Business challenges, such as employee retention and skills shortages have been around forever and as our economic climate demands change, so do our people and leaders. With tech giants like Amazon and Uber having some of the poorest employee retention rates (an average of 1 year tenure for Amazon and 1.23 at Uber), it indicates to us the hotter the market, the better we need to be at understanding and engaging our employees.
So, what we can learn from the poor retention rates of the tech giants is that we really need to value our employees and understand how to keep them loyal- something that can be discovered from the very first point of contact with the use of personality and motivational psychometrics in your recruitment process. Although ability assessments can help to demonstrate the skills and qualifications a candidate has, personality and motivational psychometrics can help you get a really detailed and now imperative insight into how they will fit in with your organisations culture and that they are motivated by the right things as well. A candidate may meet all the requirements for the role and seem like a perfect match but if they are not provided with a role that motivates them will underperform just as badly as a poorly matched candidate would. By ensuring the candidate matches the requirements of a role and the needs of a candidate are being met by the company culture and role, you will have a highly accurate recruitment and development decision time and time again. These attributes contribute to a much longer and more valuable tenure with the business.
A recent poll by PWC found that 75% of hiring managers believe leadership skills are hard to find- so how can anyone ensure they have a quality team of leaders and equally skilled employees at all?
Well, firstly you need to be focusing on the root and core of the process- your recruitment strategy. Your recruitment strategy should be designed to select the right people for the right role AND gather the insight and understanding behind what will keep them with you.
Recruitment has faced massive changes including the evolution of social media recruitment through LinkedIn and websites like Reed and CV Library. These mediums have completely shifted the power from the recruiters over to the candidates. Each candidate now has a plethora of options and avenues to explore, creating the myth that is the Millennial 'job hopper'. These 'job hopping' candidates are simply aware of what their skills are worth now and can browse and discover what different organisations appeal to them.
Secondly, the UK is facing a skills shortage in some really key areas. Deloitte's recent research into Global Human Capital Trends indicated that only 14% of businesses feel they are strong at succession planning. Succession planning is imperative for a business to keep moving forwards. Now, although the skills shortage is very much a reality, it doesn't have to be a scramble to fill roles with candidates who are not the right fit. The cultural fit and personal motivations are what will keep your employees loyal and longstanding, giving you the opportunity to create a succession plan for the future.
Personality assessments and psychometrics give you an individual's character traits and types. When you understand someone's personality, you can understand how they work, what type of work they will excel in and how they will associate with their peers and manage their team. Some psychometrics reveal areas of strengths such as Talent Q's Dimensions or CEB's OPQ and some bright to light interpersonal tendencies that can cause problems. Other instruments identify the 'darker' side of our personalities, revealing what we see when we are stressed, such as Hogan's Development Survey (HDS). These aspects of personality are not easily obtained by even the best trained interviewer but are so important in selecting the right candidate for the role and your business.
Motivation psychometrics will give you the understanding of environment, tasks and activities that an individual will be motivated to do. Motivation lets you know what a candidate wants to do and what they need from a role in order to be engaged and successful, in turn, letting you know what will keep their loyalty and progress with you. Ability and personality assessments provide valuable insight into how suitable a candidate is for a role, motivation assessments provide insight into how suitable the role is for the candidate.
If you feel that your business would benefit from implementing personality and motivational assessments throughout your talent lifecycle speak to one of our experienced consultants today about how personality and ability assessments could aid your recruitment and development processes- info@getfeedback.net 01491545524.
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2017/pwc-ceo-20th-survey-report-2017.pdf
https://uk.businessinsider.com/employee-retention-rate-top-tech-companies-2017-8
