We don’t live in a cookie-cutter world where everyone is the same. If we did, it would be, well, boring. Everyone is different and we all know, at least instinctively, that some people are cut out for some lines of work and others for different careers. Research shows success on the job has little to do with experience, age, race, gender or education and everything to do with job fit – the biggest indicator of job success.
Everyone can be successful when they are properly job matched. A good fit between the individual and their environment results in positive outcomes not only for the individual but also for the organization. But how do you know if the individual that you’re interviewing, is going to be your next successful hire?
Although no one ever makes a conscious decision to hire or promote a non-performer, we know that it happens, more than we might care to admit. Now part of the reason could be . . .
. . . ., “63% of all hiring decisions are made in the first 4.3 minutes of an interview.” Now that’s not to say you’re going to make an offer within five minutes. Rather, it means we frequently make up our minds that quickly, and then we use the rest of the selection process, to justify what we have already decided.
We live in a more sophisticated world now and time is money. Employee assessments which meet or exceed all guidelines for validity, reliability and fairness and incorporate cognitive, behavioural and interests aspects can help organizations speed up the hiring process, reduce the hiring costs by narrowing down the field of candidates and improve the hiring success rate through a richer understanding of the individual and their match to the job, to the team and to the company culture.
In most organizations, personnel costs are among the largest budget line items. Given the challenges facing CEO’s, organizations need their leaders, managers, and people aligned and working together at the highest levels of performance. Whether it’s a business development role, a management position or a customer service rep in a contact centre, a sophisticated on-line assessment tool is a necessity for today’s hiring manager.