worklife strategies

TALENT ASSESSMENT

You need to select the right person for each job.

Approximately 30% of new hires fail to perform up to expectations within the first 18-24 months of their tenure. The cost of this derailment is in the range of 2-3 times annual salary (when the opportunity costs of replacement, training/learning and lost productivity are included). The failure of two people earning $200K can cost in the range of one million dollars.

What accounts for this costly performance deficit? There are two main reasons:

-- We don’t REALLY know who we’re hiring

-- We don’t REALLY know who we’re managing

Extensive research on talent assessment reveals three most powerful performance drivers, and these can be accurately measured in order to select the right people and manage them for success:

-- SMARTS: problem-solving ability

-- SKILLS: job-specific competencies

-- STYLE: default work behavior

SMARTS: Assessment of problem-solving ability can forecast strong and weak performers. When a group of new hires was assessed for problem-solving skills (PS) and followed up a year later, only 27% of those with low PS received very positive performance reviews from their manager, compared to 71% with high PS.

SKILLS: Every job requires specific competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics) for successful performance. Rather than just asking people about their “experience” in an interview, best talent assessment practice involves defining the core competencies required for success in a job, and conducting structured competency-aligned interviews with candidates and their references. The main challenge involves balancing the competing priorities of comprehensiveness and efficiency. It is wise to follow Einstein’s dictum that “Things should be as simple as possible but no simpler”. The goal is to generate a competency model with the fewest core competencies without sacrificing coverage. At Worklife Strategies we use a framework that covers the universal meta-competencies of Thinking, Performing, Relating, Adapting and Leading.

STYLE: Japanese human resource wisdom recommends that we “Hire for character. You can always teach people what they need to know”. Another well-known truth from the outplacement world is that “People are hired for their skills and fired for their behavior”. So even when a person is smart and skilled enough, they can still fail if they don’t have the right work style for their particular job/role and organization. At Worklife Strategies, we have developed a proprietary assessment tool (INDEX5) for defining a person’s core work style. Unlike the many self-assessment tools that often produce distorted results due to ego and reputation issues, INDEX5 captures the knowledge of multiple workplace observers and aggregates it into behavioral profiles that can be used for selection/deployment decisions as well as partnership and team development.

By assessing these critical performance drivers, you can select the right person for each position and manage them for success.

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