Stop Trying to Shortcut the Hiring Process

By Dana Borowka, MA

If they hadn’t gone on a “shortcut,” the world probably wouldn’t know who the Donner party is today. There is a lesson in this infamous tragedy for all hiring managers.

For the wagons of the Donner party, a group of 81 westward-bound pioneers who were stopped by a blizzard at the gateway to California in the fall of 1846, getting over the Sierra covered wagonsummit proved to be an insurmountable obstacle. In a 2008 book, Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West, journalist Ethan Rarick chronicled the misadventures of the infamous group.

Rarick argues because of an ill-advised decision to take an untested shortcut earlier that summer—the wagon train, named after its leader, George Donner, was trapped by a severe fall storm. When their food ran out, they roasted shoestrings and ate animal hides to stay alive. Finally, snowbound, with little hope of rescue, they started to eat those who died by starvation. The 45 survivors were rescued in February of 1847.

But why did it happen? The members of the Donner Party listened to some hucksters on the trail who had an idea of a straighter route to try. The problem was that the shortcut went over the Wasatch Mountains and through the Great Salt Lake desert; however, these two barriers meant that straighter was not really shorter. The three-week delay led to disaster.

The Donner party was not a military expedition, band of gold seekers, or a group of explorers. These were ordinary people trying to find a better life. The tragic mistake was being duped into believing there was an easy shortcut.

Beware of Shortcut Hiring Hucksters Today

Not to alarm you, but don’t take choosing a personality test lightly. There are many services that boast a quick and easy way to profile a job candidate with personality testing. Taking these shortcuts can result in bad hires that have a negative impact on your bottom line and that won’t benefit you or your workforce.maze cutting

According to the research in my book, Cracking the Personality Code, today there are around 2,500 cognitive and personality tests on the market. So how do you decide which one to use? An organization risks lawsuits if it fails to do proper due diligence in test selection. That’s because there are a multitude of assessments available out there and the industry is totally unregulated.

To understand how to choose from the plethora of personality tests, it is helpful to understand the origins of these instruments.

The quest began in a mental hospital in Minnesota during World War II. A test called the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was created to diagnose mental illness with yes-or-no responses to a series of questions. In an attempt to put some science into the hiring process, many companies start employing psychologists who in turn used this existing MMPI psychopathological test to screen job applicants. The test includes true-false questions like “I never indulge in unusual sex practices” and “I feel sure there is only one true religion.” Of course, this seemed strange and intrusive to most job applicants who took the test over the next six decades.

Meanwhile, a Harvard University instructor and psychologist named Raymond Cattell working in the Adjutant General’s office devised psychological tests for the military. After the war he accepts a research professorship at the University of Illinois where they were developing the first electronic computer, the Illiac I, which would make it possible for the first time to do large-scale factor analyses of his personality testing theories.

runs with computerCattell used an IBM sorter and the brand-new Illiac computer to perform factor analysis on 4,500 personality-related words. The result was a test to measure intelligence and to assess personality traits known as the Sixteen Personality Factor questionnaire (16PF). First published in 1949, the 16PF profiles individuals using 16 different personality traits. Cattell’s research proved that while most people have surface personality traits that can be easily observed, we also have source traits that can be discovered only by the statistical processes of factor analysis.

In 1963 W.T. Norman verified Cattell’s work but felt that only five factors really shape personality: extraversion, independence, self-control, anxiety and tough-mindedness. Dubbed the “Big Five” approach, this has become the basis of many of the modern personality tests on the market today. There have been hundreds and hundreds of studies validating the approach.

The five decades of research findings has served as the framework for constructing a number of derivative personality inventories. This is a topic that’s been researched extensively by the field of industrial and organizational psychology. Some clear dictates of what to do and what not to do have emerged.

Five Dos and Don’ts

Some personality testing services simply deliver a test score and guidelines. Others provide a superficial level of analysis that is not much to go on. What hiring managers really need is an in-depth analysis of the test in the context of the job description and the candidate’s resume.

Here are my top five shortcut don’ts:

• Don’t use a basic personality screening that takes 20 minutes or less as a final screening tool.
• Don’t skip a phone interview.
• Don’t try to shorten multiple face-to-face interviews.
• Don’t skip background and reference checks, and never skip financial background checks when appropriate for the position.
• Don’t skip giving someone homework during the interviewing process.

Here are five dos:

• Do use an in-depth work style and personality assessment.
• Do look for red flags in the results concerning behavioral issues.
• Do use testing to identify how team members are likely to interact.
• Do use testing to ensure you have the right people in the right positions.
• Do use a trained professional to review the testing results with you – they should have a copy of the candidate’s resume and job description for the debrief discussion.

