Improving Your Good Hire Percentage

A construction company would never use a building material that has proven to be structurally sound only 40% of the time. A pest management firm would never choose a pesticide that kills its target pest only 20% of the time. No company would lease a copier that produces clear copies only 30% of the time. Yet organizations make their biggest investments, choosing whom they will invite to join their workforce, using a process that is only marginally more effective than simply choosing people at random.

Validity means a thing measures what it's supposed to measure. Scientists calibrate scales to measure standard ounces or grams so their weights are valid. Chefs calibrate their thermometers so they can measure the temperature of food with validity. But dozens of academic studies that date back to the mid-1960's have demonstrated that unstructured interviews have very low validity when it comes to employee selection. But it's still the number one method organizations use to choose between candidates. 

How can companies calibrate their employee selection process the way scientists and chefs calibrate their tools?

First, they can convert to a more structured interview process. Those same studies have demonstrated that using structured, predetermined questions specifically targeted at the critical knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to be successful in the vacant job will increase the validity of the selection.

Second, they can add a benchmarked assessment to the selection process. A behavioral or personality assessment like DISC can certainly help avoid poor hiring choices. Adding additional benchmarked assessments such as a cognitive abilities assessment (if appropriate) and/or a motivating forces assessment will increase the validity of the selection process even more.

Without a structured interview process supplemented by valid assessments, you're likely to be just as well off skipping the interview process completely and selecting your new employee randomly from a stack of resumes from candidates who have at least the minimum qualifications on paper.

To quote Golf Channel instructor Martin Hall, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting.