We had an interesting conversation with a client a couple weeks ago. While we were discussing his objectives for the year, he came out and simply asked us “why isn’t everyone doing this”? We sat there for a second trying to think of a good reason why every company doesn’t use some sort of assessment when hiring staff. In that second, he responded back saying that there is no reason that people shouldn’t use behavioral assessment tools to hire people. Now this is not just anyone telling us this, he is a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company that employs over 100,000 people globally. He could not understand how companies would not want to use our assessment, The ECI Behavioral Insight®. What hiring manager wouldn’t want an objective view of an applicant’s innate behaviors, as well as interview questions, based on the individual’s results?
That question brought me back to when I was younger and mother used to ask me a question that I’m sure everyone has heard at some point in their lives. “If all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?” I can still here her asking it, but being the adventurous child that I was, my answer was always “YES”. I’m sure that there are people out there that said “no”, but by no means was I one of them. Looking back now, I know that I did not have enough information to answer her question properly. If she was asking me if I would jump off the Golden Gate Bridge the answer is “no” (unless I would have a parachute, then it would be maybe). If she was asking me if I would jump off of a bridge that is over a stream that is deep enough and doesn’t really have a current, I would say yes. I have learned enough to avoid answering questions that I don’t have enough information about. Maybe that is the problem; people do not have enough information to make an educated decision about using a behavioral assessment for selection.
We speak with prospective clients every day and most of them are interested in using an assessment. The odd thing is that something seems to hold them back. Maybe they don’t quite believe in using assessments or maybe since they can’t touch our product every day they don’t see the value in using it. When I see how much money and time companies lose because of turnover and having employee misalignment, it honestly scares me. Most of the companies that we speak to could easily cut their turnover in half by using a valid assessment that has been customized for their company/role. Does this cost money? Yes, but we know that the cost of implementing our system is far less that the cost of turnover or lost production.
Back to the question, “why isn’t everyone doing this”. I’m not really sure, but I certainly would like to know. With the recent economy, you would think that companies want to run as efficiently as possible. Having unnecessary turnover or misaligned employees greatly affects organizational efficiency in a negative way. The best way to get the most out of your workforce is to hire the right people and retain them. It is much easier to hire and train someone that “fits” your culture than to try and get someone who doesn’t “fit” to be a top performer. Think of it this way, do you want to put a square peg in a round hole or a square hole?
