I was speaking recently with a chief people officer who revealed that almost a third of everyone his business hires leaves within six months of starting. He said he couldn’t understand why – the firm has a positive culture, the senior leadership team is well-respected and the company is growing. What’s not to like?
His confusion is compounded by the fact that the recruitment tools his business uses suggest the people hired are good fits. I’m pretty certain this is where the problem lies.
Rather than spending time interviewing and speaking with potential hires – he noted that line management don’t spend long meeting people – the majority of his company’s selection process relies on psychometric assessments and online tests.
Tests such as these have their place – for example, if I couldn’t choose between two strong people I might look to see what their assessments had to say – so I’m not going to argue they have no value at all. But while using them as a principal basis for making hiring decisions might seem efficient, there is simply no substitute for meeting someone, preferably more than once and by different stakeholders, asking questions, listening to answers and observing how the interviewee acts.
And if the feeling’s that line management are not strong interviewers, as my contact believes, the shortcoming should be addressed through training, not testing.
I also recently caught up with a different client for whom I recruited someone earlier in the year and who uses online tests in what I would describe as a more appropriate manner. He finds it interesting that, six months in, the new employee is very different in their behaviours and approach to the results of the psychometrics they undertook but that they are proving themselves to be a valuable addition to the senior leadership team nonetheless.
Maybe I should introduce my two clients to each other?
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