Sometimes I'll get a call from a client because they're ready to fire Bob. I'll ask a few follow-up questions and discover that there is no major policy violation, they're really just irritated with him for an accumulation of stuff that seems important today but is somewhat minor in the big picture. In most cases I'll convince them that they're probably better off keeping Bob than trying to replace him and recommend they just have a conversation with him regarding their frustrations and expectations.
Then I'll get a call a couple of weeks later to be informed that Bob's just been promoted to supervisor. "Since our talk, he's been doing great!"
I call this the talent assessment elevator - the speed of movement between "the penthouse suite" and "the basement." Some small to mid-sized businesses have express elevators. A worker can go from hero to bum and back to hero within a few days or even hours.
Organizational Behavior textbooks they call this "availability bias," which is defined as our tendency to make decisions based on information that is readily available in our memory. Decision makers can easily overvalue information that we recently received. So when we get word that Bob screwed up, "Bob's a bum. Fire him!" When we get word that Bob pulled us out of a ditch with an important client, "Bob's great. Promote him!"
One of my heroes, basketball coach Dean Smith, once said, "if you make every game a life and death proposition...you'll be dead a lot." He knew - he lost 254 games in his Hall of Fame career! The same applies to making important personnel decisions such as whom to keep and whom to promote, based almost exclusively on recent events. The problem is, the stuff that's in your short term memory may not be the best information to base an important organizational decision on.
So when it's time to decide whether to fire Bob or promote him, take a few minutes and consider:
1. What knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) does Bob add to the team and how easily will it be to replace those if we send him packing?
2. What performance metrics can we use to evaluate Bob's performance over the course of a year (or longer), so that we don't overvalue his most recent short-term performance?
2. What KSAs plus any intangibles does Bob potentially bring to an expanded role with the organization?
If Bob has solid KSAs and has historically been a solid contributor, don't over-manage as a result of a recent wobble. Have a conversation, if need be, or even a documented disciplinary write-up, if warranted. But investing in getting Bob back on track is going to be less costly than replacing him, almost guaranteed.
If Bob has done something worth celebrating, consider a one-time bonus or some form of public recognition, but don't rush to put him in that supervisor role that just opened-up based solely on this single victory or recent short-term success. Evaluate his KSAs and fitness for this new position separately from his recent star performance. Otherwise, you may have just taken a solid individual contributor and put him in a supervisor role where he's miserable and might soon be underperforming.
When it comes to your talent assessment elevator, it should be like a slow freight elevator - faster than the stairs but doesn't make your ears pop. Organizations with an express elevator seem to habitually lose good people that they needn't have lost because of over-reacting to both short-term performance failures and short-term performance successes.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Improve Your Good Hire Percentage
Many small companies choose their new employees based on a single interview. Unfortunately research shows that interviews have extremely poor validity when it comes to selecting the right employees. (In case you've forgotten, "validity" means an instrument measures what it's supposed to measure). Interviews are supposed to measure the likelihood that a candidate will be a good fit for our organization and our job vacancy. Casual interviews are pretty good at measuring interviewing skills, but they don't do very well at measuring how well a candidate will perform in the job we're trying to fill.
Studies show that we are subject to so many biases when it comes to a typical interview process that we are probably just as likely to pick a star employee from a stack of resumes, sight-unseen, than from bringing five people in for interviews.
So, how do we improve the validity of our process?
First, screen resumes against a predetermined set of KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) only. Consider having an administrative employee scrub information that might lead to biases from the resumes' themselves. For example, as a Carolina grad, I might have a negative opinion about a resume from a Duke grad. Another common bias is unintentionally rating a resume lower based on the candidate's name (assumptions rooted in gender, age and ethnic stereotypes). If you can't see the university name or the candidate's name, you are more likely to evaluate the resume on the KSAs alone.
Second, develop good interview questions! Write questions that have a likelihood of predicting the behaviors that you want. Use an interview guide and ask each candidate the same questions. Practice interviewing your current stars and see how they answer those same questions.
