Finding and selecting the right people at an organisation is often one of the most important responsibilities that a leader will have, and interviewing candidates will almost always be a key component of the recruitment process. Unfortunately, there’s no exact formula to choose the perfect candidate or predict how successful they will be.

• There is strong research, however, that some interview techniques can increase the effectiveness of the interview process:
  • Use a structured interview and rating system. Several studies on assessment methods, including most famously by Hunter and Schmidt, have shown that using set questions as part of a structured interview drastically increases your ability to choose the right candidate. While it might feel more natural to “have a chat” and that can form part of the discussion, it’s important to have pre-prepared questions that are consistent across candidates and a system of being able to rate responses.
  • Questions should be “competency-based”. Past behaviour is one of the best predictors of future behaviour, and competency-based questions ask a candidate about how they’ve approached real scenarios in the past. Questions like “tell me about a time when you built an effective work relationship” will tell you more about someone’s approach than asking them to describe how they would do it hypothetically.
  • Use additional tools. Hunter and Schmidt’s research also tells us that the ability to predict candidate success also increases by selective use of other tools in the recruitment process. Carefully chosen intellectual ability tests and personality questionnaires can help validate interview responses and also provide areas that should be probed in an interview.
    

    Correlation coefficients between test & future performance

     

 

 

 

 

 

• • Be aware of interviewer bias. You may have heard of unconscious bias related to a candidate’s gender, race or age and it’s important to take steps to counteract the effects of bias. For example, some larger organisations remove candidate names from CVs. There are also other biases that can affect interviewers such as “confirmation bias” where an interviewer has an existing belief about someone and they put greater emphasis on things that support that belief and less emphasis on things that don’t. The first step to minimising bias is identifying any bias you may have and then address the effect this may have on the interview.

Pilot testing: As an interviewer, conducting a pilot test on your interview structure could also help you conduct an effective interview. Pilot testing involves gathering a small group of people and testing out your interview structure and getting feedback from them, which would be analysed to identify any flaws with the interview structure and the potential to improve on the structure.

 

Contact a Steople consultant about your Recruitment Interview strategy today.

As organisations become more sophisticated in their use of analytical data, one of the biggest challenges is knowing how to incorporate those insights into decisions about people; who to recruit and how to get the best out of them.

Businesses often make poor hiring decisions because they rely too much on intuition and other subjective, less-valid forms of assessment. Intuition can play a role in decision-making, but it needs to be considered alongside other objectively measurable data. Without the insight and clarity that comes from objective measurement, organisational strategies end up no more than an optimistic shot in the dark.

Here are Steople’s 5 Tips to help HR get the most out of psychological assessments for recruitment:

1. Does the tool really predict performance on the job?  The most important thing to look for in any assessment tool for recruitment is “predictive validity” – i.e. how accurately does the tool predict future performance and/or behaviour (note: the best tools correlate with future performance of around .5 whereas the average to good tools are around .3 and poor tools are below this); so make sure you get this data given to you for any tool you use for recruitment and selection

2. The “so what” factor:  you may use a tool that is a good predictor of performance but if you do not use a provider that can help you clearly interpret the results and what they mean for you, then you may be none the wiser. To help you understand exactly what this means for the likely on-the-job performance of the candidate then you need someone who can interpret the results for your context otherwise you may be making a poor decision. Ensure you use well-qualified and commercial psychologists to help make the best decisions

3. Data Integration:  no test is perfect at predicting future job performance; interviews are not perfect; CVs are often not accurate and reference checks are also very flawed; so given this, you can increase your chances of getting it right by integrating the data from all these sources. One of the best ways to use psychological assessments is to use them between the first and last interviews so that you can probe into potential areas for development or weaknesses in the final interview to help make your final decision

4. Cognitive or ‘abilities’ tests:  to enhance the likelihood that you will “get it right” it is best to use a combination of cognitive tests (verbal, numerical and abstract) as well as behaviour style profiles; cognitive tests when used together are more effective at predicting future performance with a correlation of about .5; when used with a highly predictive personality or behaviour style profile (around .5) you significantly increase the likelihood that you will ‘get it right’

5. Flexibility to use the right test for the right roles: you are best to use an assessment company that is not also a test publisher because you need the flexibility to be able to use the right tool for each different set of roles rather than using the same tool for all your recruitment needs; one size does not fit all roles and companies that sell tests as well as test interpretation may not be truly independent and free from bias when selecting the right tool for the job

To discuss your assessment needs and how to ensure you are getting the most out of your assessment process, contact Steople today.

