Employee Hiring: Where Some Consultants Fail You (They’re not Doing This) - By: Annette Estes

There are a slew of articles on best hiring practices and they’re all good. But they're omitting a key element. This article describes a process that incorporates all that good advice and gives you a guaranteed way to hire - and retain - superior performers. It's called Job Benchmarking.

LET THE JOB TALK

Before your hire your next key employee, you need to complete a job benchmark of the position. You're going to benchmark the job itself. You're going to let the job tell you what it requires for superior performance from an employee. You're going to let the job talk - and listen.

You gather a team of your top performers in the position and their manager; these are your Subject Matter Experts. When they've completed the process, you'll have a highly accurate description of what the job requires in three areas:

Behaviors (How)
Motivators (Why)
Task Quotient (What)

How can you hire the right people unless you know if they will do the job how it should be done, if they will be intrinsically motivated to be a high performer, and if the job requires the type of tasks they prefer doing?

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Before determining the ideal behaviors, motivators, and task quotient of a job, your team will determine the position's Key Accountabilities. Key Accountabilities are what the job requires from an employee for the job to exist.

For example, Key Accountabilities for the job of sales might include: Daily Sales Calls, Customer Relations, Product/Industry Knowledge, and Follow-up System. Your team writes a strong statement for each Key Accountability.

Example: "Daily Sales Calls. (A salesperson must) Make a minimum of (number) calls a day to customer prospects to get face-to-face appointments." Your team will rank each Key Accountability as to its importance, based on how much time the salesperson spends daily performing each one.

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENTS

With the Key Accountabilities as a guide, your team completes an online questionnaire to determine the ideal Behaviors the position requires. They will rank statements as to their importance.

For example, one statement says: "The amount of face-to-face communication is..."
(1-Extensive through 6-Very Limited.) Your team agrees this statement should have a 1 ranking. (By comparison, an R & D job might get a 5 or 6 ranking.)

The second section determines Motivators. When a job rewards an employee's values, job satisfaction and performance are enhanced. Your team will rank statements that show which values the job rewards; in other words, the statements identify and prioritize key factors that contribute to personal fulfillment in the job.

Example: "This job requires a strong belief in a specific philosophy." After discussion, your team determines this is not a key requirement for superior sales performance, so they give it a 6 ranking. (A job of church pastor would get a 1 ranking.)

The third section is the Task Quotient. To be highly productive, an employee must enjoy performing the type of work the job requires. Task Quotient determines task types in three areas: Routine Work, Project Work, and Troubleshooting Tasks. Your team will rank statements 1-4, one being "none of the time," and four being "all of the time."

Example: For superior performance on the job, the person doing the job should: "Solve urgent, unplanned issues or problems." Your team decides the answer is "some of the time," so they give the statement a 2 ranking. "Most of the time" would get a 3 ranking. (The job of tech support would get a 4 ranking.)

JOB/TALENT FIT ASSESSMENTS

When the questionnaire is complete, you will have a Job Fit assessment that accurately details the behavioral style, values/motivators, and ideal task quotient an employee must have to be the right person for the job. As an added bonus, the Job Fit assessment also gives you behavioral interviewing questions to ask each candidate, related only to that job – a key factor in complying with EEOC guidelines.

The next step is to have your current employees in the position and your candidates for the job complete a Talent Fit assessment. It shows you each person's individual behavioral style, values/motivators, and preferred task quotient.

Using the data from your Job Fit and Talent Fit assessments, let your computer generate a Job/Talent Fit Comparison report. It will show you how each person fits the job in the three areas. Hire the person who best matches the benchmark assessment and you will get a superior performer.

BEHAVIOR AND MOTIVATORS REPORT

Let your computer then convert each of your employees' Talent Fit assessment to generate a Behavior and Motivators Coaching Report, which will help your managers coach employees who have gaps in job fit to improve their performance. This assessment also will improve your managers’ performance by showing them exactly how to manage, motivate, communicate with, and develop each employee on an individual basis.

Complete the Job Benchmarking process for all of your company's key positions, hire only those who match the benchmark, coach them based on the information in their Behavior and Motivators Report, and you will enhance performance across all levels of your organization. Then together you can build a team of superior performers and increase employee satisfaction and retention.

About the Author

And now I'd like to invite you to get a free sample employee review and see samples of our job benchmark assessments and key accountabilities. You can subscribe to my free behavioral interviewing newsletter. Annette Estes is a Certified Professional Behavioral and Values Analyst with The Estes Group, a behavioral performance management firm.

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