Job Matching for Hiring Top Performers and Improving Job Performance.

Have you ever hired or promoted someone who did not live up to your expectations? If you did, chances are that the person did not possess the innate traits to execute the competencies of the job. For example, in a management position, does the person have the internal characteristics to be a "people" person, big picture thinker, or confident leader? In a sales position, is the individual internally motivated, a critical thinker, able to accept rejection?

Hiring or promoting the wrong person for the wrong job is like asking a rabbit to swim. Rabbits may swim for a short stint, but eventually they will struggle, get frustrated, and quit. That is exactly what happens when we hire people for positions that are foreign to who they are. It is a lot easier to hire rabbits to run and fish to swim. The only way organizations can consistently and accurately match people to jobs are through the technology of employee assessments that measure innate traits and job match.

If your organization is one of the growing number of businesses using some type of job match assessment for your employees and applicants, congratulations. Research shows you will outperform those organizations that do not engage in such practices. When used properly, employee assessments offer many significant advantages.

Advantage # 1: Job Match

In the United States, studies have shown that as many as four out of five workers are cast in a job they are not best suited for. It has become popular to "job hop" by changing jobs every six months. This is costly to both the organization and the individual. Employees do not stay around long enough to build their worth to the business. Organizations rarely generate profitability as it may takes six months for a new employee to reach a consistently high output. The overhead expense to find, hire, orient, and train people is a major investment many businesses fail to track. Depending on the job, it can be as low as 25% of a person’s annual salary or as high as 300%.

Assessment tools designed to predict who would succeed in a job speed up the selection process. When applicants are hired that are a good job fit, retention and productivity increase substantially. This alone frees up a fortune in overhead and makes a business much more profitable even if sales do not increase.

Advantage # 2: Improved Culture
Workers today are more vocal in expressing dissatisfaction with their job. Much of this is a result of workers who are stressed because of a poor job match.

True job fit brings out the best in everyone. Best-selling author on leadership, Dr. John Maxwell, has said, "When people work out of their strengths 80% of the time, they do their best work and do not burn out." When workers are forced to work on things they do not enjoy, they become less happy over time. This affects their co-workers and can create a less than positive "domino effect" throughout the organization.

Advantage # 3: Recruiting with Ease
One way to measure how attractive a business is for its employees is to measure how many people apply for jobs. Those companies ranked as the best places to work typically get 20 or more applications for each job filled. Famous management consultant and guru Peter Drucker, says, "The single most important competitive advantage will be . . . the ability of a company to attract, hold, and motivate workers . . ."

David M. Walker, government executive comptroller general (USA) states, "The key competitive difference in the 21st century will be people. It will not be process. It will not be technology. It will be people. . . . No organization, whether it be government, for-profit or not-for-profit, can maximize its economy, efficiency and effectiveness without having up-to-date, state-of-the-art human capital strategies that are integrated with its overall strategic plan.

The fact of the matter is people are assets, in which you have to invest, in which you expect a return, in which you have to manage the risk. They are not a resource that has an unlimited supply that you can consume and throw away."
When you have employees who are right for the job, the word spreads that you are a good place to work. A recent study found over 95% of applicants had no objection to taking a pre employment assessment. These tools can be given at the jobsite or completed at an applicant’s home via the Internet.

Advantage # 4: Better Information
Assessment tools provide a more complete or "total" picture of an individual. Coupled with interviews and observations, assessments reveal what is on the inside of a person. Information derived from an assessment becomes a true enlightenment. Taking an inventory of existing and future employees to align each person with the role that capitalizes on their strengths will pay big human capital dividends down the road. Job match is virtually impossible to do without using an assessment specifically designed for that purpose. Human judgment is too subjective and does not objectively quantify a person’s intangibles.

How often have companies promoted the top sales or customer service person to management, only to find out that the person fails? This scenario happens too often, only to disrupt the whole department and have a negative effect on morale within the company. Consequently, the promoted employee suffers from stress, tension, and conflict because the position is unnatural to him or her. The information derived from the assessment also plays a key role in day-to-day management, training, and coaching. It gives companies quantified and tangible information on their human capital in order to better understand, manage, and measure their employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor endorsed the use of assessment tools in 1999 provided that the tools are reliable, validated and look at the "whole" person. Seeing both the inside and outside of a person is very valuable information to ensure a successful career for that person. Relying on an interview only rarely generates the information needed to make wise employment decisions.

Advantage # 5: Economical
An increasing number of businesses are using multiple assessment tools and getting a good return on their small investment. Here are some of the more popular tools and payback…
• Preemployment Attitude Surveys: These tools are used only with applicants. They take less than 15 minutes and measure important attitudinal things like work ethic, honesty, substance abuse and dependability. They are the least expensive of all assessments and screen out potential problem applicants saving time and money.
• Total Person Job Matching Assessments: A good tool measures many things about a person and compares their results with a "benchmark" of those shared characteristics with top performers. It is good for a tool to measure the total person: "cognitive abilities" (thinking styles), motivational interests and key personality traits.

A good tool should take about an hour, give a percentage compatibility fit, offer suggested behavioral-based interview questions for applicants, and provide coaching suggestions for existing employees.
• Behavioral Tendencies: These tools are designed for use with existing employees. They are very popular because they take less than 15 minutes and can identify style preferences and teamwork compatibility. Because of the importance and investment of people in the workplace, the use of assessment tools is expected to grow substantially. Is your company ready?

By Anthony Pantaleone, Regional Vice President, Profiles International, Inc.