The testing procedure that a company follows can send a message to candidates that the company leaders are serious about who they hire. Successful people want to work with other successful people. In many cases, the candidate may accept a position from the organization they perceive to be more thoughtful during the hiring process.

Conclusion

The astounding thing is how many companies undertake such huge investments in hiring and do not pay attention to what is known about using personality assessments to pick out the people who are going to be the best. An in-depth assessment is only one component needed for a successful recruitment and hiring program. Armed with accurate and quantifiable data from an in-depth personality assessment, the interview process becomes much more reliable. When it comes to limiting the potential for wrong hiring decisions, there really is no shortcut.

Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to reproduce any portion provided in this article. © 2023 

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC and his organization constantly remain focused on their mission statement – “To bring effective insight to your business”. They do this through the use of in-depth work style & personality assessments to raise the hiring bar so companies select the right people to reduce hiring and management errors. LCS can test in 19 different languages, provide domestic and international interpersonal coaching and offer a variety of workshops – team building, interpersonal communication, stress & time management, sales & customer service training and negotiation skills as well as our full-service Business Consulting Division. Dana has over 30 years of business consulting experience and is a nationally renowned speaker, radio and TV personality on many topics. He is the co-author of the books, “Cracking the Personality Code”, “Cracking the Business Code” and “Cracking the High-Performance Team Code”. To order the books, please visit www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC – Testing Division provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style & personality assessments for new hires & staff development. LCS can test in 19 different languages, skills testing, domestic and international interpersonal coaching and offer a variety of workshops – team building, interpersonal communication. Business Consulting for Higher Productivity Division provides stress & time management workshops, sales & customer service training and negotiation skills, leadership training, market research, staff planning, operations, ERP/MRP selection and implementation, refining a remote work force, M&A including due diligence – success planning – value creation and much more.

Better Hiring With The Eight-Point Success Matrix

By Barry Deutsch

Why do 56% of all executive hires fail in their first year to eighteen months?

Because most companies don’t hire according to a documented process. They use outdated techniques and depend too much on luck when trying to find and hire successful candidates.

Typical hiring evaluations go something like this:

by Brooke Cagle

Bob and Sue meet in the hallway after the interview with Charlie. Bob turns to Sue and says, “So, what did you think of Charlie?”

The hallway conversation of the evaluation of Charlie will most likely be filled with ambiguity, superficial statements, and silly platitudes.

The comments will take the form of “seems like a nice guy, appears to be bright, showed a lot of enthusiasm, asked some good questions, impressed that he showed up on time.”

That is worthless feedback. These are not the insightful, rigorous, probing assessments to determine if the candidate can do the job.

My firm’s trademarked Eight-Point Success Matrix overcomes the traditional method of water cooler comparisons and forces a fierce conversation around whether the candidate can deliver the desired results and do it with a set of behaviors and style consistent with your values and culture.

To eliminate interviewers’ ingrained tendency to focus on superficial criteria and miss substantive evidence, we developed a structured tool to help each interviewer evaluate each candidate objectively, fairly, and comprehensively.

The matrix is the tool we have our clients use to rate fit based on the examples, illustrations, specifics, results, accomplishments, and patterns of behavior that emerge in candidate interviews.

It is quick to use, easy to understand, and focused on the job itself. Perhaps most importantly, it calibrates interviewer ratings, keeping everyone on the same page. Built around the five key predictors of success in our trademarked Success Factor Methodology, the Eight-Point Success Matrix forces interviewers to ask the right questions and probe until they have enough information to complete the form.

What Goes Into The Matrix

Candidates are rated on these eight dimensions.

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1. Work history and education
2. High initiative and self-motivation
3. Flawless execution
4. Leadership of teams
5. Similar success
6. Adaptability
7. Personality and style
8. Culture and team fit

Candidates are rated on a scale of 0 to 3.
0 = Less than required.
1 = Meets requirements.
2 = Exceeds requirements.
3 = Greatly exceeds requirements.

Free Copy Of Eight-Point Success Matrix
For a free sample Eight-Point Success Matrix, please email dana@lighthouseconsulting.com with the subject line Success Matrix.

Accountability To The Interviewing Group Is Vital

When interviewers know they will have to justify the ratings assigned to each candidate to the entire group of interviewers, the whole process is taken more seriously.

Because each member of the interviewing team fills out an Eight-Point Success Matrix form after each interview, by the end of a long interview cycle a candidate’s file may contain 20 or more. The full file allows the person with final hiring power to evaluate a full spectrum of evaluation on all success factors. Skimming the right column helps the hiring executive to rapidly compare the same candidate interview-to-interview, and also to evaluate candidates’ qualifications against each other, on equal footing.

Warning About Use Of The Form

The most important consideration in using the matrix is this: do not, under any circumstances, put off completing the form after each interview. Human memory fades rapidly four to six hours after an event. Once details are gone from short-term memory, they are lost forever.

You absolutely must ensure that your hiring process does not fall victim to procrastination and memory loss (“Er, gee, I think this was the guy with the orange tie who used to work at Enron, yeah? Or was that Exxon? Shoot, I don’t remember.”).

by Gerd Altmann

The hiring team leader must make sure each interviewer sits down immediately after the interview (or by that same day’s end, at the latest) to complete the sections for which they have gathered enough information.

It is almost certain that no interviewer will be able to fill out an entire matrix after just one interview. That’s fine—they should leave blank any sections that require more information, and make notes regarding what questions to ask in the next interview in the comments area.

We highly recommend that somebody on the interviewing team—preferably the hiring manager him- or herself—be charged with distributing and collecting the Eight-Point Success Matrix forms before and after each round of interviews. When people know they’ll be held accountable at the end of the day, they won’t put off what needs to be done.

While there are few rules about using the matrix, there are several tips to keep in mind:

• The form should be explained and discussed fully among the team before interviews.
• Each interviewer should understand the difference between a score of zero, 1, 2, and 3.
• Each interviewer should understand what each of the factors is intended to measure.

A candidate who rates zeros in any category is probably not the best choice for the job.

The sweet spot on the Eight-Point Success Matrix form is a ranking of 2. Not too hot or too cold—just right. Depending on the job, it is possible that a candidate with one or two ratings of 1 might still be up to the job.

Define Success By SOARing

The SOAR method is an alternative to the traditional method of writing up a job description. A job description doesn’t predict or manage performance. Most job descriptions are designed to define minimum education requirements, minimum skills and knowledge, vague behaviors and attitudes, (for example, “Gets along well with others”).

by Eric Bailey, Pexel

The SOAR method, however, is designed to define success. SOAR is an acronym which means:

S—Situation. Describe the situation or problem. What aren’t you getting what you need?
O—Obstacles. Describe the main obstacles your new employee will encounter as they try to deliver the results you want.
A—Action. What action needs to be taken to solve the problem? Each action step should map back to each obstacle.
R—Results. What are the measurable/quantifiable results required? Tell the candidate specifically the result you’re looking for and show how each action step contributes to that result.

Share the key success factors by stating specifically how you want the candidate to contribute. “You’ll help us launch two new products this year,” or “You’ll help us reduce costs by 50%.”

Clearly, this looks very different than your typical job description. Both you and the candidate know exactly what results are required from the position and what actions must be taken to achieve them. More important, because those results are closely aligned with the company’s most important objectives, achieving them means that everybody wins.

Testing Is Also Valuable

Using an in-depth work style and personality assessment is a valuable adjunct to the Eight-Point Success Matrix, which will uncover useful information about personality traits, potential for high achievement, and other factors that might not be immediately evident in an interview situation.  Note: please use an assessment that has a minimum of 164 questions.  Otherwise, you will have an incomplete picture of the candidate or staff member.

However, there are several cautions about assessment instruments.

Be wary of free online tests. Unless they come from a highly regarded institution, they may not be valid and reliable.

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The instrument must be administered and interpreted professionally. An in-depth work style and personality assessment is difficult to interpret for a nonprofessional. HR professionals are generally not qualified to administer psychological or behavioral tests.

Some companies choose to administer an in-depth work style and personality assessment for pre-hire and others after the job is offered and accepted.  If a potential personality or communication mismatch is discovered, then all parties can be briefed ahead of time so needless conflicts can be avoided.

Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to reproduce any portion provided in this article. © 2023

Barry Deutsch is a principal with Impact Hiring Solutions. His phone number is 310-378-4751 and his email is barry@impacthiringsolutions.com . He is co-author of the book You’re Not The Person I Hired!

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC – Testing Division provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style & personality assessments for new hires & staff development. LCS can test in 19 different languages, skills testing, domestic and international interpersonal coaching and offer a variety of workshops – team building, interpersonal communication.  Business Consulting for Higher Productivity Division provides stress & time management workshops, sales & customer service training and negotiation skills, leadership training, market research, staff planning, operations, ERP/MRP selection and implementation, refining a remote work force, M&A including due diligence – success planning – value creation and much more.

