A mismatch on a new hire? Then you're not the only one. Regret afterwards is still a regular occurrence, from both employer and employee. 

Hiring and training staff is a time-consuming and costly process. It's a shame if someone turns out not to be a good fit for the organization and leaves quickly. How do you prevent this?
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Avoid bias

Did you know that one of the biggest pitfalls in job interviews is the (unconscious) positive assessment of people who are similar to yourself? Often, the resume already unconsciously creates a connection with an applicant who, for example, went to the same university or had a similar career start. Unintentionally, we ask questions that confirm our positive first impression. In a job interview, have you ever zoomed in on that one company you also worked for or heard stories about from others and thought "but if someone worked there, they must be stress resistant/performance oriented/good." We make assumptions based on our image or feeling about a particular company when it is unrelated to the position you are recruiting for.

While everyone is biased, this can cause you to have a less diverse team and miss out on talent. Diverse teams have access to a greater amount of information, perspectives and ideas than homogeneous teams. In addition, bias can cause someone to not fit the position or culture because you have relied on "perceived fit" rather than actual qualifications and capabilities. And then you have turnover. Reasons enough to start working on this, right? 

Blog: Diversity and inclusion, more than a trend

Structured application process

Awareness of bias and the limitation in our ability to select properly is an important first step. To further reduce the negative impact, it is advisable to work on a structured and objective interview process. The same topics and questions are discussed during every job interview. Does this mean that every interview is the same? No, of course you may continue to question points or pick up on what a candidate is saying. The main point is that regardless of who conducts the interview, information is retrieved on the same points and candidates are assessed on the same competencies. This allows you to better compare candidates with each other and you have a clear distinction between the 1st and 2nd job interview. This way you avoid, for example, that an applicant has to tell exactly the same story in two different interviews. Before we delve further into the structured application process, let's look at hiring mismatches from a different perspective.

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Reverse Thinking: How do you determine future success?

We go a step deeper: how do you determine if your current employees are a good fit for your company and can move well with change? In other words, how do you know which person will still be there in three years? One way to look at this is from three angles; impact (on your business), behavior (an employee's norms and values) and growth potential (what potential someone has).  

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1. Impact: How big is your employee's impact on the business? So this is not input focused, but output focused. Read here the blog 'More people, more output! Or ... not after all'. It is good to determine which results determine the success for this employee and which competencies and skills are important to succeed. It is important to have mapped this out in advance . The clearer you have this in advance, the better your job description, the applications and yes, also the job interview. Want to know more about a good application process? Then take a look at this blog! 

            a. A structured application process: when you have determined which competencies (soft & hard skills) are relevant for the job, you choose the 6 most important ones you want to test someone on. You define what you mean by the competency within your company and link a structured question to this. A good way is the STAR method. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, so it pays to ask questions related to how someone has acted in the past in a similar situation. For example, "Tell me about a time when you experienced conflict in the workplace and how you handled the conflict." Next, ask carefully about the following aspects: 

1. Situation: What was the situation?
2. Duties: What were your duties?
3. Approach: how did you go about it
4. Outcome: What did it yield?

Listen Now 'Masterfully applying for a job with Aaltje Vincent'

             b. An online skill assessment. Use objectifying tools, such as tech tools, to limit bias and improve the quality of the selection.   See if there are existing assessments (such as Equalture) for this, or if you want to present your own assessment or case to candidates. It is important that you do
Involve people from your team to see if it is sufficiently in line with what you need in practice and whether this measures what you want to measure. 

2. Behavior: Do the new employee's values and attitude fit with your company's DNA? Also consider the cooperation with the team, what kind of personality this person brings, how this clashes with the current team and what kind of leadership or coaching style this needs. Again, avoid bias and make sure you don't unconsciously pay too much attention to things that appeal to you personally.

             a. During job interviews, it is best to employ the following;

i. Core values: What are the values that are important to your company? Name these in the conversation and ask, for example, which core value someone identifies best with and what it shows. Know what your core values are in 3 steps.

ii. Facet5 personality test: science-based questionnaire that measures personality and addresses behaviors, motivations, attitudes and the ways a person prefers to work. A comprehensive report gives the interviewer and the applicant plenty of insights and discussion material. Facet5 can be used not only as a selection tool, but also for individual, team or leadership development.

      3. Growth potential: Think not only about how the new employee can make an impact in the company tomorrow, but also in 3+ years. How does your new employee like to receive feedback, how does he/she learn best/fastest, and where do interests lie? Does this match the role that will also develop in the future?

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When you factor impact, behavior and growth potential into the interview process, you are much more in control of finding the right people for your company. There is one more thing you can use to further master it. And that has to do with the rubric. 

Rubric

To avoid subjective evaluations based on intuition, it is essential to use a rubric when evaluating answers. This rubric acts as a kind of grading guide, allowing you to evaluate an answer objectively. You determine the scale on which you score someone (e.g., 1-5) and clearly indicate the observable behaviors or responses that go with each score. The more specific, the better. After all, a rubric is useful only if each interviewer understands what each score means. As an example, let's take self-starting ability as a key competency. The definition of this at your company is "you are able to initiate tasks and projects from within yourself. You gather (from others) the information, direction and goals you need to get started. You yourself feel the urgency to plan projects, start tasks and want to finish them on time." You then determine what observable behaviors or responses an applicant should demonstrate in the interview to prove that he/she has self-starting ability. As a result, all candidates have an equal chance of success because they are judged by the same objective criteria, and you avoid bias .

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The absolute do's and don'ts for a flawless and structured job application process

Absolute do's: 

• Be sure to involve a diverse mix of people in the interview process who can evaluate from different perspectives.
• Ask open-ended questions that begin with: How, What, Where or Why. In addition, don't just think about the questions you want to ask during the interview, but also leave room for the candidate to ask questions. An interview is always finer than an interrogation.
• Take notes right after the interview, the longer you wait, the more bias in your notes. Also write down your findings blind from each other. That way you don't influence each other directly.
• In addition to an effective assessment, make it an enjoyable experience, from your first email to your last moment of contact.

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Absolute don'ts: 

• As a manager, do not sit in on the same interview twice, and certainly do not conduct job interviews alone. 
• Make sure you don't ask long questions or two questions in one. This makes it difficult to answer and can make someone more likely to give an incompetent answer. In addition, avoid guiding questions. By asking "What do you like about Amsterdam?" you are already steering someone in a certain (positive) direction. 
• Don't be too fixated on what correct answer someone should give, so don't be too quick to make assumptions based on the first answer given.
• Don't just follow your intuition. Chances are you will then be too guided by bias or things irrelevant to the job such as choice of clothing or how someone talks. 
• Make sure you don't start interviews when you don't actually know at all what you are looking for yet, i.e. what competencies and skills are important to succeed in the role.

Do you have questions or need help with a structured application process? If so, feel free to get in touch!