Are we really recruiting right?

Hiring right is a collaborative alliance between the executive search organisation and the client team. The time has come for both teams to reflect and realize that ‘what got them here won’t get the candidate there’. Here are some methodologies recruitment teams could implement in order to start recruiting right.

Recruiting Right

1. One-Shot Critical Hiring – To achieve one-time critical hiring, executive firms & the client can look for ways to move beyond traditional methods of conducting interviews. Perhaps, the interview process could include a tour of the workplace and a brief interaction with existing employees. This will give the recruiter an insight into the candidate’s behaviour among co-workers.
2. Hire for Success – The past experience of a candidate is perhaps less important than the intent, drive and the understanding of the role. Experience should be measured only to determine what the candidate has learnt in his previous roles that can be leveraged in new situations. Research shows that a staggering 40% of CEOs fail in their new role, putting a big question mark on recruiting someone only basis their experience and industry expertise. How hungry is the candidate to make a difference matters the most!
3. Create Success Profiles – Job descriptions will soon become obsolete. To hire right, recruitment teams could create success profiles that paint a picture of success in a particular job role.
4. Look Beyond Past Performance – Past work track record, although relevant, is limited in its own way. Increasingly, performance in past roles is a poor prediction of how a candidate will perform in a new role, especially if the new role is very different.
5. Culture Fit – A majority of failures at leadership roles happen because of their inability to adjust to the new organisation’s culture. Executive search firms could enhance their hiring process by –
   • Evaluating potential candidates on how well they will fit into a new culture. There are specialised assessments available that provide these insights in a structured manner.
   • Design and deliver high-impact ‘new hire onboarding journeys’ post candidate hiring.

Leverage Technology

EMA Partners has joined hands with Decision Dynamics for talent management. Decision Dynamics is a global thought leader in the science of leadership talent evolution. Decision Dynamics’ technology-driven methodologies go beyond ‘stable traits’ to identify and develop leaders who will be more successful in today’s disruptive business environment.

Strategic Recruitment

Align hiring to your organisation’s goals and strategies. Executive search firms could start by understanding and mapping a client’s business strategy, then tweaking their search process to look for talent that is best suited to take the strategies to fruition.

New Practices for New Leadership Roles

Technology disruptions have created new roles across all business verticals. For example, roles in the fields of information management, data security and IoT, did not exist until recently. The hiring process for these roles has to be radically different from traditional roles at senior managerial levels. The skills are different. The job roles are different. So why the same hiring process for all? For example, when recruiting leadership for IoT, evaluate existing employees with great performance and skills and base your candidate success profile on it.

Evolve to Remain Relevant

Relevance is the biggest struggle that every business is going through. While there is a lot of emphasis on product innovation, there is a constant struggle to recruit the right people to ensure those innovations happen and resonate with the end consumer. This brings us back to where we started; it is time we re-engineer how we hire our people!