What are two of the biggest mistakes people make when hiring?
We had a client in the financial profession who hired another advisor for his team. After reviewing resumes and handling interviews, he hired someone. The advisor was qualified and easy to get along with, yet it was a total disaster. Why?
First, the advisor relied too much on the interview. The candidate prepared well, answered all of his questions, and was easy to get along with.
Second, the advisor relied too much on skill. The candidate knew how to do the job, had earned all of the necessary designation, and had experience in the field.
Why were these not enough? Because neither told him how she would take action in the workplace. To avoid a bad hire, you must uncover your candidates’ conative strengths before you make them an offer.
Why is this important?
Once you understand the candidate’s conative strengths, you will know whether they are a good fit for the job’s expectations. For our client, when it became apparent to the advisor that the new hire was not doing well, he asked her to complete a Kolbe A Index. This revealed her instinctive, conative strengths. He needed someone who could create and follow multi-step systems. In conation, that describes the Follow Thru conative strength (7+ out of 10 on the assessment) – how one systematizes and arranges information. This was not his natural strength, so he needed to fill that gap on his team.
The new hire measured a 4 out of 10 in Follow Thru, which meant she would struggle to complete multi-step processes consistently. She could force it for a time, but it would exhaust her and increase the likelihood for errors. It did not take long for this to pan out.
Her struggle to create or follow systems was not a lack of responsibility or laziness. It was simply not her instinctive way of taking action.
Where did he go wrong?
When he interviewed her, she made a great impression and had the appropriate skill set with over 15 years of professional experience in the field. But she didn’t have the right strengths to fit the gap on his team.
It is almost impossible to uncover this through the subjective interviewing process. The tools we use through Kolbe provide objective, scientifically validated results that are legally available to use in your hiring decisions.
Don’t make these mistakes in your next hire. Contact us today to find out how to measure for your job candidates’ instinctive strengths.