Gut Feel and First Impressions are a Low Hiring Bar

Hiring the right people and placing them in the right jobs requires more than gut feel and likeability.

The decision to hire is critical! When done scientifically using job fit data, hiring is simpler and smarter and one activity that makes almost every other management task either easier or unnecessary. Most engagement, innovation, and productivity doesn't come from mediocre performers but from your best employees.

Gallup's research in behavioral economics shows that managers are not good at predicting who the right people are and matching them to the right job, because according to their watershed 2020 employee engagement study they discovered that only 3 out of 10 employees are fully engaged with their work. These are the people that go the extra mile to help customers, fellow employees and the company achieve its goals. Imagine your organization's bottom line if it could hire more people like your best employees.

By contrast imagine hiring 10 new employees and 7 of them become disengaged. The disengaged workers are more likely to look for other opportunities, or worse, drag down the productivity of the rest of your team.?In other words, recruiters and hiring managers are not as rational as business leaders need them to be when making hiring and promotion decisions.

Inherent Biases Affect Managers' Hiring Decisions

In fact, Gallup meta-analysis results suggest that when companies select the top 20% of candidates based on a valid and reliable scientific assessment, they frequently realize: 41% less absenteeism, 70% fewer safety incidents, 59% less turnover, 10% higher customer metrics, 17% higher productivity and 21% higher profitability.

Without a scientific approach to hiring and promotion, these decisions become a petri dish for our unconscious bias

Biases are conscious and unconscious filters that shape a manager's view of the world based on former experiences. When these filters go unchecked, they lead to overlooking highly talented candidates in favor of average performers who may be a match to the manager's unconscious stereotype, especially when under pressure to make a quick hire. Job Fit data is a check on our biases.

First Impression Bias

The tendency to rely too heavily on the first impression is a common bias. A SHRM study found that 40% of managers polled said they mentally hired the applicant within the first 6 minutes of the interview.

Hiring the candidate who made the best impression and not the one who has the best job fit is the single greatest cause of turnover.

The PXT Select assessment gives your organization objective, reliable, and accurate job fit data so you can hire, manage, retain and develop engaged employees with confidence.

Matching people to positions in which they will be fully engaged and successful isn’t an art, it’s a science.

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"The Secret Behind Great Talent" and receive a complimentary PXT Select? assessment. Webinar Scheduling HERE?

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