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 One of the biggest challenges an organisation can face is ensuring its longevity. The answer lies in who you hire and how; new research shows that resume-focused hiring can be doing more harm than good. For success, recruiters need to look beyond a person’s skills to their behaviours and attitudes.
The bigger picture According to a survey by Leadership IQ, 46% of new hires fail within the first 18 months. The reason? 89% of the time, it’s because they didn’t have the right personality traits. This points to an inconvenient truth in recruitment; too much of it is still focused almost entirely upon a candidate’s resume, and not their ingrained attitudes and behaviours. These are the things that, while harder to spot, often hold the key to whether an employee will be successful in a new job. Naturally, it can be tough to decide what kind of personality ‘fits’ a business. After all, HR and hiring managers are not psychiatrists. What is possible is to use the data already available to HR to provide a picture as to what’s worked in the past. Making the right choices With the increasing amount of data available to hiring managers, the bigger picture is now easier to access. While a ‘gut feeling’ can be valid in an hour long interview, you’re unlikely to fully understand a person’s attitudes to life, work and play within the limited parameters of the recruitment process. That’s why data matters, and why tests using that data, such as those provided by us, are invaluable to understanding who’s really right for your business. By assessing the choices a person makes and the things they enjoy, you can go beyond their skills and into their ability to adapt, learn and gain new knowledge, for example. Indeed, while someone might have multiple skills on their resume, this doesn’t tell a potential employer about their ability to use those skills on a daily basis or their passion to acquire new ones. The finer details of a person’s behaviours are far harder to change. Knowledge is Power That’s why psychometric assessments are so important to use in recruitment. They can assess ‘soft’ skills and personality traits that may not be evident otherwise, such as a person’s attitudes, engagement and social behaviours. A small office might benefit from a vastly different type of person than a large corporate office – even though they may possess the same skills. Going beyond the resume will ensure more new hires are successful. Using services such as Care Advantage provides businesses and hiring managers with access to a level of insight which allows them to make far more informed decisions in driving long-term business stability.
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 A new study into recruitment in the care industry has concluded that appointing candidates with the right values and attitudes is more effective than choosing those with other, perhaps more traditional, qualities.
The report, carried out by Consilium Research and Consultancy on behalf of Skills for Care, was set up to evaluate any differences experienced by organisations recruiting staff on values-based criteria as opposed to more traditional criteria such as experience or qualifications. The study involved an online survey which was completed by 112 social care organisations employing around 27,000 people. Of these, 74% used a values-based approach when recruiting and retaining; the remaining 26% used more traditional methods, emphasising experience and technical expertise over attitude and values. The results of the survey were supplemented with interviews to assess the overall impact on businesses using each approach, including the financial benefits, staff retention, performance measures and absence levels. What is a values-based approach? A values-based approach to recruitment and retention involves actively looking for candidates who possess qualities such as empathy, respect, compassion, integrity, common sense, friendliness, the ability to communicate well and a willingness to treat people with dignity. The results The report, carried out in October 2014, found that the majority of organisations taking part (72%) believed that staff employed and trained using the values-based method have performance levels higher than those employed using the more traditional methods. In addition, the majority of participants also stated that the staff they recruited using the values-based method have stronger overall values (such as empathy, respect and integrity) than those recruited using other methods. Several employers pointed out that they had taken people on who would, using the more traditional approach to recruitment, not have been employed, adding that they had subsequently become valued members of staff in a number of different roles, delivering a high quality of care. The study also discovered that the benefits of appointing staff using the values-based method are not confined to staff performance and attitudes. Lower staff turnover and higher quality of care Employers reported several financial benefits of this approach, saying they were able to use their existing staff more efficiently, and that the quality of care provided was higher. Staff turnover was found to be lower, with employers using a values-based approach experiencing turnover 5.6% lower than those using more traditional methods. And staff recruited because of their values were reported to have better overall performance (in terms of their sickness absence, their punctuality and skills needed for their role) than those recruited using other methods. The report concluded that recruiters should recognise the financial and performance benefits of using a values-based approach when finding the right staff, but also recognised that there are still some barriers to overcome. These include some confusion as to what exactly constitutes a values-based method of recruitment, in addition to how it can be developed and what is best practice when using such methods. The full report can be read here. |
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