There are a few things I’d like to get off my chest (that’s perhaps a bit strong) in my latest article, my focus this time on the assessment part of the selection process, which is the area I specialise in!
The selection process for senior level hires can take way too long. Senior level candidates often have to go through too many interviews (three stages should be enough). And as I’ve said in my costs of mishiring article, how can a candidate get a proper feel for the organisation, team and environment if they don’t meet the person they’re reporting to at the start of the process?
Yet many organisations seem to want to protect the time of their senior executives so they can just pick the right person at end. Yet the job of a leader should be to create a high performing team. And what could be more important than selecting someone for your team?
What you also often get is a mismatch in the expectations of candidates, recruitment or executive search agencies and hiring organisations of what a good selection process looks like. The reason for this is quite simply that hiring organisations tend to not worry so much about the candidate experience, despite what they might say. Their primary concern is to hire the right senior leader that will drive results and ultimately profit for their owners, shareholders etc. and potentially losing a few candidates during the process that do not want to go through a long process is less of a worry.
So the candidate experience play second fiddle. And it is not surprising to discover that organisations will lose good candidates along the way due to a poor experience and length of process. The hiring organisation could argue that they have always found excellent individuals but might they not have filled their roles sooner with a higher quality candidate and better experience to boot?
Myth 1: the perception that the selection is a two-way process and that candidate experience is the most important part. It isn’t. Selecting the right individual is the top priority for organisations.
Yet even though candidates can rightly get disgruntled with the whole process for some of the reasons outlined above, there is a tendency to assume the recruitment experience reflects the culture of the organisation. This however is not true as it could typically be down to the capability and capacity of the resourcing department.
My point here is that candidates shouldn’t read too much into the selection process. Let me be clear. They should be able to understand an organisation’s culture and values and these should be communicated consistently throughout the process ideally. But the reality is that it often doesn’t happen and companies get judged negatively for it.
Myth 2: just because the recruitment experience has been below par, that doesn’t mean they’re a bad company to work for! Quite the contrary, you could be missing out on a great culture.
My next point is around how assessment is perceived. Many senior leaders will have been through assessments either as part of a selection or development process. And given there is a lot of bad practice, they may have become cynical as to the benefits. Yet the true quality of assessment should not just based on the robustness of the psychometric tools being used but also the experience and knowledge of the assessor/practitioner. If either is out of sync, you’re going to get a poor output.
Many organisations also use tools that aren’t designed for selection (no names!) and the issue is that they don’t predict future behaviour. And on that note, what’s the point in using an old job description that talks about past requirements? You need to assess against the competencies you need in the next three or however many years. In other words, what will make your new C-level exec successful given your situation now, the current climate but also your future strategy?
It’s not surprising that so many leaders have had bad experiences, received the wrong feedback and been tainted by the use of inappropriate and inadequate tools to measure leadership capability.
Myth 3: industry bad practice has given assessment a bad rap. Yet if the correct tools are used by knowledgeable assessment experts, the ROI for high stakes senior level hiring can be significant.
My next gripe if you will is aimed at those who think candidates can beat the system and cheat a psychometric assessment. While there might be lots of advice readily digestible on Google, you can’t just attempt to understand the requirements of a role and change your answers accordingly. Even if you could fool the right psychometric tool (which you can’t), you’ve still got an in-depth interview with an assessment expert to get through. And we will see through you! You’re also falsely basing this any assumption on the premise that we use a fixed model of personality (see myth 5). At the end of the day, if a role is wrong for the candidate, then the candidate is wrong for the role!
Myth 4: you cannot cheat your way past a psychometric test – it’s a pointless task. If you need to position yourself in a different way to match what you think is required, the role isn’t right for you!
This brings me on to my final myth around cultural fit. When it comes to hiring leaders, there are two main priorities for organisations. These are 1) to find people who can do the job selected for and 2) to understand if they can they do that job within the prevailing culture. But that doesn’t mean they’re looking for clones. It’s finding out how the person can succeed in a given role, organisation and culture. And as we know, success can be achieved in many different ways using diverse skillsets.
Myth 5: there is no silver bullet of what good leaders look like. A standard framework examines various personality behaviours, which then informs us how well they score against a given competency relative to the specific role they are being considered for.
Here is a quick recap of the FIVE myths and key points:
1) Candidate experience is the priority. No it isn’t. Hiring the right person is no matter how long it takes. In the same way as recruiters and candidates also have their own agendas and needs. Each party has their own vested interests, which needs to be recognised.
2) Recruitment processes reflect culture and values. In the vast majority of cases, they don’t. Even though in an ideal world they should, candidates mustn’t be swayed because they’re only seeing a snapshot (of the selection process) and not getting the full picture.
3) An assessment is just an assessment. Wrong again. You need to be using the right tools that assess future potential for the role and not just base decisions on past behaviours. Engaging with an expert will help you reap the full benefits and realise the true value of assessment.
4) You can cheat at a psychometric test. Sorry, you can’t. Positioning yourself as something you’re not in order to secure a position is ill advised. And even if you did manage it, you’re not going to succeed because the role won’t be aligned with your values, behaviours and capabilities.
5) Organisations want to clone their leaders. The view that organisations are looking for one type of leader is another myth. The assessment process is designed to understand how an individual and the unique attributes they bring will help them thrive within a unique organisational culture.
There you have it. As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
PS. Without going into too much detail here (feel free to call me on the number below!) I would just add that best-in-class psychometric tests are typically aligned to the ‘OCEAN’ (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) model of personality traits. The results are then used as an input into a structured assessment interview against agreed competencies to determine how the individual would fare in the role. The aim is to learn how well the candidate and organisation fit each other’s needs.
Thinking about assessing your leaders?
If you’d like to learn more about the psychometric tools we use to objectively assess leaders, how we can help you mitigate the risks of a wrong leadership hire and how we work in partnership with our clients, don’t hesitate to contact us. You can email Paul at paul.surridge@targetleadership.co.uk or call him on 07587 003990.