HR Horizons HR Blog

Webmaster August 6th, 2007

If employee turnover begins from poor selection processes, how can we improve it? Employee turnover resulting out of poor selection is definitely in the controllable category. The following steps neeed to be taken.

1. The hiring manager along with HR need to define a detailed job specification.
2. HR profiling needs to be done even before the interview so as to know the culture fit.
3. setting right expectations at the hiring stage also would help to a great extend .
4. if cost permits make use of some psychometric testing tools.

There are many steps in the recruitment and selection process. You will need to perform a diagnosis of where exactly the process is breaking down. Some suggestions for improvement are:

• define your roles and responsibilities clearly
• define competencies and characteristics required for the job clearly
• use behavioral based interviewing technique
• use qualified recruiters and interviewers
• use an interview panel instead of just one interviewer
• include new employee’s prospective supervisor and team member/s on interview panel
• use a professional recruiting firm (if outsourced)
• conduct thorough reference checks
• check salaries/rewards/conditions are market competitive
• select from a wider pool of candidates
• conduct pre-employment tests

Which of these process steps/capabilities you tackle will depend on the result of your diagnosis.

We have a high turnover ourselves, mainly based on our industry (retail). We do conduct reference checks, and background checks, but we also conduct the Orion pre-emp assessment tests, which keeps us from hiring alot of people who from the interview seemed like good candidates. That’s probably where I’d start.

Key to this is to clearly define what core competencies are required for success in the position and working from that. If you don’t know what they are then try interviewing your most successful staff in those or similar positions to establish them.

Once you have an idea of the competencies then establish how you are going to assess them in your selection process - whether you use a simple interview or a combination of various techniques.

Don’t forget to also assess the values, attitudes and behaviors of your potential candidates so they fit with your organisation.

Research has often indicated that a person with a more positive and can-do attitude but with less technical skills can perform at a higher level compared to a person with stronger technical skills but a poor attitude.

I have a business relationship that has created an incredible no extrodinary process to hire the right person for the right job, 99 out of 100 times. The perfect match is the “Right Person for the Right Job,” I have found but it is through this process that my clients excel in their businesses as well as the way the candidate is interviewed and understands what they will be doing and how they will be doing it in the organization. I find it incredibly funny that before I used to see my clients struggle through the hiring process, today it is simple, easy and right the first time. There are rarely breakdowns unless we meet a master liar and she has developed a program even for that breakdown, if that is what you want to call it.

Using Psychological Assessments

I agree a competency based approach looking for the right skills/competencies for the jobs based on a thorough assessment of the job requirements will give you suooerior results. I would suggest a job simulation exercise helps in the process. For example, you can ask candidates for a sales position to comlete an on-line assessment. To assess their writing skills as well as their competecies and to leave a voice mail message to screen out those candidates who are no clear and concise on the phone. This can then be followed up with a behavior-based interview.

However, psychological assessments cannot be accurately made with a single subjective testing scenario. Although not perfectly clear, the previous statements apparently imply that pre-employment tests are not valid and cannot be an exclusive determinant of an employment decision. In reality, a review of the scientific literature reveals that such tests do a very good job of predicting important workplace behaviors such as turnover. For a good review, I would recommend reading an article entitled “The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings”, which is published in a 1998 American Psychological Association journal called Psychological Bulletin.

Unless you work for one of the companies that provides pre-employment tests, you probably have a parochial interest in them. In my work I research and share best practices with individuals in some companies. Most confess that the testing they use returns limited value but that the practice has become ingrained into their culture and won’t go away. In short it becomes the “we have always done it that way syndrome.” A rather sad experience but one that often impedes true progress. Now admittedly some may in fact actually enjoy the use of pre-employment testing. perhaps it gives them a sense of structure that their other practices don’t provide, or maybe somehow it fits into their process more appropriately. BUT, if it really is what the industry claims it to be its value then becomes so infinitesimal as to make anyone wonder why they are used.

I strongly support competency testing as a part of the recruiting process. Tools such as Kenexa’s “Proveit” product (I do not work for Kenexa but do use the tool. I am the head of HR for a Fortune 1000) are invaluable.

But it isn’t my money or money I am responsible for. My company won’t use them. We see the lack of value in these products as an employment/selection tool. Further, in that we have never received anything substantive attesting to the value of these pre-employment tests from anyone other than a vendor we have no plans on changing our minds anytime soon.

Flowery language from those who don’t actual work in the field of HR coupled with academic reports touting a validity that has almost no application in the average workforce might influence a company starving for assistance that can be better obtained elsewhere. That is unfortunate for them and eventually many of them one day realize that the expense was entirely unnecessary.

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Tags: find people, reduce employee turnover, search for people

• Selection
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