With the New Year often meaning new starts and new business directions, Mark Slaski, our Chief Psychologist, has written a topical article on how you can sharpen up your recruitment process.

Why focus on Recruitment and Assessment?

Remove people from an organisation and what remains? It may be a well-worn saying, but people really are an organisation’s greatest asset. Research consistently shows that quality of staff and the way they work together are the biggest factors driving success and performance. We should, therefore, view as critical the methods by which we bring people into the organisation and their selection for key roles and promotion.

Despite huge advances in recruitment and assessment centre methods it remains more of an art than a science. It is amazing that many staff are recruited using the most basic techniques i.e. seeking references and conducting unstructured interviews. Time and again experts have demonstrated that references are often biased and many interviews are flawed. Most interviewers receive no training, and tend to select individuals most like themselves, often relying on ‘gut feel’. Evidence shows these techniques to be a poor predictor of future success and performance.

Current best practise for selection is to take a multi-dimensional approach, allowing for a greater range of knowledge, skills and abilities to be tested. The key is firstly to identify precise factors leading to current job success. These we call competencies; and secondly, to test and measure candidates for these competencies.

Facet5-Audition

Whilst personality psychometrics are established in assessing candidates’ suitability for the job, traditional instruments have provided only a one-dimensional view of personality. These require the assessor to infer the most suitable personality characteristics for successful performance and cultural integration. With the new Facet5-Audition we have developed technology whereby the personality of a prospective incumbent is mapped onto an ‘ideal’ personality generated from profiling ‘star-performers’. As part of the automatic reporting process the ‘best-fit’ candidate can be identified. The report also generates focussed questions that can be used during a behavioural or situational interview process to further explore a candidate’s personality and behaviour. Furthermore, the new generation instrument also links candidates’ personality to strategic competencies such as: leadership, communication style, interpersonal style, analysis, decision making, initiative, planning and organisation. A ‘best-fit’ candidate can once again be identified against star-performance competencies.

Recruiters and assessors using Facet5-Audition have demonstrated superior performance in getting the right person in the right job.

 

For further information on Facet5-Audition, please click here.

For further information on Facet5, please click here.