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Organizations have come to terms with the fact
that people are their greatest assets. No matter how strong many
aspects of the business are, an organization will thrive or diminish in
accordance with the qualities and capabilities of its human capital.
While all employees contribute to an organization's success, given clear
differential impacts at different levels, it is critical that
organizations are staffed most effectively at successively higher levels of
leadership.
Traditionally, hiring decisions have been made
through a series of relatively short interviews. After hiring
new employees, surprises about them commonly
surface that were not apparent earlier.
At HRA, we believe that while widely practiced
interviewing techniques are in many ways effective, there is also a need for
an in-depth component of the hiring process. We do not believe it is
right to select mission-critical talent based on short interviews, just as
one would not choose a spouse after a series of relatively brief meetings. There is simply too much at stake, as a new
executive will be responsible for mission-critical decisions
and actions.
In this regard we strongly recommend that all
final candidates for an executive position go through an in-depth, objective
executive assessment. HRA executive assessments are among the most in-depth in the industry.
While not a silver bullet, they do substantially increase the likelihood of
success. To accomplish this we collect a good deal of information from different
sources, points in the candidate's history and points in the executive assessment
process. As we do this, we use a process of Talent Triangulation©,
where we consistently check for gaps, make adjustments and identify themes
to connect the dots associated with job fit.
Following are different Executive Assessment
applications,
goals and
steps.
Executive Assessment Applications
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Staffing decisions. Executive
assessment is key in hiring as well as being valuable as decision support for
promotional and lateral decisions. While there is often considerable
data available for internal employees, there are also unknowns about fit
for promotions and laterals that require different knowledge, skills, abilities or other
traits.
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Career transitions.
Very often employees and employers are interested in movements into new
career tracks. Executive assessments are often used to provide more of
a window on fit with new position responsibilities and the likelihood of success
in new assignments.
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Development of new hires
and existing employees. Given the depth of HRA
executive assessments, clients typically leverage information on the
back end of the process to accelerate development of new hires. Additionally, HRA
executive assessments are commonly used with existing employees as a
front end to coaching and development. This provides a firm data-based
development process that focuses on leveraging true strengths, clarifying
and developing relative weaknesses, developing support mechanisms and
building impactful leadership visions.
Executive Assessment Goals
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Deep dive to identify critical knowledge,
skills, abilities and other traits.
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Cross-check and validation of other interview
findings.
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Top-grade leadership with talent needed to meet
key challenges and drive success of the business.
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Return on investment through eliminating poor hire
costs related to: 1) ineffective, potentially
disastrous performance; 2) impact on existing teams; 3) recruiting and
hiring; 4) ramp-up time; and 5) rehiring for a second try.
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Development and feedback for new hire
on-boarding or current employees.
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Advantages for both the candidate and the
organization in assuring a good job fit.
Executive Assessment Steps
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When first beginning with a company, HRA
interviews key stakeholders to learn about the
organization’s history, strategy, challenges, stakeholders and initiatives.
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Client phones HRA to set up an executive assessment, which is
generally for a finalist (sometimes two).
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HRA conducts a 30 to 60 minute stakeholder conference call prior
to each executive assessment to learn about the position challenges, requirements
and
history and candidate findings to date.
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HRA conducts a conference call with the candidate to explain
the process and discuss next steps.
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Candidate completes executive assessment pre-work, including two
on-line leadership inventories and a survey to provide information about
career, track record, education, interests and competencies.
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HRA and candidate meet for a 1/2- to 3/4-day
executive assessment with exercises and in-depth
interview. Interview is a deep-dive process to systematically triangulate
themes, identify inconsistencies/red flags and merge multiple data points.
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HRA triangulates all executive assessment data and produces an in-depth report of
findings and development recommendations for hires.
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