To order the books, “Cracking the Personality Code”, “Cracking the Business Code” and “Cracking the High-Performance Team Code”, please go to www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, Santa Monica, CA, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

The Secret To Successfully Managing A Hybrid/Remote Workforce

By Patty Crabtree

Let’s look back on some recent history. In August of 2021, 4.3 million workers quit their jobs because they were looking for something better or they did not want to return to working back in the office again. The media dubbed it The Great Resignation and the trend has continued.

By Brooke Cagle

Why the exodus? Because the remote work environment created by the pandemic is a double-edged sword: employers can recruit employees from far, and your employees can seek or be lured away by employers who offer greater flexibility.

The Conference Board released the results of its 2022 survey of CEOs called “Reset and Reimagine: Surviving and Thriving in a Uniquely Challenging Business Environment.” The report contains interesting perspectives about what CEOs think are important business challenges. Topping the list were inflation, Covid-19 disruptions and attracting and retaining top talent in this new hybrid/remote workforce.

Let’s go farther back in time to those disruptive days of March 2020 when the pandemic pushed the work world into a new era. Some companies successfully transformed into a remote work environment almost overnight. But others reasoned this was just going to be a few weeks so they would wait and see. Then it became a few months. Soon reality set in and almost every business had to create a hybrid work environment that embraced remote workers.

Now for many, a remote workforce has become a way of life. There is no going back. Soon we’re going to have three years of this journey in our rear-view mirror. What are the lessons to be learned? Those who are embracing this change will be ahead of the game. But those who are fighting it are going to see challenges with retaining employees and recruiting the best staff for their team.

The Secret Is Manage By Outcome, Not Hours

Before the pandemic, more and more companies were already starting to develop remote work environments and were empowering certain employees to work from home on a regular basis. They saw the benefits and increased performance. Then the pandemic pushed us into fully embracing this flexibility out of a need versus a want. This also moved us into a new understanding of how to create a high-performance work force.

Managing for high performance is hard regardless of thw work location. There is an old business joke about a man who asked a CEO, “How many people work at your company?”

“About half,” replies the CEO.

by Dylan Gillis

The humor illustrated how much unproductive time employees typically spend in an office. The management challenge is to maximize productivity for the hours the employees work. Or is it?

Here is the real question: do you measure hours versus outcomes? If you define the outcomes for a position, do you care, aside from labor laws, when they work and how they work? Granted there are some positions that may not have this level of flexibility, but many jobs do. As long as they’re getting the outcomes accomplished in a timely basis, an employer has the opportunity to leverage the higher productivity a hybrid work force can deliver.

During the pandemic, the work environment evolved and employees experienced the opportunity of a better balance based on more flexibility. The challenge now is to embrace this remote work revolution that had been gaining speed well before the pandemic and was accelerated by the work-from-home mandates.

Naturally, many employers want their employees back in the office. These employers miss the good old days of easier access and camaraderie.

But do you really want to fight progress? One reason so many companies are embracing the hybrid revolution is the advantages of attracting the best talent. There are no longer geographic restrictions on where you can draw the best talent to join your team.

Not Every Company Was This Fortunate

At the end of 2019, one mortgage company decided to eliminate its home office and go 100% virtual. The company already had some remote staff, but it developed a game plan to close down the office to get everybody working from home. The company came up with the systems, purchased the necessary, and created a plan to ensure its culture stayed strong. Events like five-minute mid-morning group stretch breaks leading the team through some simple exercises to keep the body moving. Virtual meetings would start with a quick round robin of how everyone’s week was going before they would jump into the business part of the agenda. The company was creative and did multiple team building exercises like virtual scavenger hunts and escape rooms.

Did it pay off? When the world went into lockdown, its business thrived. By being ahead of the curve, the company was able to outperform its competition. Were they just lucky? As the famous scientist Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

The Great Opportunity

Managing a hybrid or fully remote workforce takes a different focus. I use the word intentional when describing this management style. A more intentional focus on the nuances of a diverse work environment is critical to continue a healthy, successful workforce. Over time, this intentional focus will become second nature but in the beginning it is an intentional effort.

Wise employers are not hanging on to the comfort zone of the old structure they had pre-pandemic. The path of wisdom is to choose a structure that will stay ahead of the curve.

Were employees really producing to the level they could, or are they producing better in a remote environment away from the distractions of an office? Many studies indicate remote workers actually have a greater productivity than those in the office. There’s less water cooler talk, less hanging out in the hallways, and more focus on getting the work done and moving on to the next action item.

