Find Your Dream Job

Let's be honest, most of us have worked in jobs that met some but not all of our needs and strengths, for the right reasons at the time. How long were you comfortable in that position before you started to look over the fence for the next opportunity? Generally, we know within 90 days (and often a lot sooner) whether we've made a good move, or whether this is just an interim move. If you're an employer, that's incredibly frustrating and expensive. What works much better is to know the best profile fit for the job, culture and team at the beginning. Of course, that's true, and that's what everyone wants, yet, we don't have great ways of getting there, do we? Actually, in 2021, we do...yet most employers are doing it wrong. Does this story sound familiar?

Tried & True Method

Susie saw an ad on a local job board that surprised her. It sounded like her dream job in an organization (*Fabulous company) that had a great reputation in the community. She really liked her current employer and team, but this seemed to be a rare opportunity. She submitted an application.

Fabulous company's human resource specialist, Annette*, reviewed the incoming applications from the job board, and noted that Susan's application fit the keywords in the job description. She downloaded Susan's cover letter and resume, and added it to the growing pile. Annette had a goal to fill this position within 30 days with a qualified candidate, since her organization was tracking time to fill as one of the performance metrics for her department. She began contacting the applicants within 3 days of the position posting. Annette had 150 applicants to screen, and Susan was #39. Susan was at work when she got the call on her cell. She briefly identified a date/time for a screening interview.

When Susan jumped onto the virtual screening interview, Annette was welcoming, and provided a brief overview of the company and the role. She asked Susan why this was of interest, and to expand upon her background and skills for the role. She asked a few more questions, and then said that she would be in touch for the next steps soon. Meanwhile, Annette finished the screening interviews for the qualified candidates. Literally, it took three weeks to complete the screenings, resulting in 25 potential candidates. Annette contacted the hiring manager, Jared*, to share the 25 candidates to have him filter the list to a manageable number to interview - typically 5-10. She provided her notes from the screening interviews, resumes, and cover letters. This position involved leadership of a small work team, so that experience or ability was key to candidate fit.

Jared reviewed the 25 candidates within the next two days, and identified 10 that he thought were a potential fit. He asked Annette to schedule the interviews over the next two weeks. We were now four weeks into the hiring process for this position. Annette worked quickly to schedule the interviews, which happened to include Susan. When she got the call at work, Susan was in a meeting, and called Annette back as soon as possible. Susan's interview was now set at the end of next week, week six in the hiring timeline.

Susan's interview day was here. She was excited to learn more about the company, the reason for this opening, and the specific position expectations. Jared spent about 45 minutes with her, and there was a good discussion about the areas of need and Susan's fit to fulfill the requirements. Susan felt excited. Jared felt that she was a good candidate. He had three other candidates with high potential fit. Jared completed the interviews by the end of the following week, now seven weeks into the open position.

Ultimately, Susan was offered the position, accepted, and began with her new employer in November, ten weeks from the position vacancy. She had some questions about her new team within the first two weeks, but decided that she needed to learn about the organization and the team before she raised her concerns. A month later, her concerns magnified, and she spoke to her supervisor, Jared, about them. He acknowledged some challenges, and indicated that her role was to get her team moving in the right direction. Susan decided two weeks later to return to her former employer, where her old job was open.

A Better Method

Annette was informed by Jared that there was a new position vacancy in one of his departments. Annette asked Jared to complete a position assessment for the role online, which he did within 15 minutes. Annette reviewed it, compared it to similar roles, and created a job profile that aligned the position responsibilities to the behavioral and cognitive profile of a successful candidate. She sent the proposed job assessment profile to Jared, and he said that it was perfect. This was day one of the open position. Annette posted the position on the company's job board, along with a link for prospective candidates to take, to match behavioral profiles to the targeted job profile.

Susan saw the position posting, and was excited to consider this opportunity. Jane also saw the posting, and felt it might be an option of interest. Both submitted applications, cover letters and resumes, and completed the online position assessments. Within three days, Annette identified 150 prospective candidates, and she was able to review their behavioral profiles for a best match within 30 minutes. She identified 20 candidates to submit to Jared for consideration. It was day 4 of the position vacancy.

Jared reviewed the candidates, and their respective behavioral and cognitive match to the role. He decided to pursue 8 candidates that were a best match for interviews. It was day 5 of the position vacancy. Annette set up interviews for the candidates, and Jared was amazed at the caliber of candidates that he received. Each had a striking match to what he was looking for, although some were not a perfect match to the job requirements. He was able to easily align their match to the team, culture and organization in a way that he couldn't before. His final selection was Jane, who was excited to begin within two weeks. He selected her three weeks into the vacancy. 

Jane began in her role, knowing what was required, and how she needed to engage and transform her team. Since this was part of her appeal to the position, she was excited to create a plan, and see progress toward the team's transformation. The team also saw her passion, and was inspired by her leadership and commitment to a better future. Six months later, the transformation was well underway, the team had higher engagement scores, and some of the best talent had been retained, resulting in higher productivity. Jane and Jared planned for their next goals, confident that they would achieve them.

Power of Data

The future of talent optimization is here now, for leading companies who want to position themselves ahead of the pack. Consider the costs of the delays in the current process, and of missed hires. In this example, three to four weeks of a gap in leadership, often with team attrition, and lost productivity. When Susan left, the team wasn't surprised - they saw that she wasn't a fit quickly, and Jared lost credibility in the process. The cycle starts over - a painful and expensive process that is all too common.

It sounds like the process that Annette & Jared used was magic, and in some ways it was - the power of data magic, to drive better decisions. Annette used data analytics tools to select a better candidate to fit the role, while shortening the timeframe of the entire hiring process by more than three weeks. What's the value of three weeks in your organization? Typically thousands in lost revenue or talent. Finding better candidates, faster, improves your organization's talent pipeline, providing a strategic business advantage that leading companies have been leveraging for years. It's time for every business to explore the power of data in the talent pipeline, to save time and money, while improving results. It also generally costs less than the current flawed process!

If you're interested in your next career opportunity, and a prospective employer asks you to take a behavioral or cognitive assessment, have confidence that the employer is focused on creating the best fit in the organization, and absolutely consider them! Leading organizations know that matching the right behavioral match and skill set to a position opportunity is better for the new employee and the existing team, leader and culture. With the right fit, teams can achieve amazing results, and be well-positioned for the future.

If you're an employer, we're happy to give you a sample of the process, and share how it can turn your organization into a high-performing talent engine. With the right talent, your company is unstoppable. With the wrong talent, even the best strategy will fall short. The choice is yours, wherever you are in the U.S. Let's chat soon!

*Names used are aliases for a real company's experience, to protect privacy. 

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and performance execution. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help sometime; great leaders get help early, realizing greater returns.

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