Now more than ever, organizations are becoming aware of the issues related to subjectivity and bias that have crept into talent-related decisions. Hiring the wrong fit can cost your company two to three times a position’s salary. In addition, studies show that companies with diverse workforces achieve higher revenue performance.  Businesses must seek ways to secure the best talent in today’s highly competitive environment.

Whether it’s recruiting, hiring, development or internal promotions, subjectivity and bias are typically found in the decision-making process throughout the entire talent life cycle. So how do you create consistent accountability for talent related decisions that match right fit talent and increase diverse representation across your teams?

It’s possible through the objective lens of job benchmarking reports.  Benchmarking gives you an accurate reading of the specific needs of the role compared with the unique makeup of each candidate.

Benchmarking Benefits

• Provides a clear understanding of what a job requires for success
• Creates accountability to the decision-making process of hiring, development, and internal promotions
• Provides targeted questions and thought-provoking statements to support screening, interviewing, and development conversations.
• Provides access and insight for the creation of internal development and career paths

The Job Benchmarking Process

All jobs have unique requirements that inform an ideal set of behaviors, motivators, competencies and acumen.  When you correctly match the right person to the actual needs of the role, you are on your way to high performance and employee satisfaction. 

 Walking through the Job Insights questionnaire with your selected team of subject matter experts leads to data you can count on for clear and concise indicators of the right-fit candidate. The resulting benchmark is an easy to understand set of bar graphs that define those required job-related behaviors, competencies, motivators and acumen. 

Setup: Identify the Job and “Subject Matter Experts”

It is important to understand why the job exists, how success in the job is measured, the history of the position and how it fits the company strategy.  The Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are people within the organization that have a direct connection to the job.  Their expertise will help you create the job benchmark.

Key Accountabilities: Define, Prioritize and Weight Them

Through discussion, the SMEs will define a comprehensive yet succinct group of 3-5 key accountabilities for the position.  These will be ranked by i9mportnace and time requirement.

Assessment: Respond to the Job Assessment and Review Multiple Respondent Report

The SMEs will respond to the Job Assessment keeping the Key Accountabilities in mind.  Based on a unique analysis, the Multiple Respondent Report combines input of all SMEs to create a benchmark for the job. 

Results: Compare Talent to the Job Benchmark

A talent assessment on the same scale as the job will identify the characteristics an individual will bring to the position, allowing you to easily determine the best fit and identify coaching opportunities.  Within the framework of a company’s overall selection process, effective hiring decisions can be made, and productivity can begin immediately.  The right talent in the right job equals top performance and employee satisfaction, which is exactly what every company wants!

To learn more about our Talent Assessments, visit our page here.

Development: Identify Gaps and Create Development Plans that Make Sense!

Developing employees to address performance gaps is a struggle for most managers. On top of that, helping employees to identify future growth roles and creating development plans to get them there is often not prioritized.  Through the use of Benchmarks and our Gap Reports, you can quickly flip your talent assessments into Development Plans that objectively tie back to the real needs of the roles they either currently hold or aspire to in the future.