By Jonny Lindner

Many companies have successful track records with remote work. When a company I worked with created a remote work environment back in 2006, we achieved more and more productivity from our remote staff. From reduced distractions to better systems, staff performed higher each year and were happier and more engaged. A win-win for everyone.

Commuting to and from work can be a huge productivity drain and a distraction to one’s day. Think about the staff who were walking into the office frustrated, unwinding with a cup of coffee and venting about the person who cut them off or volume of the day’s traffic. Instead of the driving hassles, remote staff can take a short walk from the kitchen to the home office. They can feel more energized at the start of the day, have a better focus and achieve more success. They also experience a better life-work balance which brings more engagement.

Developing strong systems not only helps monitor productivity but also communicates expectations to staff. Workflow tracking systems ensure that effective assignments are happening and timelines are being met. People know exactly what’s expected of them, and your leaders are able to monitor employee progress helping it along the way.
Higher productivity leads to greater client satisfaction and profitability.

Productivity Tips From Harvard Business Review

Rebecca Knight, writing in the Harvard Business Review on “How to Manage a Hybrid Team,” offered these (excerpted) tips:

Offer support. Your primary role as a manager is to support your employees, including the hybrid/remote one. And do they ever need it. You may have done a lot of this when the pandemic first started but continue to check in, as circumstances have likely changed.

Create and set expectations. Talk with your hybrid/remote team about creating new practices and protocols. Come to an agreement on norms for communicating.

by Jud Mackrill

Prioritize with flexibility in mind. The only certainty is that the future is unpredictable. The best way to prepare is to set clear priorities so that everyone on your team knows what’s most important. Consider holding a regular huddle, where you prioritize the most important work that needs to get done that week.

Emphasize inclusion. Building a fair and equitable workplace is more complicated when you’re running a hybrid team. There’s a proximity bias that leads to the incorrect assumption that the people in the office are more productive than those who are not.

Strive for equity. Another risk in a hybrid environment is that it will exacerbate your biases about particular employees, good and bad.

Watch for signs of burnout. Pay close attention to your team members’ stress levels. Many people are stressed, irritable, and exhausted and that can be a sign of burnout.

Make it fun. It’s also worth thinking about “how to bring some playfulness into the workday.” Many of us miss the laughter and levity from our pre-pandemic lives.

Take heart. Don’t expect any of this hybrid/remote managing to be easy. There will be bumps along the way. Be humble. And be patient.

Other Tools Are Key

Have you also built recognition into your systems so that it’s visible? Empower people to share their successes with others through their day-to-day interactions without an extra effort. It’s there in front of you displayed in the system. Who is leading the charge? Just check the system. It is a great motivator to keep things on track or even ahead of schedule along with celebrating success.

Team building is critical in any type of work environment, and that is especially true with a distributed workforce. So, how do you encourage connection among your groups? One option is to consider is to have an element of team building built into your team meeting agendas. Set aside a few minutes in the beginning to have everybody share what’s going on or their successes for the week, or even something personal such as what is their favorite vacation spot, or what dish do they like to bring to a potluck? Get creative with the team building questions.

Now Is The Time To Hire Differently

There are some other important questions to consider.

Have you included a work-style assessment as part of your hiring process? Do you have a tool to help you understand how someone fits in with the team? Do you have a library of interview questions designed to help understand how somebody will thrive in your hybrid work environment?

By Motihada

Once you find that right candidate, does your onboarding process facilitate connection along with specific job training for a new hire? Are there team building events included in your onboarding process? Have you formalized the onboarding into a schedule of events, meetings, and trainings that guides that new employee through the process and ensures communicates the company’s culture and values along with making those connections that are so critical across the organization?

Here is the bottom line: Developing a successful and lasting remote/hybrid workforce takes some effort. From enhancing your culture to implementing better systems, this intentional focus will bring positive results and keep you as an employer of choice.

Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to reproduce any portion provided in this article. © 2023

Patty Crabtree is a Senior Consultant at Lighthouse Consulting Services with 25 years of operations and finance leadership experience. Her phone number is 310-453-6556, ext. 410 and her email is pattyc@lighthouseconsulting.com.

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style & personality assessments for new hires & staff development. LCS can test in 19 different languages, provide domestic and international interpersonal coaching and offer a variety of workshops – team building, interpersonal communication, stress & time management, sales & customer service training and negotiation skills as well as our full-service Business Consulting Division. To order the books, “Cracking the Personality Code”, “Cracking the Business Code” and “Cracking the High-Performance Team Code”, please go to www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

If you are open to a conversation about how our in-depth work style and personality assessment could help your team, including pricing and the science behind the tests, please contact us at 310-453-6556, extension 403.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, Santa Monica, CA, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.