Hiring by design

Every new hire will ultimately contribute either to moving your business forward or to
holding it back. The acquisition of “intellectual capital” is fast becoming the primary
competitive advantage as we move toward the new millennium. So, why handicap
your organization’s competition for human resources by not exploiting the most
advanced technology available for selecting the strongest candidates and for avoiding
can be taught. Content knowledge and The Facts
behavioral skills are easiest to teach. Altering attitudes and • 50,000 organizations in the U.S. use testing to help them make decisions about changing motives and traits is possible the process is lengthy, • Turnover, replacements, and retraining costs for a mid-level manager average difficult and expensive. From a cost- effectiveness standpoint, the rule is “hire for core motivation • The cost spiral that results from poor hires: salary, benefits, recruitment,
training, medical claims, opportunity loss, impact on morale, customer ill-will, legal and develop knowledge and skills.” exposure; and productivity, quality, and profits all decrease. Most organizations do the reverse: they hire on the basis of • The worst candidates are typically screened out, but it’s the marginal ones who slip through and who adversely impact your organization’s productivity and morale (MBAs from good schools) and assume (and it’s hard to terminate them).
that candidates come with or can be indoctrinated with the • EEO guidelines state: “… tests, when used in conjunction with other tools of
personnel assessment … aid in the development and maintenance of an efficient and traits. It is more cost-effective to hire work force and … aid in the utilization and conservation of human resources.” (motive and trait) stuff” and train them in The Benefits
needed to do specific jobs. Or, in the words of • It’s objective, cost-effective, legal, and it works. manager, “You can teach a turkey to climb a tree, but it’s easier to • Candidates are uniformly impressed that the organization takes its mission so seriously that it uses such a systematic and thorough approach to the acquisition of human resources. Competency
• Testing significantly reduces turnover and the high costs associated with it. Assessment Methods
• When the best-fit applicants are hired, they settle into the new position more quickly and travel the learning curve faster. • The hiring evaluation report becomes a working document for the individual and not merely in poor decisions but also in poor their manager. With the evaluation report in hand, the manager has a much clearer understanding of how to motivate, develop, and coach the new hire. competent employees reach critical mass, their low performance • When correctly matched to a job, individuals perform for the satisfaction of standards become the de facto standards of the organization. The longer established employees who are well equipped The Process
for the job abandon their old high standards and conform to the new, lower ones.” • Job analysis
The job in question is evaluated with that job’s immediate boss. We identify the job’s critical success factors and understand who succeeds and who fails in this • Interview
The candidate spends two to three hours in a structured interview with a consulting psychologist. • Computerized testing: Cognitive abilities
absolutely essential – for the best results for our The candidate is administered a battery of tests, tailored for the job in question. Tests used assess numeracy, verbal skills, critical thinking abilities, and mental the new hire – to use all available information, alertness. Norms used by our expert systems are specific to the job class. • Computerized testing: Personality and vocational inventories
which is an in-depth psychological evaluation The other portion of the tailored assessment battery generates insights into goodness-of-fit issues such as thinking style, motivators, emotional maturity, work style, interpersonal orientation, and influence style. Norms used by our expert qualified personnel to meet our future staffing The Information You’ll Have About The Candidate

- Chief Executive Officer
• Career outlook: evaluation of career history, personal mission, and job motivators
• Cognitive abilities: in-depth description of critical analytic skills, reasoning abilities,
verbal and numeric skills, and mental quickness. • Use of cognitive abilities: receptivity to ideas, problem-solving aptitude, and
is three times more likely to be hired when testing practicality/creativity of thought process. • Work style: energy, pace, approach to planning and thinking, need for
recognition, need for organizational freedom, attention to detail, orientation to action, work ethic and conscientiousness. • Emotional style: optimism, restraint over feelings, objectivity about feedback,
handling stress, management of strong emotions, resilience and composure.
Rule of thumb: There
are no “bad” or “good”
• Interpersonal factors: sociability, assertiveness, first and lasting impressions,
employees. But, there are people who end up in perceptiveness, competitiveness, agreeableness, acceptance of diversity, and does a disservice to everyone. Consequently, the hiring process is • Management and leadership style: desire to persuade and influence, approach
better viewed as a compatibility study than a to persuasion and influence, approach to managing relationships and conflict, communication style, and adverse factors that could impact relationships. • And more: a graphic profile of 21 personality traits plus selected cognitive ability
measures; topics for special consideration and their implications; management advice; specific follow-up interview probes to pose to the candidate and another set of questions to ask of references; and the ability to reanalyze the same data set and produce an in-depth developmental report. Hire by design. Improve the odds.
Copyright 2000, by TGCP

Source: http://www.mmci.biz/hiringbydesign.pdf