Hiring: Hunch Based versus Computer Modeling

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal ( Sept. 20th, 2012 article link is below), talks about how algorithms and computer modeling are now used to hire personnel. It does not mention interviews and validation of assessment (or test) results which are critical components to a final job offer and/or promotion, and implies that resumes, education and experience are not considered or not weighted very heavily.

Algorithms Run the Workplace - Companies Trade In Hunch-Based Hiring for Computer Modeling

The companies that we worked with, many of them large BPO/Call Center companies, as well as the training we conducted, emphasized the importance of assessments in better defining "job fit" through Benchmarking, which has been proven over many years to significantly increase employee retention and heightened job performance. However, equally important is observing the distortion value (a measure of how consistently a candidate answers the questions during the assessment/test) and validating the results by asking Behavior Event Interview (BEI) questions and conducting background checks!

The reason for using assessments is to consistently evaluate candidates in a time-sensitive manner, and in an unbiased way. This is critical as it has been proven that people decide on a candidate within the first 4.3 minutes of an interview, which means that the interviewer is strictly going by "gut" instinct unless he/she is well trained to overlook first impressions.

Most of the large BPO/Call Center companies generally desire to test, interview and make a job offer within 8-10 hours. The reason, especially at the height of mass hiring and new client ramp-ups, is to quickly identify good candidates, make an offer, and get an acceptance within one day, so that these candidates are not lost to other companies. These methods are employed by many industries, large and small and who may not be needing to meet such strict time requirements.

Good assessments should take into account: Learning Index (IQ), Behavioral Index (EQ) and Areas of Interest that the candidate has. If there is good alignment with the position and the company, this good "job fit" will greatly enhance success, both for the candidate and the hiring company.

ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) are used to manage large numbers of applicants, help identify those who do not meet the minimum requirements and filter them out, while keeping track of those who move on through the hiring process, and also help prevent the same candidate from applying multiple times within a given time frame to the same company for multiple positions.

In the above article there is mention about commuting time being a criteria. However, especially for overseas operations, many times candidates learn of this "select-out" criteria, and merely list a relative's address that is nearby the facility. An interview and especially a background check will quickly help to identify if the candidate does indeed live within the prescribed radius of work.

A couple of scenarios which are used are:

So, while assessments are excellent in evaluating candidates, they should only be weighted at 1/3 of the total value in the hiring process, as validation of the results through a BEI interviews and good background checks, are critical.

Are you following these key principles?

Improper vetting of Data on a Resume leads to Resignations at Yahoo!

As mentioned in a couple of earlier blog posts, making sure that the references check out and information on Resumes/c.v.'s is accurate before hiring someone, is critical and essential. This impacts the corporation on multiple levels:

1) Making sure that there is good "Job Fit" by contacting people who have worked with the individual before and how they have performed, and in "assessing" behavioral traits that fit with the position's benchmark, based on top performers.

2) Ensuring that the Ethics and Moral values of the person are consistent with the company's values, as this person's interaction with all levels of the company's personnel will have some effect, regardless of position within the company, from sanitary engineer on up.

3) Finding a replacement can take time and interrupts strategies or activities being handled by the individual in question and can set back the initiatives, by months to even years.

4) It affects the morale of of the company and personnel. The higher the position of the person or people in question, the broader the impact and negative affect on the company. In this most recent case at Yahoo!, which has been struggling to compete against Google, it casts ongoing credibility issues for the company, both internally and with shareholders. Morale and Credibility Issues follow Yahoo!

And:
5) In this case, it has affected not only the career of the individual who embellished his credentials, but also, regrettably another Board member.

Have all the shoes fallen yet? Only time will tell! There should be policy changes put into place to prevent a occurrence, that is clear.

Scott Thompson CEO of Yahoo! Resigns

Patti Hart of Yahoo! Resigns Over CEO's botched Academic Records

Talent and Skills Shortages Number One Risk in Asia Pacific and 4 Other Risks

In the earlier post about Corporate Risks ( Global Risks to Consider and Recent Analysis by Lloyd's- Has Your Company Considered These? ) that need to be considered. It was identified that Lloyd's had ranked these Global Risks, but they also identified Regional Risks. The  image below came from the report that they assembled for 2011. It is very interesting that Talent and Skills is the Number One Risk for Asia Pacific, given the unemployment rate and educational levels in the region and the flood of youth coming up.

