With little over a week until the world cup starts, all eyes are on their chosen team, with the hope that they will be raising the cup in Berlin on the 9^th of July.  Still fresh in the mind of England supporters is the recent appointment of Steve McClaren as the new England Football Manager.

In an article for the BBC, TV pundit Alan Hansen suggested that the recruitment process was flawed and that the man in charge of it should have used his ‘gut instinct’ as the decision making factor.  He then went on to argue that candidates achievements over the last 5 or 6 years should be the judge of future effectiveness, but was he right?

Recent studies compiled by Dr Ken Nowack, author of several ConsultingTools products and member of Daniel Goleman’s EI Consortium, suggest that contrary to Alan Hansen’s belief, gut instinct is perhaps not the best measure of candidates’ future success. 

In fact, Dr Nowack’s studies show that the most successful predictors of future performance are more likely to be:

• Work Sample Tests

• Intelligence Tests

• Assessment Centres

• Peer Ratings

None of these methods have been proven particularly reliable, with internal correlations of between 0.27 and 0.54.  (For the non-statistically minded, a score of 1 would be ideal and 0 far from it). 

The study shows that ratings from managers are also unreliable, which is unfortunate for the new England manager as his current boss, Sven Goran Eriksson gave a ringing endorsement: "I have no doubt that he has all the credentials to be very successful in the job and wish him all the best."

Kevin Edmonds, director at R3 recruitment says they would have approached this appointment slightly differently: “If we were to recruit this role, we would start with candidate attraction – gathering a list of suitable target candidates and recommendations from within the FA, discreetly meeting them to gain their interest, without revealing the actual job role at that stage.

Using a mixture of measurements, including psychometric profiling and competency based interviewing, will mean every candidate is objectively interviewed without bias or emotion creeping in.  Finally, after deciding on a shortlist, plus a couple of backup candidates, you would present this to the FA to meet for final signoff.”

Executive Search firm Allander Noble wonder if the FA could learn some recruitment lessons from the public sector.

“The FA commenced their search behind a screen of secrecy only to find that an inquisitive press left their recruitment strategy in ruins.  The sight of a senior FA official being accompanied by a large press core through a Portuguese airport, on his way to and from a supposedly secret meeting with a candidate would strike terror into any recruiter.

However, this scenario is familiar to those who recruit within the public sector, where total transparency is the norm.  colleagues and bosses know who has applied, candidates often meet each other and know who has been appointed and why."

“The private sector still scoffs at these procedures, but when you see the chaos, confusion and damage inflicted on the FA, they and many others should pause and consider the alternatives.”

If you are interested in finding out more about how ConsultingTools can help with your recruitment needs, please do contact us.

We would love to hear your opinion on how Steve McClaren was recruited for the job as England Football Manager, do get in touch with us.