Third, use assessments! Utilize skills assessments - having them demonstrate skills they claim to have. This can range from taking a keyboarding test, to taking them out in the warehouse and allowing them to demonstrate their ability to operate your forklift. (There are some do's and don'ts regarding "auditions," so make sure you don't cross a line). Behavioral assessments will show if their personality style is ideal for the demands of the position. Driving Forces/Motivators assessments will show if their motivators align with the rewards and demands of the position. Competencies assessments will show what types of core competencies the candidate brings to the team.
Small employers frequently tell me, "I'm not spending $50 or $100 on a test - I know how to hire!" Considering the high cost of a poor hire and the science that shows utilizing valid assessments increases the validity of the selection process exponentially, that might be a penny-wise, dollar-foolish commitment.
Fourth, check references! LinkedIn is a great resource to see referrals and endorsements on many of your candidates. It's also a venue to conduct "unofficial" reference checks. If the candidate is connected to someone you know, you might be able to gain valuable insight. Many people dismiss the references the candidate submits - but I've gotten honest references from these in the past, so don't neglect them either. The best predictor of future success is past success!
Fifth, make sure your background screening criteria match your risk profile. Some organizations screen too tightly here and miss out on potentially good workers due to invalid criteria. If your company provides residential services and a candidate has a recent breaking-and-entering conviction, that candidate clearly doesn't fit your risk profile. But screening out a candidate who has a 12-year-old misdemeanor possession conviction might be an invalid selection criteria if you have an opening on a production line or on a commercial construction site.
Finally, if you're doing all these things but you're still losing people, it's probably not your selection process. It's likely something else, like job design, compensation, benefits and perks, or most likely, your supervision and management style. But that's a subject for another blog!
Studies show that we are subject to so many biases when it comes to a typical interview process that we are probably just as likely to pick a star employee from a stack of resumes, sight-unseen, than from bringing five people in for interviews.
So, how do we improve the validity of our process?
First, screen resumes against a predetermined set of KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) only. Consider having an administrative employee scrub information that might lead to biases from the resumes' themselves. For example, as a Carolina grad, I might have a negative opinion about a resume from a Duke grad. Another common bias is unintentionally rating a resume lower based on the candidate's name (assumptions rooted in gender, age and ethnic stereotypes). If you can't see the university name or the candidate's name, you are more likely to evaluate the resume on the KSAs alone.
Second, develop good interview questions! Write questions that have a likelihood of predicting the behaviors that you want. Use an interview guide and ask each candidate the same questions. Practice interviewing your current stars and see how they answer those same questions.
Third, use assessments! Utilize skills assessments - having them demonstrate skills they claim to have. This can range from taking a keyboarding test, to taking them out in the warehouse and allowing them to demonstrate their ability to operate your forklift. (There are some do's and don'ts regarding "auditions," so make sure you don't cross a line). Behavioral assessments will show if their personality style is ideal for the demands of the position. Driving Forces/Motivators assessments will show if their motivators align with the rewards and demands of the position. Competencies assessments will show what types of core competencies the candidate brings to the team.
Small employers frequently tell me, "I'm not spending $50 or $100 on a test - I know how to hire!" Considering the high cost of a poor hire and the science that shows utilizing valid assessments increases the validity of the selection process exponentially, that might be a penny-wise, dollar-foolish commitment.
Fourth, check references! LinkedIn is a great resource to see referrals and endorsements on many of your candidates. It's also a venue to conduct "unofficial" reference checks. If the candidate is connected to someone you know, you might be able to gain valuable insight. Many people dismiss the references the candidate submits - but I've gotten honest references from these in the past, so don't neglect them either. The best predictor of future success is past success!
Fifth, make sure your background screening criteria match your risk profile. Some organizations screen too tightly here and miss out on potentially good workers due to invalid criteria. If your company provides residential services and a candidate has a recent breaking-and-entering conviction, that candidate clearly doesn't fit your risk profile. But screening out a candidate who has a 12-year-old misdemeanor possession conviction might be an invalid selection criteria if you have an opening on a production line or on a commercial construction site.
Finally, if you're doing all these things but you're still losing people, it's probably not your selection process. It's likely something else, like job design, compensation, benefits and perks, or most likely, your supervision and management style. But that's a subject for another blog!
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