Why Are You Only Hiring Half a Candidate?

Are your hiring practices failing to consider a critical half of each candidate?

Often when companies hire people, the most common practice is go about the process of describing the ideal candidate in a job posting and/or job description. Employers typically identify things like:

• The essential duties of the position;
• The ideal set of educational credentials and experiences a candidate should possess; and
• A set of skills and core competencies the candidate should possess.

The more information provided in the job posting and job description, the more keywords can be utilized to match ideal candidates with the opening.

 What's Missing?

However, this method of selecting people is missing about half of what makes the person a successful fit for a position of interest. And if you are missing half of each candidate, then both the employer and candidate have increased the likelihood of an unsuccessful employment.

Let me explain. Look at the list above and you can see things that relate to what the person knows and the skills he or she can demonstrate through experience. Simply put, the job order calls for a specific set of knowledge and skills. Both knowledge and skills can be taught. So theoretically, anything the candidate is missing could be taught by the employer to make them into a ‘complete’ candidate. 

However, what about candidate’s talents, emotional intelligence and behavioral/cultural fit? A mismatch between candidate and employer in each of these areas suggests an ineffective employment relationship will follow. Both employer and employee will be uncomfortable and regret the hiring decision. 

Hiring Additionally for Talent, EQ, and Behavioral/Cultural Fit = Holistic Hiring

Let’s explore at a high level what talent, EQ and behavioral/cultural fit have to do with job success.

 Talent. Talent is God-given and people are born with a set of talents. Consider the example of two people who play the piano and who are competing for a position as a piano player:

• John has studied musical theory and has learned how to read music. He’s gotten to the point that with enough practice he can play a piece of music flawlessly from memory. 
• Charlene can’t read a note of music and doesn’t know much about music theory but whatever she hears, she can reproduce on a piano and then begin improvising from there…she plays ‘by ear.’

John has highly developed knowledge and skill; Charlene has a highly developed talent. So what does the role call for….more skills and knowledge or more talent? Depending on this answer, the employer can assess both John and Charlene as to their fit with knowledge, skills and talents,

Emotional Intelligence. As people and organizations across the world push for higher and higher levels of throughput and efficiency, we’ve become increasingly reliant on methods, technology, processes, systems, equipment, and artificial intelligence. The downside of this reliance is that people side of things has been pushed to the side in favor of the process/systems side of things.  Yet people are required make all the systems, processes, etc. work effectively!

Consider these facts:

• Studies by the Carnegie Institute of Technology show that 85% of people’s financial success is due to people skills while just 15% of their success is attributable to technical skills.
• People would prefer to do business with someone they both like and trust, rather than someone they don’t, even if they have to pay a higher price (2002 Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman).
• In a study of 515 senior executives, search firm Egon Zehnedr Int’l. discovered that those who were strongest in EQ were more likely to succeed than those strongest in IQ or relevant technical skills.
• In Career Builder’s Survey of 2,600 hiring managers and HR professionals, they found:

- 71% said EQ is more important than IQ in hiring decisions.

- 75% said they would promote a high-EQ employee over a high-IQ one.

- 59% said they would be reluctant to hire a high-IQ candidate with low EQ.

Behavioral and Cultural Fit. Behavioral and cultural fit has a great deal to do with how well the new person will integrate into the organization or team. Not considering how a particular candidate will behaviorally and culturally fit into the position could lead to an ineffective hire. Consider two employers with the need for a piano player who are considering John and Charlene. John could be a perfect fit with Employer A but struggle in fit with Employer B. Ditto Charlene. 

Actions Employers & Job Seekers Can Take to Benefit From Holistic Hiring

Both job seekers and employers would increase their success in connecting candidates to careers by giving due consideration to this “missing half.” 

Employers benefit by making consistently better hires, which increases employee engagement, speeding onboarding, improved productivity, and longer employee retention periods. A few action ideas to consider:

One. Take the time to develop a holistic position posting / job description that considers important elements like talents, EQ, and behavioral profiles.

Two: Talents to be included on the posting or job description should be developed along the lines of what Marcus Buckingham identified in his masterwork, Now Break All the Rules:

o  Thinking talents – the HOW of a person…how s/he thinks, makes decisions, etc.

o  Relating talents – the WHO of a person…who s/he trusts, builds relationships with, etc.

o  Striving talents – the WHY of a person…what drives him or her to excel

Three. Behavioral assessments such as this one or combination EQ/behaviors/driving forces assessments such as this one, can be effective in identifying fit when comparing a prospective candidate with the employer’s composite profile. Assessing departments, work team, etc. does not have to be a complicated or costly affair, but can save tens of thousands of misspent dollars when hiring a person who does not ‘fit’ the culture.

Job Seekers are more likely to accept a job offer when it is a good fit for them, leading to happier careers with greater fulfillment and security. A few action ideas to consider:

One. Seek out, via the posting and additional research about the employer and position, what the ideal candidate must possess in terms of knowledge, skills and talents, in order to be successful. 

Two. Identify how well you will fit in the employer’s culture. The employer will not likely change to accommodate a new employee; it will be the new employee’s responsibility to understand the employer’s culture and be comfortable fitting in.

Three. Only apply to positions where there is a clear fit between your skills, knowledge and talent, and what the position requires.

Four. Build your inventory of examples of how you have applied the knowledge, skills and talents successfully in past situations, in order to ace the interview questions.

Bottom Line

With hiring the right person becoming increasingly more important to an organization’s well being than ever before, no organization can afford to base their hiring decisions on just half of a person. 

This article was developed from principles taught in two of our programs, Leading Through People? 5 – Staffing, Recruitment & Onboarding and B2B Sales Essentials? 26 – How to Hire the Right Salesperson.

I love working with people and organizations who want to improve their effectiveness! Here are several outstanding resources that can help you and your organization to go to the next level:

• Improving your (or your team’s) management and leadership skills: Leading Through People?
• Raising your (or your team’s) selling effectiveness: B2B Sales Essentials?  
• Conducting a more effective job search: Get a Better Job Faster?

About me: I work with some of the world’s top employers by helping them get the most out of their talented people. My company's extensive leadership development course catalog provides effective skills-building for everyone in the organization, from the new / developing leader to the seasoned C-level executive. My company's coaching programs produce significant results in compressed periods of time. I also help job seekers, higher ed, and employment services connect people to better jobs faster. My company's acclaimed career development tools help people navigate the ever-changing landscape of conducting a successful job search. To find out more, please visit us at www.boyermanagement.com, email us at [email protected], or call us at 215-942-0982.