So, CEOs and Senior Managers need to seriously consider this, not only if they are planning to expand in the region, but also if new entries (start-ups) are being planned. It will require expert Succession Planning and Strategic Planning efforts to address this risk issue and the others identified, as well as Coaching, Mentoring, Training and Team Development for key corporate members to help fill this gap.

The BPO industry in the Philippines, identified several years ago, that while the industry could do a good job of hiring and filling entry level positions, when they promoted effective call agents, for example, these people did not have the managerial skills to handle a "Front-Line Manager" position. In many instances they were promoted to their level of "incompetence." So the bottle-neck to growth was not having identified and trained potential new managers soon enough to handle the high influx of new candidates for entry level positions.

Consequently, they changed their processes in Pre-Hire to identify 5-10% of the people considered for the entry level position(s), who had the right IQ and EQ to fit into their organizations, and who had good "job fit" with the Benchmarks/Job Pattern /Performance Modeling for not only the entry level position (significantly reducing turnover), but also for the Front-Line Manager position. They would "mark/follow" these people by observation and possible early training to assume the higher level position. This experience was possibly the early warning signs that Lloyd's seems to be now reflecting in their study, now.

For the Asia Pacific Region, Lloyd's identified the following 5 areas of major risks to be considered or addressed:
    1) Talent and Skills shortages
    2) Currency fluctuations
    3) Inflation
    4) Loss of Customers/Cancelled Orders
    5) Company Reputation Risk

As also highlighted in the area: CEO, Senior Manager, Leadership, Strategic Planning and Charisma , it is essential that CEOs, Senior Managers, and Corporate HR Managers identify at least 3-5% potential Leaders within each level of the organization (bench strength) in order to help address sustainability for the corporation. Without bench strength, just like for a sports team, while the top players are available and not injured, the team does well; but without the organizational depth and strength, it can result in high fluctuations in corporate performance over time.

The question remains: How Well Positioned Is Your Company for the Upcoming Forecasted Risks within the Region - Presently and for the ensuing 5-10 years? The future and investments are yours to make to position the company for growth and profitability! To ignore these risks could be at the peril of the corporation and organization.


Risks - Then and now: what has changed?

Sales Characteristics for Success that are innate?

A recent article by Dr. Croner, indicates that most high performance sales people possess the following 3 innate personality traits which only about 20% of Sales people have. They are:

Need for Achievement
Competitiveness
Optimism

Personally, from experience, most people possess these, so it is doubtful that they are innate!

In an earlier blog article that was written based on Harvard Research, it was identified that "Challengers" created the most effective sales people, and these techniques can be learned. Obviously, some people may be more comfortable with these techniques than others, but if a person is committed, they can "flex" into the needs of the position, and over time they become engrained in the individual and drives success.

Existing Sales People in your organization present the greatest challenge because you have already employed them and the question then remains how do you, or can you, elevate them to be more effective? But the advantage is you have more information about them based around Thinking, and Behavioral traits and Interests, than you may have for people you may be looking to recruit or hire.

For an existing sales force, can you identify what generates a passion or a significant need which can drive the Need for Achievement within a person? It may take some effort, but from experience, most of the time it can be found. Then the objective is tapping into this internal "need" that this person has and structuring a compensation/benefit plan around this (these) needs.

Competitiveness can be created on some level. However, it is critical that this is created in a supportive manner and environment. Humans naturally are competitive, just look at the world problems which seem to revolved around the need to be heard or recognized.

Optimism, can also be addressed or taught. There are many methods which can be employed to change how a person views change and challenges, from meditation to structured courses.

So the objective is with existing Sales people, how to motivate the engage them to the point of wanting to grow and become more effective and professional. It may take effort, coaching/mentoring and involves some training costs, but it can be achieved. It favorably impacts company morale.

