The Missing Link in the Hiring Chain

By: Bruce King
Date: 11/1/2007

Hiring authorities have searched for years hoping to find those elusive "silver bullet" tools to solve the quandary of why an employee's productivity does not always measureup to pre-hire expectations. The hiring process will begin to work better only when the needs of the job are clearly defined. It is difficult to direct your efforts successfully when you are not sure what the target looks like and are therefore not able to match prospective candidates to the companies existing top performers. Defining the job functions will only indicate key words that let the candidate know how to respond during the interview. Measuring the candidates behavioral competencies will predict how well they naturally match the needed job functions and further establish a benchmark pattern that will predict their performance once they are on the job. In the absence of this process the employer is left with a practice that the construction industry would call "eyeballing the fit." Watching an accomplished carpenter can provide a common sense lesson that exhibits best practices in building a home or a company workforce. The craftsman will carefully measure the needs of the structure when beginning to build a wall or frame in a window. The next step is to measure and cut a board so it will fit snugly into place. The best fit should be so precise that it may take a few taps with a hammer to position the board properly. Good carpenters will only "eyeball" and rough cut boards that are used for temporary braces or gussets.  When cutting several studs for a wall structure, a template board is cut from which all the others are measured to insure that they are consistently the same size. These principles can also be applied to the building of a company's staff by first identifying the behavioral competencies needed in each job description. The results can then be validated by comparing this new pattern to the competencies of the firm's top performers. This benchmark pattern then becomes the template for hiring future employees in that same position and knowing that their actions will mirror those of employees who have proven their fit with the job by performing well in the past. The construction trades, apparel and furniture industries would be lost without templates to establish patterns as the foundation of their work. The absence of benchmarks in the hiring process helps us understand why over fifty percent of all employees do not fit some significant part of their job and this trend will continue until the practice of "eyeballing" for job fit is updated to include leading edge benchmarking tools and best practices.

This new trend is being lead by industry leaders who have already discovered the benefits of first measuring the job competencies needed and then matching the job candidates to the attributes that have proven successful in their best employees. The factors of experience, training and corporate culture will still carry significant weight in the final ing decision, but these qualities will make little difference if the candidate is ill suited for the job and has little chance of succeeding because they do not have the needed competencies to perform well once they are on the job. The second wave that will join the job match movement are the staffing managers who recognize the advantage they will hold in the tightening labor market and realize the need to screen for better candidates rather than settle for business as usual. The benefits offered by behavioral competencies tools for job matching far exceeds the personality tests of the past which only measured the candidate's current state of mind and offered little direction in determining their success in a chosen vocation. Staffing companies will begin to see better performance and job satisfaction in the matched candidates they place and the satisfied customers will begin to rely more on the firms who provide better workers. This not only paints a complimentary picture of your businesses but opens the door for the referrals and testimonials that will grow your customer base. The remaining sector of the industry may eventually embrace this technology in order to catch up with the industry and keep their business in the black. Looking across the desk at a job candidate and making a determination regarding their vocational future should be seen much like looking across the table in Las Vegas and feeling that there is an ace on top of the deck. Leaving the future of your business to chance offers little benefit to your candidates, your customers or your business. The new tools and technology offer a much larger reward in a time that has declining numbers in the workforce. Job benchmarking has truly been the "missing link" in the screening and hiring process and it now needs to be added to the equation to insure that your firm moves toward leadership in the marketplace and is not left behind.

Bruce King has aligned Professional Development Resources, with the pioneers of today's most advanced vocational tools in order to answer many of the enduring questions relating to job fit and employee development. The newest human asset management technology has taken much of the guesswork out of screening and hiring employees while adding performance based leadership to the equation. Mr. King assists employers in realizing that employees will contribute to the company's bottom line only when they know their strengths and understand where and how to use these assets in the workplace. This nation's future in the world marketplace will be defined by how well we train and develop the workforce of tomorrow.

Contact Mr. King at 678-698-6545 or 1-800-233-7896 email to pdrpathway@joimail.com