With the CIPD informing us in their 2007 Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey that the average recruitment cost of filling a vacancy per employee is £4,333 increasing to £7,750 when you include associated labour turnover costs - it can be a very costly mistake.
The CIPD survey also highlights that interviews based on the contents of a CV and/or application form are the most frequently used selection methods, so it would be helpful to consider some alternatives.
Many organisations are supplementing existing recruitment and selection processes with additional tools such as psychometric assessment but how reliable are these tools?
The Harvard Business Review research showed that Job Matching was the key to effective recruitment and selection. This means ‘matching’ the candidates into the jobs they are capable of doing and would be motivated by and in an environment that best suited their personality and behaviour.
Results showed that candidates that were ‘Job Matched’
• Outperformed their non job matched peers in the first six months
• Significantly outperformed others after 14 months
• Tended to stay in the jobs much longer thus reducing the associated labour costs highlighted above
By carrying out ‘Job Matching’ the 26% likelihood of recruiting the right person can be increased to around 75%.
But how can you achieve Job Matching, I hear you ask?
One of the ways is to use a Total Person Psychometric Assessment Tool. We use the Profiles XT tool to do this as it is 3 tools in one and includes
• Mental ability
• Personality & Behaviour
• Interests & Motivators
As well as these 3 combined tools, Profiles XT has the facility to build Job Profiles or Benchmarks, these are usually based on your organisation’s top performers and these Benchmarks are used to compare prospective candidates against known top performers. It provides answers to 3 basis questions, Can they do the job? Will they do the job? Will they fit in?
If you would like some further information on Job Matching or a copy of the Harvard Business Review Research, I would be delighted to hear from you. We have helped a number of organisations improve their recruitment and selection processes by implementing these tools.