For Pre-Hire/Recruiting, there are effective assessments/tests and interview techniques to evaluate candidates by helping to minimize hiring the wrong people initially.  Obviously, the benchmarks need to be created around your Top Performers. Once these are set-up, then an in-depth interview(s) can help enormously in identifying people who should be successful.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) can help in the process by "self-selecting" out people that will not have a good "job fit" based around initial knockout questions, and then around benchmarks/performance models. These ATS systems also need to be used to help identify effective marketing programs in attracting the best candidates not only initially, but those who will remain with your company(retention). These ATS systems can greatly save time and effort for your recruiting staff and generally can be easily cost justified around ROI's. This "tracking" information is critical for future hiring programs to attract the best talent.

The more tools and methodologies you use, the greater your success can be. Hire around "job fit" and you gain the slight edge in being a successful and sustainable organization!

Sales Talent Management or Beating the Odds for Even greater Sales Success - Oct. 28, 2011

A Learning Session was held on "Sales Talent Management" or "Beating the Odds for Even greater Sales Success" on Oct. 28, 2011.

In yesterday’s learning session, I addressed keys to success for Sales Organizations, and for that matter in any portion within a company.

Overall, Benchmarks help identify "job fit." Harvard had followed 320,000 sales people over a 20 year period and determined that it wasn't education or skills that determined success, but "Job Fit"(Thinking Style[IQ], Behavioral Traits [EQ] and Interests).

Therefore the keys identified in the presentation were:

1)      Benchmark (also called Performance Model or Job Pattern) around top performers, while identifying poor performer’s competencies that are different. This allows you to identify the essential competencies for that position that drive success. These benchmarks need to be position specific, not industry specific. (Do you think your company is exactly the same as another company, even if you are in the same industry with very similar products? The other company(s) are as different as people are. Human DNA is 99.9% the same, it is the 0. 1% that creates the diversity we see each day with the people with whom we interact.)

a.       Ideally you need to use assessments or methodologies that can quickly allow re-benchmarking if new “Top performers” come into the picture and/or as the market needs change.

b.      Have a way to identify Training Needs Analysis (TNA) for those competencies falling outside the benchmarks, in order to help to develop programs for Career Development for individuals and groups.

2)     Use these benchmarks to help screen, interview and validate around these separator competencies in order to identify stronger performers during the recruiting/pre-hire process. The sooner you can bring in new talent around top performer benchmarks, the sooner your organization begins to upgrade. Creating this slight edge, that grows over time, increases sustainability and profitability. It also, most likely, will reduce training costs and speed integration time.

3)      Use these benchmarks for existing positions, in developing career development programs and training needs for their career development plan.

4)      Also, use these benchmarks to identify individuals for succession management plans, coupled with managerial and performance review results. Ideally Performance Reviews are 360 based, and online, to allow complete confidentiality and candidness by those rating the ratee/Manager. Also online, speeds  results, eliminating assembling and analysis time. Most importantly, it helps to maintain objectivity in reviews, and eliminate subjectivity, which increases trust and engagement.

Once these processes are in place, or simultaneously, identify the three ties of Sales Performers in your organization.

Why three Tiers?
 

Because, it has been well established in multiple studies, that in any Sales Organization there are the Top performers, Middling/Average performers and Poor performers. How much are the latter two tiers costing you?

It follows the 80/20 rule, 20% of your sales force is delivering 80% of your sales. (Of course the same also applies to your client mix, 20% of your clients are delivering 80% of your sales and profitability.)

Calculate (via a utility analysis) how much more can be gained if you can develop an Average performer into a Top performer, or a bottom performer to even a middling/average performer. The results can be amazing. If interested, feel free to ask how this can be done.

The slight Edge: In many sports, it is a split second of difference that separates a winner from being second or third. A few years back, there were documentaries on the steps athletes take for these 10^th of a second differences. Swimmers have videos taken showing their stroke techniques in a glass tank versus an ideal stroke. Runners are videoed for motion analysis.  Golfers modify their swings using videos comparing theirs with the ideal (benchmark) swing of efficiency. Business is no different.

