The right person for the Job (Part 1)

Selecting the right person for the job has never been more important than it is today. Mistakes are costly. According to Dr. Pierre Mornell, if you make a mistake in hiring, and recognize and rectify the mistake within six months, the cost of replacing that employee is two and one-half times the person’s annual salary. Put another way, the wrong person earning $50,000 will cost your company $125,000. The wrong executive making $100,000 will cost a quarter of a million dollars if you rectify the mistake within six months!

You’ve probably heard the term right person right job or job fit before. But what does it mean and how does one accomplish it? According to the experts (and this is one of those rare fields where there aren’t many), job fit refers to “the degree to which a person’s cognitive abilities, interests and personality dynamics fit those required by the job.”

(Chuck Russell – Right Person Right Job, Guess or Know)

The folks at Advantage Hiring describe job fit as having a positive orientation to the nature of the work to be performed, the characteristics of the work environment, and the other demands and conditions of the work opportunity.

If you’re not sure what a positive orientation to the demands and conditions of your work opportunity is, much less whether you have it or not, think of it this way. Job fit is where the passions and talents of the individual match those required by the work and where the values of the individual are in sync with the values of the organization. You’re doing what you do best and what you like doing with people who share your core values.

If you have job fit, you’ll have personally experienced what athletes refer to as “being in the zone.” That sense of everything clicking, you’re at your best, you’re on. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes the experience of what he refers to as “being fully engaged in one’s work.”

Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems. Self-consciousness disappears and the sense of time becomes distorted. An activity that produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it, even when it is difficult or dangerous.

So job fit is great for employees, but why should employers care about it?

Bottom Line Impact

Job fit isn’t one of those warm and fuzzy concepts that you implement because it makes people feel better. It has been proven, many times over, that job fit positively effects performance, eliminates costly mistakes in hiring, lessons turnover, and can even be used to attract talent. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company that provided regular in the zone experiences?

Job fit has a positive impact on the bottom line, or a negative impact if you don’t have it. Caliper, a psychological testing and HR consulting firm, have conducted a number of studies that suggest that one of the main reasons for turnover is lack of job fit. Poor job fit as been associated with job dissatisfaction, higher levels of job-related stress, and intentions to leave the organization (Lovelace and Rosen, 1996)

Where there is job fit, satisfaction increases, turnover is reduced and people are more productive. Research by O’Reilly, Chatman & Caldwell (1991) shows that new hires whose values fit well with the values of the organization and culture tend to adjust more quickly, feel more satisfied, and remain with the organization longer.

John F. Binning and Anthony J. Adorno of the Human Resource Group, suggest that turnover can be reduced by 50-60% through job fit.

“We’ve been able to dramatically reduce voluntary turnover rates by 50- 60% by using a Job Congruence System which 1) identifies specific negative job characteristics which are used to 2) create a custom assessment instrument in order to 3) screen out individual job candidates who are most likely to have a negative reaction to specific job characteristics.”

Binning and Adorno suggest a relatively simple, but effective approach: Find out what is most frustrating about the job and hire people who have the temperment and emotional competencies to best deal with it. 

Article By: Pamela Holloway

www.aboutpeople.com