and lack understanding of the retention process, it can be very expensive,” says Dorsett. In many companies, employees are expected to change to suit the requirement of their jobs. “Repeated studies have shown that the best way to boost an employee’s performance is to change the environment to suit the individual’s behavioral preferences. Unfortunately, after employees are hired, most companies rarely, if ever, look at the personality assessment results again,” says Kauppinen.
Learn From the Past
Companies that refuse to re-examine and revise their hiring and employee retention policies may end up making the same hiring and retaining mistakes over and over again. On the other hand, companies can gain a competitive edge in the marketplace by focusing on their people. Learn how to identify the applicants that are the best suited for positions you have available and take advantage of sound talent management strategies to retain valued employees and keep them productive and happy.
Marketing Tips
One way to create a marketing advantage is to treat internal customers (i.e. employees, independent contractors, board members) with the same degree of courtesy and professionalism you apply to external customers. These suggestions will go a long way in making people feel valued and appreciated.
- Be responsive to calls, emails and other requests. Get back to people within 24 hours.
- Listen more than you talk. 80-20% is a worthy goal.
- Be fair and understanding. Seek to see others’ points of view.
- Address challenges immediately. Never avoid them. They never go away unanswered. They will always come back and be many more times worse.
- Transparency in business is important. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Compliment others. Everyone enjoys positive recognition.
- Foster teamwork and collaboration. Not every good idea begins and ends with you.
- Lighten up. Make business fun.
Business Resources
Visit these websites for more information on talent management:
- Accord Management System
- Extended DISC North America
- Kolbe Corp
- Personalysis Corporation
- The Rainmaker Group
Recommended Reading
Here are several books to assist you in finding, managing and keeping top employees.
- Hire and Keep the Best People: 21 Practical & Proven Techniques You Can Use Immediately! by Brian Tracy
- Keeping Good People by Roger E. Herman
- Finding & Keeping Great Employees by Jim Harris and Joan Brannick
- Managing with Carrots: Using Recognition to Attract and Retain the Best People by Chester Elton, Adrian Robert Gostick
- Recruit & Retain The Best by Ray Schreyer, John McCarter
- Recruitment, Retention, and Employee Relations: Field-tested Strategies for the ’90s by D. Keith Denton
- The Employee Recruitment and Retention Handbook by Diane Arthur
- Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation by Natalie Holder-Winfield
- Harvard Business Review on Talent Management by Harvard Business Review
- The People Code: It’s All About Your Innate Motive by Dr. Taylor Hartman
Quarterly Quote
“I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people.”
–Thomas J. Watson, Jr. , “A Business and Its Beliefs” (1963)