If you take these steps not only will your Sales significantly improve, but if implemented throughout the organization, this slight edge gets magnified throughout the corporation! If your competition is doing this, where does it put you? Can you and your company afford not to put into place these kinds of steps and procedures?

The decision is yours and your company’s! Can CEO’s, Senior Managers and companies ignore these in this dynamic global market? It seems highly unlikely that sustained performance can be maintained without these kinds of methods being implemented.

BEI (Behavioral Event Interview) Training - Public Seminar Sept. 6, and Private training Sept. 22, 2011

On these two dates, I held Behavioral Event Interview training.

Interviewing has been around since 1911, or even well before then. However, from this date, it was the start of more structured interviews and then arose psychological studies about people to help develop more systematic interviews. Before and during WWII, psychology began to be used in many different applications, from production line layouts and employee encouragement, to actual theories about people. In the 1960's Theory X and then Theory Y were developed, culminating in Theory X&Y...the beginning of structured motivation in the workplace. Career ladders were more refined and developed during this time.

In the 1980's with advent of matrixed organizations and the rise of many more diversified conglomerates, the rise of Human Resource Departments had a need for more sophisticated methods, tools and employee training programs for advancement. By the 1990's it started becoming evident that people/employees could drastically affect the success of a corporation, and it was the start of a recognition that employees were truly a company asset and that there was need to better manage this portion of the company. Global management began to significantly emerge as a necessary component, within many companies. In selected instances, HR personnel held a position on the Board or in the C-Suite, at least they participated in ManCom and Strategic Planning meetings.

Behavior was identified as being a key to success and there was a need to better determine behavior in the workplace to predict success and to build more cooperative and effective teams. Therefore, BEI emerged to become the best interview method for pre-hire. Past behavior is a good indicator to present and future behavior and performance.

More recently, "Critical Incident" Interviewing, a sub-set of BEI, has significantly come to help in providing a win-win view of the candidate and for the candidate. It helps the candidate "experience" in one form or another, what the challenges she/he will face in the position, and for the interviewer to gain a much better understanding about the candidate in how they may perform in the position, based on similar past experiences the candidate may have had, or how they handle the simulated situation. This also helps in validating assessment data and predicting success.

As a result of BEI, turnover decreases, which reduces the cost of attrition which ranges from a minimum of 3 months of a new hired's salary and benefits, to as much as 2.5 years of longer employed individuals. These are good rules of thumb for Return On Investment (ROI) calculations.

Of course BEI can also be used for promotion selection and advancement, in certain cases. If your recruiting department or people do not use BEI, they should seriously consider taking training or learning the techniques, as this is a much more effective interview technique, compared to the traditional interview.

Please feel free to contact me for more information if interested.

Job Fit & Benchmarking and 360 Performance Reviews - Presentation at Strategic HR and Technology Summit - Sept. 21, 2011 -Diamond Hotel, Manila, Philippines

At the Strategic HR and Technology Summit (hosted by the All Events Group), I made a presentation entitled: "Technologically Advanced Assessments in Driving Sustainable Business Success Through Performance Modeling/Benchmarking and 360 Performance Reviews in the BPO Industry.

These two  issues are critical for success in companies. Why? Because Human Resource Management, and people in particular, is the driving difference for Sustainability:

1) Performance Modeling (also called Job Pattern or Benchmarking) helps to significantly reduce turnover (both for pre-hire and ongoing employment) and increase "Job Fit," which increases performance by individuals. This is accomplished by helping to "clone" top performers and having people in positions placed by "Job Fit" which leads to higher job satisfaction. The ability to generate online benchmarks and quickly revise top performer's Models, speeds the process in a dynamic market. This directly spills into Succession Planning and Coaching.

2) 360 Performance Reviews give metrics for Career Development and Leadership, leading to areas for training and development needs. Complete Online "assembled" and tabulated results ensures confidentiality of authorship for each rater, and the freedom from fear of retribution providing candid feedback, as well as speed in delivering reports and information. These are critical for promotion, coaching and leadership development. It has been well reported and documented that currently, and in the near future, there is a Leadership shortage/vacuum, so this tool is essential for any company who wants to be around in the coming years.