Recruiting for cultural fit and recruiting for diversity could be seen as contradictory, but it all comes down to values.

What is cultural fit?

Organisational culture has many definitions.  One way to think about workplace culture is that it is “…how organisations ‘do things’ ”.  At Steople we think of culture as our shared values, norms and expectations, where our values are brought to life by our behaviours.  Culture makes an organisation unique – it creates the environment that you and your team want and feels comfortable working within, and that your customers and stakeholders experience when they work with you.

For there to be a good fit for your organisational culture, an individual needs to believe in the same core principles as the rest of your team (values) and act in ways that align with these values (behaviours).

If you are clear about what type of culture you want to foster and do what it takes to make that a reality, you have the opportunity to attract and hold onto talented people who are as passionate about your organisation and their work as you are.

What is diversity?

“Depending on who is answering, diversity usually means one of three things: demographic diversity (our gender, race, sexual orientation, and so on), experiential diversity (our affinities, hobbies, and abilities), and cognitive diversity (how we approach problems and think about things). All three types shape identity — or rather, identities”.

Bringing various attributes and perspectives to your organisation increases your ability to successfully work with different clients, solve numerous problems and make different decisions.  Diversity is about difference and the value of that difference.

People generally feel at ease being with others who they feel they have something in common with – which is where your recruitment team might get side-tracked into thinking that if they feel comfortable with someone they are the preferred candidate in terms of cultural fit.

How can you bring cultural fit and diversity together?

It’s about your values.  Values are the core principles that provide the foundation for how you work in your team, they underpin the achievement of your organisation’s purpose.  Values can be shared by people born into different demographics, who have different experiences and who use different ways of thinking.  By developing a meaningful set of values for your organisation and by living these values in everything you and your team do and say, you provide a solid base to build your recruitment process around.

What’s the cost of making the wrong recruitment decision?

It’s expensive to recruit someone new into your team.  It takes a lot of your time as a leader to work through the recruitment process and to ensure your new team member is introduced to their role in a way that helps them to be successful.  Add to that the cost of your HR team’s time, your team members’ time to help train your new person, the time it takes the new person to reach full productivity, and perhaps some recruitment agency fees, and you reach an eye-watering total cost of hiring someone new.

And if you choose the wrong person for the job, you have to go through the process all over again and spend that money all over again, plus a bit more if your team needs to cover that role for a period of time and their overall productivity drops or revenues are lost, or both.

If the person is in your organisation long enough, they may also have a negative impact on the engagement of the rest of your team and your organisation’s culture.  And culture (and arguably diversity) are part of the valuable intangible assets of your business when you view your organisation through a balanced scorecard lens.

 

How can you recruit for cultural fit and diversity?

Recruiting for cultural fit and diversity means you need to know what your values are and how to assess whether someone shares those values or not.

We see many of our clients focussing on whether someone can do “what” they need to do to get their job done, but they don’t spend enough time checking whether “how” people work will fit with their values.  This may be partly because it’s easier to understand if someone will know what they need to do.  It is more difficult to uncover people’s values, but it’s not impossible.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure you are clear about what culture you want to foster in your organisation.  We’ve used different methods, for example, surveys, storytelling, sensemaking, focus groups and observation, to help our clients understand the culture they currently have and to articulate the culture they want, including working with them to define their values.

The next step is to develop your recruitment process to focus more on whether someone is a good match to the values of your organisation – opening up the possibilities for you to bring a more diverse range of people into your team.  To help achieve this, we’ve worked with our clients to:

• Develop frameworks to clearly identify not only what skills, but also what values and behaviours, people need to demonstrate in all the roles across their business,
• Update role descriptions with values and expected behaviours to make it clear that these are just as important as the more technical aspects of each role,
• Design questions for their recruitment interviews to understand whether people are likely to value the same things as the business, how they are likely to behave in certain circumstances, and their preferred way of thinking about problems and making decisions, and
• Select, use and (most importantly) interpret appropriate, valid assessment tools to understand whether a potential new team member is likely to have the values and behaviours that align with the culture of their team, and thinking styles that will complement those of other team members.

The very first step in walking the delicate balance of recruiting for cultural fit and diversity is to get very clear about your values.  To start your thinking about this, we’d like to share our Steople values:

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you recruit for cultural fit and diversity, please contact us to discuss your needs.