Workplace 101: A Profiles Global Business Blog

4 Strategies for Achieving Hiring Excellence - Aberdeen Group

4 Strategies for Achieving Hiring Excellence - Aberdeen Group

http://info.profilesinternational.com/profiles-employee-assessment-blog/bid/70251/4-Strategies-for-Achieving-Hiring-Excellence-Aberdeen-Group

A new study by the Aberdeen Group has identified the four most common strategies to achieve hiring excellence. These are:

1. Strengthen the ability to identify talent most likely to succeed
2. Proactively  build candidate pipeline
3. Create a better candidate experience
4. Building a talent acquisition culture

Finding ways to understand which talent is “best fit” and most likely to succeed tops the list. It is such an important element that it has risen to the top of the list, up from second place in 2010. There are many elements to this kind of fit, and Aberdeen Research found that the most prevalent criteria by which organizations determine the fit of candidates were:

• Team fit

It is important for team leaders to shape a group of individuals into an integral unit, so the team can work toward organizational objectives and goals. Assessments enable you to identify the core behaviors, strengths and deficiencies of individuals and use those to build a well-balance, productive team with the chemistry to work together effectively.

• Assessment for demonstrated competencies

Employee competencies are those traits, skills or attributes that employees need to perform their jobs most effectively. Clearly, these competencies will vary by job and position, but there are some commonalities that apply to just about any job in just about any organization. Companies can hire employees with basic foundational competencies and then teach more specific competencies directly related to the employees' job descriptions. Assessments help define these basic foundational competencies for a job and objectively determine if an individual possesses the competencies to be successful in the job.

• Behavioral or attitude assessments

Behavioral and attitudinal assessments help you to better understand natural aspects of an individual’s character that impact job performance. These assessments give manager’s insight into how to motivate and communicate with the employee, how the employee learns and adapts to new situations, and how the employee will act under normal and high-stress conditions.   

Hiring decisions, like all talent decisions, are increasingly looking to support gut feel with data to drive better outcomes. According to Aberdeen, the number one goal for assessment use was to “improve business results through better quality candidates.” Assessments can play an important role in the hiring process, and impact key metrics as well.

According to the findings, organizations using assessments saw the following benefits:

• 64% Greater improvement in hiring manager satisfaction
• 10% More likely to have new hires hit their first performance goal
• 28% Greater employee engagement