Technologically Advanced products included the discussion of the use of Avatars for multiple language guidance and instruction, and Artificial Intelligence in the use of ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) and HRIS systems. Since one of the major sponsors was the BPA/P association in the Philippines, we used as examples, speed of pre-hire evaluations and assessments, leading to job offers in a matter of hours rather than days and two different but similar applicant processes.

Whether for the BPO industry or other industries, the basics still apply. In BPO, because of the need for rapid scale-up and many times the large quantities of people needed, the BPO industry has refined the hiring process and is a good example of responding to needs and change in pre-hire and management.

If interested, the slides are available. Feel free to contact me at anytime for this information.

Leadership Charisma and Engagment: Presentation given August 26, 2011

Leadership Charisma: Linking People, Strategy and Performance to Engagement and Training: "Revolutionary Research from Global Corporations" is a presentation I gave at the HR & Training Congress held in Ortigas, MetroManila, Philippines on August 25-26, 2011.

The material presented was based around recent research on Leadership and in particular Charisma that has been released by Profiles International in January 2011 and documented in the book Leadership Charisma, currently 115^th on Amazon’s Best Seller’s List.

 Leadership Charisma eBook at Amazon.com


This startling research can tie people, strategy and performance to heightened Workplace Engagement, resulting in increased: Retention, Sales, and Profitability. The key is that the research dispels the myth that Charisma is only innate. Charisma can be learned and is based on over 40,000 Leaders and 400,000 people who rated these leaders.

The presentation was broken into 4 sections: Engagement (what it means to an organization), Leadership (and it's importance to an organization), Leadership Charisma (the conclusion of the research from the book) and the results of the research which leads to Training/Learning that can be held within a company.


If interested in receiving a copy of the presentation, please contact me or leave a comment and I will be happy to send you what was presented or click on this Link to view some of the slides:
Presentation on Engagement and Leadership Charisma

Interpersonal skills, Adaptability, Team leadership and bottom-line results drive personal success

The attached article does a nice job of summarizing middle management and senior management required skills, and needs for personal success.

Adjusting to change, which each and every person, company and organization faces regularly, especially if they are looking to grow and remain dynamic in the ever changing economic climates within countries and even local regional economies, is a key component to organizational and personal success. The reference to Organizational Culture in the article, indirectly relates to Pre-Hire competencies before On-Boarding, and Competencies for a specific position, especially as it relates to "Job Fit and Company Fit." If assessments and succession planning tools and systems do not have the ability to identify competencies for good job fit, then filling positions and promotion, is mostly based on "gut instinct," some past performance criteria, and arbitrary factors,which are not necessarily the strongest ways to build a business in today's world.

As has been well documented in the past couple of decades, about 90% of a person's Thinking Style, Behaviors and Interests are hidden from immediate view and only become partially visible over time. Today's assessments can help to identify this "submerged/hidden" portion, subject of course to validation, making it much easier to identify competencies of success along with "Benchmarking/Job Pattern/Competency Models" for that position and thus people who are more likely to succeed in a given position. Why place a person in a situation with a high probability of failure because they may lack the correct interpersonal skills or adaptability that may be needed? Normally there are many other opportunities within an organization, regardless of size, where the person can thrive and contribute, but the right tools are needed to help HR, management and organizations to identify the right Job Fit or Job Match and to establish a good succession plan.

Leadership and Communication skills can also be identified through 360 Reviews and assessments, and should be used at least yearly if not more often. 360 Reviews properly done, can clearly target competencies and skills, while identifying developmental areas for individuals, as well as for organizations. These skills can be learned, hence training can be effective where and when needed.

All of this leads to bottom-line results; and, where proper KRA's are established, these results can be tracked to individual performance and personal success.
Wall Street Journal Article:
Interpersonal skills, Adaptability, Team Leadership and bottom-line results.