Measure What Matters For Better Retention
The pressure is on.
In your company, have you felt desperate to fill open positions? Desperate to hang on to the people you have? Disappointed when you find that they aren’t doing your company any good or aren’t the right fit?
You’re not alone.
Many companies are experiencing high turnover as a result of thin candidate pools, with poor retention and ghosting of candidates continuing to be a growing problem.
Fear that you can’t fill an open position can lead you to hire quickly. It can cause a tendency to take shortcuts in the hiring process and can ultimately be damaging to your company. It can increase your costs and time investment because of cycling through the hiring and training process every time a new employee leaves. A bad cultural fit can also cause long-term problems, and you’ll probably find yourself feeling let down and anxious when your new employee isn’t performing as expected.
It’s time to take feelings out of the process and use data to make better hiring decisions.
Instead of focusing on data that shows why an employee may have failed, why not put more energy into finding ways to ensure that you are hiring the right people in the first place? With a little extra effort up front, you can feel more confident that you’re hiring the right people for the right jobs, which will reduce turnover significantly.
Improving your hiring and retention this year requires taking a step back and evaluating your hiring process. The best way to make sure you’re measuring what matters is to use proven assessment tools to ensure that you hire the right fit, the first time:
1. Identify Benchmarks For The Specific Position
When looking to fill a position, we often look at a candidate’s knowledge, hard skills and experience. While this is only a part of the overall equation, so many companies stop here. What about behaviors, motivators or competencies? While it may seem difficult to “measure” a person’s behavior or internal drivers, it’s not as hard as you may think. Using proven assessments, a potential employer can learn a lot about a candidate and whether or not they will be a long-term fit based on “how” and “why” they do the things they do.
Assessments can measure anything from behaviors and motivators to competencies, emotional intelligence and acumen. Using assessment information from what the job needs is one way that a hiring manager can create a benchmark for the open position. Armed with that information, a hiring manager can feel much more confident that the candidate and the company are truly a good fit.
2. Create A Range Of What’s Acceptable Within Those Benchmarks
After assessing and benchmarking the open job, the data should also be tailored to your unique position. We at Vantage don’t subscribe to the idea that a benchmark for an Operations Manager (as an example) should be the same across the board – it’s not. It’s different and custom for each company, department, and position. As such, we work with you to create a range of what an acceptable candidate would look like to succeed within that position and team.
3. Assess Candidates Against The Benchmark To Make The Right Hire
A candidate that is properly vetted against established benchmarks will be a good cultural fit for your company and team, and will have the skills and environment to succeed in his or her position.
A data-based hiring process takes more time. But hiring the right people the first time will stop the churn that you’re facing. Companies that work with us at Vantage using this hiring process are moving towards a 100% retention rate, and immediate turnover because of a bad fit has stopped. Don’t waste time and money hiring the wrong people. Trust the data.
“As the CEO of a fast growing company, it’s critical for me to hire a lot of people quickly and ensure they are the right people for the right roles. Vantage is helping me with a talent acquisition process that ensures a good fit between the person and the role and benchmarks to gauge success using well-designed assessments. I was guided through a disciplined interview process and onboarding program so that I can have confidence in every hiring decision. As a result, we’re building an amazing team to ensure our pace of growth.”
– Christian Fernando, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Facility Health Inc.